dragonfanatic4454
Hatchling Member
Alright so here it goes. I asked a question a few weeks back on a sheeding problem I was having with one of my beardies. This was her first shed since I had her which surprised me since I had had her for more than half a year and she is now a little over a year old so dragons that age usually shed once a month or so or at least this is how my other dragons have done it. Anyway, this is a picture of what she looked like before she ever shed for me...
Now I bought a mvb bulb from reptileuv.com a few months ago brand new for her and it was about 1-2 months before all the problems arose with them and they recalled their bulbs. she never showed any eye problems like my one dragon did so I assumed her light was good. This shed lasted over a month to get rid of it and was almost a full body shed except for 3 legs. Here is a picture of her head with the shed problem I posted a few weeks ago and got some help with...
Here are a few more pictures taken today with her shed completely let go except for a tiny patch on her hind leg...
Here is a picture of her back with a black spot in the middle where a particularly long piece of skin stayed and would not come off. (obvisouly I let it go on its own as to not scar her but it may have scarred anyway.)
Ok now for some husbandry info. She is under a megaray uvb 100 watt and a reptisun 10.0 for her uvb rays. She has a basking spot of 101 degrees with a cool side in the mid to high 70's. She is in the basement where there is no humidity as it is winter and a basement so my first guess was that she did not have enough humidity to shed properly so halfway through the shed I added a big swimming pool sized water tub for her to bath in if she chose to. During her sheds, I increased baths to once a day-at least 5 times a week for 10-15 minutes as to try and loosen up the shed.
She was a really great eater that gave up on crickets a long time ago but never said no to any worms, but mainly got fed a staple of supers. She would eat greens if i hand fed her. During her shed about halfway through, she started eating less and less and just recently in the past few days has stopped eating altogether. This worried me so I took a weight on her and she is down to 271 grams from her usual 300-305 grams. She is only 16 inches long so not a big dragon but is around 1.2 years old. I know losing weight is never a good sign so I started a liquid diet on her today of squash babyfood, liquid protein, pedialyte, and some beneficial bacteria to kick in her digestive system hopefully. As you can see from the first picture above she was a brilliant full body red, and now she is that dark red brown all over her back and head with her legs and tail staying her awesome orange-red color. It does not look like another shed coming in since this is what her skin looked like when the old skin let go. You can see the sidespikes on her let go much earlier after about 2 weeks instead of the full month and they stayed a nice color as well. Oh and I forgot to mention that she had a routine fecal done a little before she went into a shed and she tested positive for moderate pinworms and was treated for them, but I am doing another set of treatment right now to make sure the eggs are gone and not causing her wieght loss and loss of appetite.
I guess what I am getting at is that I need some adive, help, whatever you want to call it from someone who has experience with difficult sheds and what to look for to see if that is what it is or if it is something else. Her activity is normal and she loves to still run around her cage, she is still going to the bathroom on her regular schedule of once every few days. No problems walking or running for that matter and swam in her bath today fine. She did however take her back leg and scratch at her right eye which was the problem eye from the pics I posted on here a few weeks ago. When she is not wet, all around the eye is very dry as well as parts of her head and body in between scales now. Sorry this is soooo long I just had a lot to say I guess. Any help would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance. I will be checking back often so if you have any helpful input please post something. I would hate for my little Ruby to suffer anymore than she already has. Thank you!
Now I bought a mvb bulb from reptileuv.com a few months ago brand new for her and it was about 1-2 months before all the problems arose with them and they recalled their bulbs. she never showed any eye problems like my one dragon did so I assumed her light was good. This shed lasted over a month to get rid of it and was almost a full body shed except for 3 legs. Here is a picture of her head with the shed problem I posted a few weeks ago and got some help with...
Here are a few more pictures taken today with her shed completely let go except for a tiny patch on her hind leg...
Here is a picture of her back with a black spot in the middle where a particularly long piece of skin stayed and would not come off. (obvisouly I let it go on its own as to not scar her but it may have scarred anyway.)
Ok now for some husbandry info. She is under a megaray uvb 100 watt and a reptisun 10.0 for her uvb rays. She has a basking spot of 101 degrees with a cool side in the mid to high 70's. She is in the basement where there is no humidity as it is winter and a basement so my first guess was that she did not have enough humidity to shed properly so halfway through the shed I added a big swimming pool sized water tub for her to bath in if she chose to. During her sheds, I increased baths to once a day-at least 5 times a week for 10-15 minutes as to try and loosen up the shed.
She was a really great eater that gave up on crickets a long time ago but never said no to any worms, but mainly got fed a staple of supers. She would eat greens if i hand fed her. During her shed about halfway through, she started eating less and less and just recently in the past few days has stopped eating altogether. This worried me so I took a weight on her and she is down to 271 grams from her usual 300-305 grams. She is only 16 inches long so not a big dragon but is around 1.2 years old. I know losing weight is never a good sign so I started a liquid diet on her today of squash babyfood, liquid protein, pedialyte, and some beneficial bacteria to kick in her digestive system hopefully. As you can see from the first picture above she was a brilliant full body red, and now she is that dark red brown all over her back and head with her legs and tail staying her awesome orange-red color. It does not look like another shed coming in since this is what her skin looked like when the old skin let go. You can see the sidespikes on her let go much earlier after about 2 weeks instead of the full month and they stayed a nice color as well. Oh and I forgot to mention that she had a routine fecal done a little before she went into a shed and she tested positive for moderate pinworms and was treated for them, but I am doing another set of treatment right now to make sure the eggs are gone and not causing her wieght loss and loss of appetite.
I guess what I am getting at is that I need some adive, help, whatever you want to call it from someone who has experience with difficult sheds and what to look for to see if that is what it is or if it is something else. Her activity is normal and she loves to still run around her cage, she is still going to the bathroom on her regular schedule of once every few days. No problems walking or running for that matter and swam in her bath today fine. She did however take her back leg and scratch at her right eye which was the problem eye from the pics I posted on here a few weeks ago. When she is not wet, all around the eye is very dry as well as parts of her head and body in between scales now. Sorry this is soooo long I just had a lot to say I guess. Any help would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance. I will be checking back often so if you have any helpful input please post something. I would hate for my little Ruby to suffer anymore than she already has. Thank you!
Thanks to all of those who at least tried helping.
