Symptoms:
- grayish/faded color
- reduced appetite
- reduced activity
Cause:
When reptiles gain or lose weight, they need to shed their skin to accommodate the change, like getting bigger or smaller clothes. Generally this is perfectly normal and no cause for concern.
Photo by Cosmic Exotics
Treatment:
Increase humidity to 80-100% until shedding is complete. The discarded skin will be eaten by the gecko – a brilliant evolutionary technique for recouping nutrients which would otherwise be wasted, as well as disguising their presence from predators.
Keep a close eye on the toes and tip of the tail. If the shed gets stuck, they can get pinched and fall off. Prevent this by creating a small sauna with a tupperware and a wet, lukewarm paper towel or moist sphagnum moss. Let the gecko sit inside for 10-20 minutes and gently wipe off stuck shed with Q-tip. Repeat daily until the shed comes off.