Shedding issue

Chill

New Member
Hi I have a Male Fischer's who's around a year and and a half whos been shedding now for almost 3 weeks!! most of the shed is gone but some splots still remain on his sides. Now i know somthing's wrong cuz it should never take that long to shed and i've tried uping the humidity and watched what hes been eating but it doesnt seem to be helping.. so does anyone have any ideas or suggestions??
 
There is no definitive answer to why he has not finished shedding but make sure you are not increasing the humidity to levels that could be too high.
There are many factors I have seen that can cause delayed sheds but I am sureI have not seen them all or that all the ones I have seen can happen to anyone else.

1- Low humidity- reptiles can't seem to shed it as it is too dry
2- Too high humidity- chameleons can't have the skin "crack" and peel off because it is too moist.
3- Poor Ventilation- seems to go hand in hand with the high humidity.
4- Parasites- decreased health overall
5- Poor exposure to sunlight -have seen animals finish a shed as soon after they have been exposed to sunlight for a few days.
6- Lack of certain electrolytes- had a wild caught panther female once that came in with a retained shed and was already drying on her. I was determined to take the shed out manually but still gave her a few days of Pedialyte instead of regular water. I can only assume the extra elecrolytes in the Pedialyte helped her get more hydrated as after 1 day (3 waterings) she seemed to plump up and shed all the old skin.

Hope any of the above helps in case anything applies. However, if your chameleon just has 1 or 2 little patches of old skin, just wet a Q-tip with warm water and peel it off him.

Ivan
 
i wouldnt worry about it. you might not be doing anything wrong. my yemen is shedding right now and he does it in sections. his head, then his legs and back, then finally his sides. it usually happens as they get older.
 
yahh i had a good look at him today and one side there are only a couple of spots but he other side there is still a big chunk left...hhmmm i dont know whats wrong he seems to be in good health, the only thing i can think of is maybe the humidity i might try to put plastic on one side
 
Do you have a humidity gauge? If so, what is the reading? If you don't have one, I wouldn't advice to increasing humidity without knowing for sure. There far worse problems you can create by too high humidity.
If he appears ok and eats ok and drinks ok, then leave him be as is and simply help the shed off with a Q-tip. The lest thing you want to do is hurt your chameleon's healthy when you are really trying to help.

Ivan
 
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