• Hello guest! Are you a Tegu enthusiast? If so, we invite you to join our community! Our site is specifically designed for you and it's a great place for Tegu enthusiasts to meet online. Once you join you'll be able to post messages, upload pictures of your Tegu and enclosure and have a great time with other Tegu fans. Sign up today! If you have any questions, problems, or other concerns email [email protected]!

Shedding issues

Lizardmomma2555

New Member
Messages
7
Hey everyone, I have a 6 month old tegu that has had normal sheds and now for the past couple months it takes he weeks to shed and it’s stuck . We are having to use shed spray, Coconut oil, and upping vitamins. Nothing in her diet has changed. Nightly baths. She gets cod liver oil weekly and vitamin B weekly. As well as calcium and other vitamins. It looks painful some of it. I’m at a loss .
 

Lizardmomma2555

New Member
Messages
7
Any she is having issues with her vent. I’m a vet tech and I took her to work with me and the Vet said it’s nothing and it will go away but .... I’m not okay with that answer and it hasn’t gone away. I’ve done sugar baths just in case it was a start of a prolapse but nothing has worked.
 

Attachments

  • B5E297D6-F98D-4BB4-A4E5-B489380BD350.jpeg
    B5E297D6-F98D-4BB4-A4E5-B489380BD350.jpeg
    1.1 MB · Views: 11
  • 310F8222-ACDE-4E40-AAF0-5F50C467FF8A.jpeg
    310F8222-ACDE-4E40-AAF0-5F50C467FF8A.jpeg
    1.1 MB · Views: 11

LizardStudent

Active Member
Messages
118
Location
Nashville, TN
Not sure about the vent issue, but in my opinion your humidity is too high, I don't think it should really go above 90%. Too high of a humidity will cause issues just like too low of humidity will. As for the supplements, have you tried adding B-complex vitamins? My girl had bad shed issues that kept reoccurring; I would heavily supplement fish oil, give her daily baths, a humid hide with tons of damp sphagnum moss, and all that helped a little but not nearly enough. Then I found through searching this forum the recommendation to heavily supplement B-conplex vitamins with her food. I tried this, and after a couple months of shed issues within a week of supplementing my girl had a full body shed. Here's a Rose City Reptiles video that discusses this method:
Hope this helps
 

LizardStudent

Active Member
Messages
118
Location
Nashville, TN
I usually think that if a tegu has high humidity, soaks, and proper husbandry and is still having shedding issues then it usually points toward some element missing from their diet
 

LizardStudent

Active Member
Messages
118
Location
Nashville, TN
Thank you !!! How often and how much did you give ? I haven’t tried that before .
I would just heavily dust it on her food each time you feed her, just like you would for a calcium supplement. I did it for maybe a week or two till she shed completely and then stopped, only using it again if she showed shed problems later on. Since, I've gotten my girl more nutritious food and her sheds have improved
 

LizardStudent

Active Member
Messages
118
Location
Nashville, TN
What types of foods are you giving ? My girl loves Turkey . Thank you so much for your help !
I started buying Reptilinks, which are specially blended for a tegu diet. They're more expensive, but I was spending about $20 every two weeks on insects, and reptilinks are $80 for a six month supply of food so I thought they were well worth it. My girl loves them and I feel like now nothing is really missing from her diet, although I still occasionally give her whole prey like mice and quail chicks for variety. She's also a fiend for roaches ;-)
If you think a specialty food like reptilinks is too expensive, then I would try to just give your girl as much variety as possible to get all the odd vitamins and things in. Different kinds of fish, insects, whole prey, chicken feet, occasional raw egg, worms, maybe some grapes or banana, etc. Variety always helps!
 

Carra

New Member
Messages
5
Hey everyone, I have a 6 month old tegu that has had normal sheds and now for the past couple months it takes he weeks to shed and it’s stuck . We are having to use shed spray, Coconut oil, and upping vitamins. Nothing in her diet has changed. Nightly baths. She gets cod liver oil weekly and vitamin B weekly. As well as calcium and other vitamins. It looks painful some of it. I’m at a loss .
It’s all about humidity. Raise the humidity especially in the week/s leading up to shedding. When our girl is getting close my daughter faithfully sprays her and her cage 3-4 times a day. She’s a big girl so amount depend on cage size. But keep the skin moist. Humidity should be at least 80. Baths are great but it sounds like she’s too dry
 

Alex’s Reptiles

New Member
Messages
5
I’m no expert but I do have a great amount of knowledge. Bump that hot spot up to 110-130F. Use several bulbs if you need to. Your over humidifying your tegu. Reduce misting and open up the cage and let it air out. My tegus are not anywhere near 90 and they have never had a single bad shed. If I were you i might consider building another vent on the side of the enclosure to air it out. I would also recommend the complex b vitamins. Also stop the baths is all way to much humidity give a bath once every 1-2 weeks unless impacted. Also make sure it’s getting full from every meal that will motivate shedding. Lmk if anything else happens. Also I wouldn’t worry about the lump near the vent unless it starts to swell or turn a weird color or you see it disturbing her
 

Debita

Well-Known Member
1,000+ Post Club
Messages
1,218
Location
Prescott, AZ
I had some strong shedding issues with my B/W adult male. After bumping up the fish oil (I cut open fish oil tabs from Costco) by dripping about 3 tabs over his salmon, or turkey balls, or gizzards (per food day), I thought I saw some improvement. I also found an amazing product called Puriya Wonder Balm. It's an anti-microbial, anti-fungal, and antiseptic. I've found nothing like it on the "reptile" market" and I literally covered his whole tail in it several times. It was what finally worked for me. It is a little expensive, about $30 at Amazon I think, but if I was going to put something on your girls' vent, I'd def use that. I tried the Vit B-complex on both of my Tegus - and my female shed a complete body suit!....whereas my male had no results. Maybe it was too far along for him. That's my 2 cents!! Good luck! :)
 

Members online

No members online now.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
20,091
Messages
177,789
Members
10,316
Latest member
Juiced
Top