Hey, so my girlfriend bought a very young crested gecko. It’s probably a month or so old. I wish we had known that it’s irresponsible for breeders to sell them so young, but with the level of care he was receiving before, I think we’ll do better than that breeder.
The gecko (Bartleby) is stuck in shed and has been for 3 days. I do not want his toes to go necrotic, or anything else to happen to him. We’ve been trying the sauna method, we’ve been using a qtip to gently roll off some skin, and we got some cork bark for him to run around on. We’ve been actively encouraging him to run on the bark, and that seems to be making a difference, but I’m just concerned that his skin isn’t coming off on two of his legs/feet. Any tips or insights would be greatly appreciated. We’ve been keeping the humidity in his enclosure at 90+ at night, and it’s gotten as low as 60 during the day. Idk what else to try.
Thank you all in advance for any help with this situation. I may be overreacting, but I do not want this little guy to suffer.
Idk why my camera is so bad, but if you look around his knee area, the skin looks darker than near his hips and his foot. We were able to gently roll off that area of shed, but the rest wasn’t moving, so we stopped bothering him and plan on trying again tomorrow. I might just be neurotic, but when we bought him the front half of his body was shed, but the back half still had dead skin on it. That was Saturday. Should it take that long for the rest to shed? Also thank you for taking the time to check him out!
I see the stuck shed on his leg and tail, its actually the lighter gray areas. You’ll feel that these areas are more dry than soft, and his little toes won’t feel as sticky.
Keep doing the sauna method. This will likely take a couple tries, do it only 1-2x a day so you’re not stressing him out. The most important areas to ensure shed is not stuck is around the toes.
Humidity that is too high for too long actually has the opposite effect to what its supposed to do for stuck sheds, I reccomend keeping the ambient humidity at around a stable 70-75% if possible, with brief spikes in the high 80’s - low 90’s after mistings. There should be at least 10-12 hours buffer between humidity spikes.
No, when CGs shed they should be able to shed their whole body all at once without issue. There will be little if not nothing left as they will eat their own shed straight off the body.
Seriously, thank you. So, keep trying the sauna method. And, keep the humidity in the 70s most of the time. The humidity can be higher after spraying, but there needs to be a rest in between humidity spikes. Prolonged high humidity can actually make the skin stick. Just trying to restate what you said to make sure I understand.
We’ve only been spraying the enclosure once per day between 20:00 and 21:00. The enclosure has staggered ventilation holes drilled along the top of it, and a mesh vent that we attached to the side. We read that the enclosure should be humid at night and then drop to the 50s at the lowest during the day. It’s generally only getting to 60% humidity at its lowest. Temp has been between 70 and 78, but it doesn’t stay at 70 for more than an hour or so in the morning. I haven’t seen any necrosis on the feet yet, thank god, but I just want to do everything possible to avoid it. I worded my last post poorly, but yeah I can see that the shed is the paler color. I’ve seen the shed come off his front two feet, the back shed stopped midway down his legs. How long should a shed take at his age? I’ve read that 24 hours is normal when they’re as young as ours is.
We’ve talked to another buyer from the same breeder and they’re also having stuck shed issues.
