I bought my baby beardie back in July, and the breeder said the tip of his tail had been bit a little by either one of the other beardies or roaches. It was just a knub and didn't look infected or anything so I bought him (his personality was hard to resist). Well now I'm a little worried because his tail is looking a little weird He's in a major shed currently (he just finished his head and body) so I'm not sure if this is shed or possibly tail rot... and I'm freaking out. He doesn't like being touched on his tail but I don't know if that's just him or if it's possibly infected? He acts normally and does everything fine but I'm so scared right now. I had taken him to the vet a few weeks ago and they did a mini examine and said he was very healthy. I don't know if they bothered looking him over or just measured him for his medicine (parasites), but I would have assumed they would have told me if they saw something wrong, right?
Please can you tell me if I should be worried about this? It's not like shrivelled up or anything, and he can still move it. The color is just worrying me, and I think he already shed his tail recently... So I'm at a lost. What can I do?
Looks like a normal shed. If the skin starts turning black and looks squished or constricted I would be concerned. Give him plenty of warm baths to help aid in shedding.
So it's been a couple of weeks since it's been looking like this and he still hasn't begun shedding it... I started bathing him everyday in warm water, and I put aloe vera (straight from the plant) on his tail to help moisturize. Still nothing. I'm not sure if he's having problems shedding or if he just takes an extra long time...
Looks like a shed to me as well. The tail always seems to take the longest to shed on ours. It begins to discolor & then it may be weeks before it actually starts shedding. Maybe yours is like this too. I've found the daily baths help and use a very soft toothbrush (our Izzy loves the toothbrush!) to really get the moisture in those scales and under any shedded skin not detached yet. Don't help it too much though, no matter how much you want to pull it off. This could hurt them if it's not really ready to come off.