sheeding
- Thread starter bradley
- Start date
Miss Lily
Chameleon Enthusiast
Is the skin white like it's going to shed, or is it still green? As they get older they tend to shed in stages rather than all at once. They can take longer too. Misting to raise humidity rather than getting the skin wet will help the shed process. Allow the skin to dry out too so it can fall off. Amy is 6 months old now and recently she just shed her head and legs. She looked so funny - like she had a beard and 4 white socks, lol! That was a couple of weeks ago and her body still shows no signs of an imminent shed.
Last edited:
jojackson
New Member
Jann has it. Everybody mentions humidity/spraying in relation to shedding, particularly when it seems slow, but nature is not always so humid, wet skin is moist skin, and if you ever soaked a peice of lizard skin, particularly cham/gecko skin, youll find it goes soft and sticks alot quicker than beardy or monitor skin for example.
When we soak the hell out them during sheds, the skin gets soft/soggy and consequently 'sticks' down, like wet tissue.
In a more natural enviroment, the lizard itself keeps quite dry despite ambient (air) humidity. Microclimates of heavy humidity/dampness only occure from dew, rain, interaction with dripping water. Otherwise things dry off.
Having produced the natural oils between the old and new skin which allows for separation, this production ceases, the older skin ontop drys out, splits and flakes/peels away. Drying actually assist the process.
If you saturate the animal constantly, you stimmy this normal process and can prolong the whole thing.
Different areas of the body can and do shed at different rates. Just keep an eye on the claws and tail tip to ensure its sloughed off along with the rest to avoid any restriction of circulation by drying/tightening skin.
If your ambient humidity is within the natural range (within the cage), maintained that way, and the animal is in good health, the lizard will shed just fine without experiencing 'monsoon season' at the hands of its keeper
Your enclosures ambient humidity may require boosting depending on local climate but its not, nor should be ,nessesary to be constantly soaking your lizard .
When we soak the hell out them during sheds, the skin gets soft/soggy and consequently 'sticks' down, like wet tissue.
In a more natural enviroment, the lizard itself keeps quite dry despite ambient (air) humidity. Microclimates of heavy humidity/dampness only occure from dew, rain, interaction with dripping water. Otherwise things dry off.
Having produced the natural oils between the old and new skin which allows for separation, this production ceases, the older skin ontop drys out, splits and flakes/peels away. Drying actually assist the process.
If you saturate the animal constantly, you stimmy this normal process and can prolong the whole thing.
Different areas of the body can and do shed at different rates. Just keep an eye on the claws and tail tip to ensure its sloughed off along with the rest to avoid any restriction of circulation by drying/tightening skin.
If your ambient humidity is within the natural range (within the cage), maintained that way, and the animal is in good health, the lizard will shed just fine without experiencing 'monsoon season' at the hands of its keeper
Your enclosures ambient humidity may require boosting depending on local climate but its not, nor should be ,nessesary to be constantly soaking your lizard .
Miss Lily
Chameleon Enthusiast
Jann has it. Everybody mentions humidity/spraying in relation to shedding, particularly when it seems slow, but nature is not always so humid, wet skin is moist skin, and if you ever soaked a peice of lizard skin, particularly cham/gecko skin, youll find it goes soft and sticks alot quicker than beardy or monitor skin for example.
When we soak the hell out them during sheds, the skin gets soft/soggy and consequently 'sticks' down, like wet tissue.
In a more natural enviroment, the lizard itself keeps quite dry despite ambient (air) humidity. Microclimates of heavy humidity/dampness only occure from dew, rain, interaction with dripping water. Otherwise things dry off.
Having produced the natural oils between the old and new skin which allows for separation, this production ceases, the older skin ontop drys out, splits and flakes/peels away. Drying actually assist the process.
If you saturate the animal constantly, you stimmy this normal process and can prolong the whole thing.
Different areas of the body can and do shed at different rates. Just keep an eye on the claws and tail tip to ensure its sloughed off along with the rest to avoid any restriction of circulation by drying/tightening skin.
If your ambient humidity is within the natural range (within the cage), maintained that way, and the animal is in good health, the lizard will shed just fine without experiencing 'monsoon season' at the hands of its keeper
Your enclosures ambient humidity may require boosting depending on local climate but its not, nor should be ,nessesary to be constantly soaking your lizard .
Thanks for posting that info Jo! I found it really interesting learning about the oil between the skin layers - I didn't know that!
