Leo with shedding problem

Hey. So, a friend of mine has had a leo for near-on ten years that he rescued from his boss's kids. Well, she's having trouble shedding her eye scales. She's doing the repeat-shedding thing, and is getting thin. I've been told that saline can help a leo to shed her eyes. Does anyone else have a solution for this? She did have a compatriot who passed away recently from a similar condition.

EmpNortonII":2y7h3t1b said:

Hey. So, a friend of mine has had a leo for near-on ten years that he rescued from his boss's kids. Well, she's having trouble shedding her eye scales. She's doing the repeat-shedding thing, and is getting thin. I've been told that saline can help a leo to shed her eyes. Does anyone else have a solution for this? She did have a compatriot who passed away recently from a similar condition.

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I am sorry to hear the leo is having problems shedding! There really should not be a problem if the gecko is provided with a humid/moist hide. They require a moist hide on the warm side of their tank that they can go in when they are about to shed to help their body shed easier. Does your friend have this for his leo?

The ideal hide would have vermiculite and/or sphagnum moss inside that is quite moist. Personally I don't use sphagnum moss because they can eat it and become impacted. I have heard horror stories of leos dying from impaction from eating sphagnum moss. They seem to favor it in the pet stores, but we all know pet stores aren't the best place for advice on proper husbandry. The leo may use this hide once a week or once a month, at her discretion. I can tell when my leo is about to shed because she heads to that hide. The rest of the time she pretends like it isn't there. :lol:

I have a home-made humid/moist hide for my leo. I made it out of a plastic yogurt tub inverted so the lid is on the bottom of the tank. I cut a leo-sized hole in it with a craft knife and took a lighter to the edges barely melting them so the edges are smooth. Leaving any rough edge will harm your leo, as they will rub themselves against any opening to help themselves shed.

Here is a picture of my leo's entire set up, which is a 10 gallon tank with a screen lid. I know it is dirty and I need to clean it sorry. Anyhow the right side of her tank is the 'hot' side and it has a small Zoo-Med under the tank heater. I have the humid/moist hide directly over the under tank heater so it will stay humid and warm. Also she has a double-light fixture and there is a 100watt heat light in the right side over the hot side to keep it toasty. I have another hide against the back wall on the hot side as well in case she wants to chill in a drier area, and in the middle of the tank I have her favorite hide. This 'middle hide' is directly under the 75 watt purple heat light and it's for when she wants to be warm and not hot.


The far left side of her tank is the 'cool side' and there is no under the tank heater or light. This is the side I keep her water, food bowl and calcium bowl. Leos will freely eat calcium in addition to what you dust their prey with.

The bottom of the tank has repticarpet. Remember to lift the bottom of the tank with the adhesive rubber feet that come with the under tank heater or the heat will build up on the bottom of the tank and your leo could get burned. The tank needs airflow underneath it with the use of an under tank heat pad.

Here is a close up of the humid/moist hide inside the tank. I turned it around so you can see the opening size in relation to my leo. She is a ham and wants to see what I am doing messing with her stuff. :lol:


See how I have made this with the lid still on the bottom? I rarely remove the bottom and I change out or re-wet the vermiculite through the opening. I use hot water to keep it warm and just enough to make it a clay-like consistency without being soggy. They don't want to be wet, just moist.


Here is a close-up of the inside so you can see how much vermiculite I used. My leo is 7 months old and about 8 inches long. I'm guessing on the length because she fights any measuring. :roll:


I love leos - let me know what the cage set up is and I will help you out with it. They do need this humid/moist hide in there every day whether you think they are shedding or not, and it needs to remain moist. I re-moisten the vermiculite in the hide every other night.

You can try wetting down a thin cloth or thick paper towel with warm non-chlorinated/distilled water and place it over her face/eyes being careful not to smother her, and hopefully that will help her out. I hope this information helps.

