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eagouill
09-15-16, 08:16 PM
Hi! So I'm a little worried about my savannah monitor's skin condition. I got her about a year ago and she usually has trouble shedding despite my best efforts. She's on about a foot of cocofiber that I mist at least twice a day and her water tub is big enough for two of her to soak in. I recently added a moist box but unfortunately iv'e only seen her go in there to chase crickets. She's pretty flighty and not so great at being handled (it's a work in progress) so I don't get to soak her as often as I want in fear of stressing her out too much, but I do give her a soak for about 20 min. about twice a month or more if its a really bad shed and use shed ease to help. Any advice? My younger savannah and tegu really don't seem to have any problem shedding even though their enclosures are probably dryer. I've heard that sometimes genetics can effect the way monitors shed and I did get her from Petsmart...

Also she has areas where it looks like she scraped the scales off on her leg, head and side. I'm 99% sure that thats from when I was away on vacation. The friend that I was having watch my pets accidentally burnt a small hole in the screen top of her enclosure. It was small, too small for Mushu to fit through or so we thought, but sure enough I got home about a day later and she had squeezed her way out and was hiding behind my dresser. This was about two weeks ago. I've been watching carefully and theres no pus, blood or fluid or anything and it looks like its getting better. She'll let me touch it without reacting and it hasn't affected her behavior or appetite at all so i'm not super worried since it doesn't seem to bother her. She and my tegu are scheduled for an appointment with the vet on Tuesday for a general checkup/fecal parasite tests but I wanted to see if anyone else had any advice or similar experience before then.

I'm posting some pictures where you can see some stuck shed and white patches where she scraped herself

murrindindi
09-16-16, 01:29 PM
Hi, without going into too much detail just now, you will never, ever be able to create supportive conditions in a screen topped enclosure. The reason for the shedding problems is related to a lack of humidity, possible also the temps may be involved, what are the ambient and basking surface temps plus the humidity range and how are you measuring all those?
Can you put a few photos up of the whole enclosure incxluding a top view and give some details on type and wattage of heat bulbs/other lighting? Thanks!