Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone sooooo i need help... I have a 2 red Tegus and one who is the larger and hungrier one is haveing a major shed problem.. i thought it was his diet but i have had him switched over to a "mainly" mouse diet from a cricket diet here within this last month but it still hasnt been any help.. he spends most his day outside in the california sun and the nights in a heated cage (80 degrees) with his roommate (Tuck).. Now tuck sheds great every time but Mr Snuffles has been in this awful shed cycle for atleast the last 5 weeks and it just seems to flake off here and there instead of comeing off like Tucks does... I need help I have been bathing him (30-45 minutes) an evening and tried to get him to eat more and more fruit with no luck i can get him to eat red grapes with a little orange as long as i hide it in his ground turkey.. Is there anything that i can do to help him get this shed off... PLEASE... I just want to help him...

Sincerely,
ROse Hipskind

PS i will be the first to state that i didnt know enough about my Tegus before i purchased them but its been about 8 months and i just want to make sure this guy is good.... thanks for all the help!
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www.srsnakes.com

What are you using for substrata, and how is your humidity?

The fruit is important for reds, and I've been told that lack of sufficient fruit can make for poor shedding. Put a half an orange in with your crickets, so they get some vitamin C in them that your tegu will get when eating them. I hide fruit in with turkey, too! Gotta hide the good stuff or the kids won't eat it!

I know a lot of people soak their tegus. I never have. I just think about how dry my skin gets after being submerged in water, and I figure that it may cause more shed problems than it solves. Just my opinion, of course, but I have yet to have a shedding problem.

Make sure your substrata is not too dry. That will make it hard for them to shed.

Good luck!

Leslie

This mentions the need for fruit in a red tegu's diet.

Good luck!

Bill

PS: I used to have a red tegu that had bad shedding problems; this was before we knew that a diet lacking fruit could be the cause (I'd been feeding her mostly f/t rodents). Even with a damp mulch hidebox the problem persisted and she developed infected splits on the bottom of her front feet, where the retained skin cracked. I treated the splits with oral antibiotics and Panalog ointment and they healed properly. But I finally sent her to live with very capable herpers and other healthy reds when it became apparent that I could not provide the proper husbandry.

Now that we know the importance of fruit in a red tegu's diet it's critical that you get your animal eating it. It may not be easy, though.

http://www.bluetegu.com/red.html

B.

I got a red that came with a shed issue to me. What I did was took tweezers into the bathroom while he soaked. I used shed ease also. I would put mine in the tub every two or three days. I also put a regular humidifier like you would place on a sick child, in the tank with them. I would run it for a few hours a day. Now my guy had several layers of stuck shed on him. After about two months of mine and mainly my Wifes painstaking picking and playing with the shed he came out of all his shed. I decided after seeing the happy healthy state of my other tegus with the humidifier in the tank to leave it just to help with the humidity since I am in a super dry desert environment. Mine also would not really eat fruit. So I started blending the fruit then mixing it with the turkey. They can not pick around it if it basically juice mixed with the turkey I call it Tegu meatloaf. They love it and eat like there is no tomorrow. Since then sheds blow right of and have not had any problems at all. Just a few thoughts good luck to you. I hope this helps a little.
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Beau W.

"There are no athiests in foxholes. It is not an argument against athiesm but rather one against foxholes." James Morrow