I checked over previous posts and couldnt find anything remotely like this.. Paprika has been in my posession for roughly 3 months.. She is my darling! I recently noticed she had funny rough patches on her head.. It looked like she had just shed poorly so I increased the humidity in the tank slightly and assumed that the next shed would clear it up.. So last night I caught her in the act of shedding and took a few photos.. Upon looking at them (magnafied) I realized that she is simply missing scales on her head! She is in a 45 gallon vivarium with live plants and driftwood, the substrate is peat and sphagnum moss. She shares the tank with a male gecko and has produced one clutch of eggs (so they are breeding).. Could the male have done this to her? or is there some sort of gecko fungus she could have? I am setting up a sterile tank for her until I know the answer. I thought it might be Persimmon biting her since I only see it on her head.. but I am a paranoid pet owner.. Please let me know if this is common!!
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my pets: big eyed tree frogs, whites tree frog, dusky salamanders, eastern newts, tiger salamander, box turtles, mud turtle, map turtle, diamondback terrapin, red foot tortoise, 13 crested geckos, painted mantellas, crocodile skink, two saltwater tanks, five cats, three chinchillas, a dog (shiba inu/australian shep/husky, and a boyfriend.
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losing scales on head??? HELP!
Replies (3)
i'm not an experienced gecko owner yet. but i'd say that maybe the male is causing the injuries. they can get quite pushy with the females. if it was me i'd separate them except when breeding and see if the situation clears up.
Do the scales ever come back? My male did a real number on one of the females heads and she is missing a lot of colour. I hope she'll re-grow it or something. What is the experience on this?
I'm not sure about geckos, but my female bearded dragon lost some scales on her head while she was mating(mean male) and the scales grew back, they don't look exactly the same, but are the same color.
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My menagerie 
2.1 Ball Pythons 1.1 Amazon Tree Boa 1.0 Corn Snake 1.0 Dumeril's Boa 2.1.10 Bearded Dragons 2.1 Crested Geckos (and 2 eggs!) 1.1.4 Eastern Box Turtles 1.0 Northern Mockingbird 0.3 Chickens 2.0 Cats 1.1 Ferrets plus lots of mice, goldfish, and feeder insects
