leo not shedding itself.

[damzookeeper]

My little annie, the premie leo is about 12 days old and she is in her second shed but again, like the first one, she will not shed herself. I had to do it for her the first time. She started looking gray last night and was ready to shed this morning but she hasn't shed yet and it's noon. Should I shed her. I am leaving her till I get back from work and check out the posts here. I want her to get the hang of doing it herself but I don't want her to get too stessed out eithor. Any advice greatly appriciated. Thanks in advacne. I'll check back at 3.

[Zoe]

Hi
I have a leo who tends to just let the shed hang off her until it interferes with her walking. Her first shed, she was gray in the morning and started having little tears by later afternoon. at night she could hardly walk and sdhe finally got around to eating it. lazy bum

I wouldnt worry
Zoe

[LISA127]

Just make sure there is a humid hide for your leo, and then let her be. As long as she has a humid hide, she should be fine.

[damzookeeper]

Oh, I don't think you guys read my previous posts. This girl was born with one eye open and one eye closed. She was 15 days early and although everything looked good except the eye, she would not shed herself, after I shed her she would not eat it. She is roughly 12 days old and I still have to feed her morning and night because she wont eat on her own. She is not lithargic or anything it's just like she doesn't know how or possibly can't see, I'm not sure. I haven't even seen her look at the food yet. I leave baby mealies in a dish for her but she wont look at them or eat them without my assistance.

On an update though, for those who have read my posts she has had her second eye open for the past 2 days. YIPPIE! Now I'm going to check them out with a mag. glass to see if I can see anything wrong with them on the exterior.
She is sooooooooo tiny! 2 grams!! I want to weigh her tonight to see if she has gained anything since hatching. Anyway, I haven't checked on her yet, came here first, so I'm off to do that now. Hopefully she has eaten her shed. She has been in it for 21 hours so far. I know it isn't because she is too lazy to eat it. I think it is just because she is a premie. Sounds funny to call a leo a premie but that is the best I can come up with. All the other leos in that incubator take 70-75 days to hatch and she came out in 59 days at the low temp of 78. I hope she starts eating on her own soon. Poor little baby.

[damzookeeper]

Originally posted by LISA127
Just make sure there is a humid hide for your leo, and then let her be. As long as she has a humid hide, she should be fine.

Thanks Lisa. All my leos have moist hides, some have two depending on the collonies. And of course they also have reg. hides, water dishes, calcium dishes and mealie dishes.
I have been breeding for a couple years, but because I wanted some girls for myself this year I was advized to go quite low with the temps. I don't think I will do that again, I have lost more babies this year than in the last 2, and had a few go full term, pip and then not make it out of the egg, some of this could also be because I have 8 first year layers and 4 first year breeders along with my experienced girls and my proven male, but I am slowly bringing my temps back up to 80 to exclude that factor.
thanks for the reply.

[Tim and Julie B]

Most of mine that are incubating at 80-84 hatch around 45-50 days, 59 is completely normal. 70-75 actually seems long.:D Nice to hear that she is keeping her eye open now.

[damzookeeper]

They weren't incubated at 80 though, they were originally incubating at 77.5 -78. Now I have them incubating at about 78.5-79 and bringing it up slowly. at around 78 degrees they were coming out between 70-75 days.

oh, almost forgot to say, before this year I always incubated at 81-82 but because I wanted ALL female this year I was advised to lower the temps to 77-78. Since I'm not liking the results I am bringing the temps up slowly.

[LISA127]

I incubated at low temps, too, and had problems. it caused me to get out of breeding, because i couldn't bear it anymore. I had one born with mouth and breathing deformities that i had to euthanize, and that was sooo hard to do. i also had one fully formed and ready to hatch, and it died. i never figured it was the temps, tho. but maybe. and mine hatched at about 60-63 days, i think.