Jess":3oyl37jg said:

I don't have any pics of my humid hides, but I turn a tupperware container upside down and cut a little door in it. I use paper towels in mine... They are easy to change out and keep clean, and pose no impaction risk. It is best to keep the humid hide half on and half off your heat pad, so it gets warm enough to keep it humid, but not so warm that it dries out quickly.[/color]

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My leo loves to dig around in her vermiculite :lol: she just has a blast in there! For people who need to make a humid hide ASAP and don't have vermiculite on hand, paper towels would work. My humid hide was not warm inside at all when I had it partially on the heat pad, so I had to do a total tank rearrangement to place it completely on the warm side. It definitely does dry out faster this way, so if you can't keep it moist on a regular schedule, the next best thing would be to have it less warm.

That picture of the shed is pretty crazy! Poor creature. I've had my leo since September and I haven't soaked her yet - I wonder how she would react! She is constantly in her water bowl because I have it placed in her favorite corner to glass dance :lol: so I imagine she is bathing herself! Crazy girl!

Jess":2hpxps9c said:

Yeah, I haven't experimented with different humid hide substrate yet... Stanley's eye needs to be kept as clean as possible and Stella is only 6 months old, so paper towels it is! :wink: I'll probably switch Stella to an actual substrate in her humid hide at some point though, in case she is ever gravid.

Stella sheds perfectly so I haven't soaked her yet, but Stanley had a terrible shed so he needed it. He didn't seem to mind being soaked too much. But since he discovered his humid hide he is obsessed with it, so I hope his next shed is better.

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:lol: I love the description 'obsessed' with the humid hide. My leo has little obsessions, too, so I guess it is just a trait of leos. My Bella is my first leo, so I only know what she likes and not much of what other leos are like. I do know that when she wants something she is persistent to the extreme.

I had her for about 2 weeks before I read that she needed a humid hide, and when I placed one she went crazy over it and didn't come out for hours at a time...then she started shedding. I guess I got her one right on time.

:love5:

Bella never has a problem shedding and she is so interesting to watch as she rubs, pulls and licks at her shedding skin. I would love to have another one, but she's pretty time consuming. More time consuming than I realized! She wants to come out every night and explore the living room, which requires 100% of my attention. She can so easily get lost and she is very sneaky. :silent:

I love the names Stanley and Stella. How adorable.

15 years old! :shock: That's so awesome. I can't believe he lasted that long without his humid hide! They are tough creatures, aren't they?

Good for you for taking in an unwanted leo. I can't imagine having one for that long and having to give it up, but I understand people do have extenuating circumstances. It happens.

When my Bella graduates to a larger tank with more floor space, I might get another leo. I've just worried, what if she likes being alone in her home and I get another one and it bums her out? Or do they prefer company?

Bearded dragons like to be housed alone, but I'm really not sure about leos. Was Stella okay when you introduced him? Was there a quarantine period with Stanley before you put him in with Stella? I've thought about that - I guess I would keep this 10 gallon for the new leo for a month and do a fecal at home before putting it in with Bella...hmmmm.

Now I want another leo. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Jess":109gw8un said:

Yup, they sure are!

And Stan and Stella live seperately. Stan weighs 80 grams and Stella is only 45 g, so it isn't a good match-up. Plus, I don't want babies! And Stanley completely fails at finding his food. They usually prefer to live alone, like beardies. Stella has a 20 gal long, and Stanley is in the 15 gal that he came with.

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Thank you so much for the information! If they prefer to live alone, I respect that. I don't want babies either, that is for sure. There are so many amazing leo breeders coming up with all those cool morphs, I will leave the breeding to the experts.

I got Bella from a reptile conference and they had a huge table of leos. I wanted a pink one and they had so many different little babies to choose from. I spent so long looking at them the breeder lost interest in me. :lol: I wanted the perfect leo since it would be a forever pet. They had all these sweet little babies and then my husband saw this one larger high yellow normal with these striking eyes and he pointed her out. I thought she was very pretty but I was looking at all the fancy morphs.

I am so glad my husband kept pointing to the older girl, my Bella. She is incredible. Nothing wrong with having a 'normal.' He told me he had this gut feeling that she was 'the one,' but he didn't want to tell me which one to choose. I decided to trust him, but I was disappointed at getting a yellow one. :lol: Now I can't even imagine not having her.

I think I'll PM you so we don't hijack the OP's thread any more LOL.