Thanks for your input! Like I implied it seems that the soaking actually "loosened" the skin on her tail as well as on her body. Just with a gentle touch, off came her skin. Oops!!
Perhaps the fact that she had only three feet slowed her down somewhat. She was never what has been termed a "rocket butt" like some Phelsuma, klemmeri included. Do you think vestigial winged drosophila will be small enough for her offspring should it hatch?
I like your idea of saturating paper towels. Will try that the next time a need arises! I felt that spraying would have been too stressful, but then she died anyway...the ultimate stress :-[[
The lose skin is really weird. Maybe the water had something to do with it? I've never experience anything like that with Spharoedactylus. I was really rough when I caught these S. elegans, diving on them, pinning them, pulling them out of rocks, but none of the 6 I caught shed any skin or tails!
And more about soaking animals. I've found it better to put some towels in a delicup and saturate them with water. This way the animal is never submerged or could be submerged, and can lick water off the towels if hydration is the problem. I do this with the UAE Hemidactylus I breed. It appears the only time they are thirsty is the week or so after hatching. I've never seen the adults drink, and they never drink after the soaking!
BTW, what does "UAE" stand for?
Peace and hope throughout the whole year,
Elizabeth
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lappert robert hubert
13 yo
