Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have just recently noticed that a few of my baby leos have had a dry or incomplete shed. I always spray underneath their hides daily but for some reason about 2 or 3 out of 20 geckos have had incomplete sheds within the past 2 weeks. For these i had to assist in the shedding process with a warm bath. I also noticed that those who had incomplete sheds had developed one or more twisted or oddly shapen limbs, the tissue is not dead but the bones seem to be a little malformed due to the restrictions of the incomplete shed. Finally i have noticed that within a day or two of the warm bath the limbs BEGIN to return to their original untwisted shape. I have also increased calcium doses, isolated these geckos, and given them vermiculite moist hides. Please tell me that i can expect the legs to fully return to their original shape.

Thank you very much for reading,
Chris

Depending on the quality of the calcium you're using and the severity of the problem, the twisted limbs could return to normal. The best solution is to obtain liquid calcium which is usually only available from a vet.

In addition to calcium, you should occasionally dust with a multivitamin. Vitamin deficiencies could be what's causing the shedding problems.
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chickabowwow

Im not the one who started this thread...but do you have a mutivitamin you would recomend? i cant find one for leos at the pet store and i will be giving my leo reptocal...is that good?
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I dont have any leopard geckos yet...
In a couple of weeks right now I am properly setting
Up the tank and getting "stuff for the little leo"
I do have 3 ferrets and 4 dogs.

For a multivitamin, I recommend Herptivite because that's what my vet recommends. She's not impressed with most reptile multivitamins, but she likes Herptivite because it includes amino acids.

I like Reptocal because it's a fine enough powder to stick well to food, but this was something I used before I started raising baby leos which have different nutritional needs. I prefer having the calcium separate from any vitamins except for vitamin D3. This is because I try to supply vitamins through gutloading, so I don't want to overdo what I'm giving them. Plus, you need to dust with calcium more often than vitamins instead of doing both at the same time every time.

There's no one right way to supplement though, and people have success using different regimens, but this is my preference. I use Minerall Indoor formula for every feeding with baby leos and every other feeding for juveniles and adults, then dust with Herptivite about once a week. I feed my adults less often than I feed juveniles, so they end up getting less supplements than the juveniles.
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chickabowwow