Aloha Sharron,

You are so patient and dedicated!! This little one is so lucky to have you, since I'm sure she would have been someone's lunch otherwise. If she goes on eating fruit flies, you know you can raise flightess fruit flies, and that might be easier. I do that because I keep a few dart frogs, but I use them for hatchling geckos too. You'd have to get a starter culture from someone, or get one shipped to you if allowed, and keep them strictly separate from the flying ones because "flightless" is a recessive gene. I can give you more info if you're interested.

Do you have the little bugs in the soil called springtails? Or any other tiny bugs you could catch, maybe aphids? I'd hate for you go blind clipping fruit fly wings, LOL!

As to the last bits of shedding, she might lose the extra skin on the next shed. I've only gotten the tail skin off by peeling front to back, like turning a cone inside out.

The town in Oregon that I live in is named "Aloha" although pronounced differently -- emphasis on the "lo" part and a soft "h" -- ah-LO-ah.

It's also nice to see some activity on this list ;-)

Melody

Gecko wrote:

Aloha, Melody

Thanks for these ideas. I never thought of a paintbrush, but that would be softer and probably hold the moisture better. ;)

Her toes kept sticking to the washcloth, so we did lay a paper towel on top of it and she liked that better.

Now that she is back in her regular house, she is on banana leaf with red ti, honeysuckle, and helekonia. We used to have her on paper towels, but she really seems to like the banana leaf and we have tons of them. And the red ti is her favorite for hanging out on. And all the day geckos like the helekonia -- that and the bananas are their favorite hangouts ... along with our lanai and house. ;)

Mahalo,
Sherron



Melody Hartley wrote:

Slightly different method -- I use a paper towel rather than a washcloth in the humid box, and float the whole box in a sink full of warm water for the heat. A small soft paintbrush can also be helpful for wetting the old skin and working it loose.

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

And Aloha Sherron ~
Thanks for these details. Please try the humidity chamber near a lamp for a few hours. Use a wet washcloth that has been wrung out and place it in the vented, plastic container. Watch the water droplets form. After only a few hours I imagine her skin might be loose enough to start a split.

Another idea! Have something like a twig, small branch, or a section of choya wood --- something rough that she could snuggle up against to assist in the shed.

I hope the skin shed helps her right leg work more efficiently!
Keep us posted! Wish I lived near the beach in a place warm enough where geckos roamed freely ;-] Elizabeth

    Aloha, Elizabeth

    She is about 3/4" from nose to vent -- she is the smallest day gecko
    hatchling we have ever seen, although some of our mourning gecko
    hatchlings are even tinier.

    This sounds like it might work!  If it would just soften enough to
    pull off her or get a split started, I think we could get the neck
    skin off.  We have been misting her little cage and putting a
    heating pad next to it, but that only helps a little and wasn't
    keeping the humidity up high enough.
    She has never seemed to be able to fully control her right leg, and
    her right foot is smaller than her left and the toes kind of clumped
    together. She often tends to move the joint and leg together as a
    unit, so there may be something wrong with the joint, too. Although
    in watching her with the skin problem, some of that may just be the
    skin being so tight it restricts her movement.

    Usually when we find the hatchlings, most of that first skin has
    already been shed, but she was fully covered with it and it has only
    recently started splitting. We do think it hinders her use of her
    limbs -- her arms are only about the size of thin pencil lead, and
    the skin seems to fully coat those.

    She has been doing okay up until the last couple of days, though,
    when the skin (I hope that it isn't something else, too) started
    really becoming a problem. She now gets around by lurching her body
    back and forth because her little arms & legs are still encased in
    the skin, although it has come off some of the back.  And she is
    green underneath, not gray!

    We haven't ever actually kept any of the geckos before, as they run
    all around our house, lanai and garden (Phelsuma laticauda, house -
    Hemidactylus frenatus, & Mourning - Lepidodactylus lugubris). But we
    had to make an exception in her case, since she couldn't fend for
    herself. Usually we just take the hatchlings outside so they have a
    better chance of survival -- we have lots of big geckos running
around inside and they don't last long if we don't get to them first. :(

    Mahalo, Sherron






    [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

    Hello Sherron ~

    Try the humidity chamber trick.  I can't view your photos at home
    because my laptop is really memory-challenged, so I don't know how
    big this gecko is!  However, my mourning geckos are 1" 3/8" at
    hatching.  Try placing your gecko in a vented plastic container
    with a damp washcloth inside.  Place this near a light.  Almost
    immediately you will notice beads of water accumulate on the
    sides/top of the container.  After a few hours or so perhaps you
    can remove the rings of old skin around her neck gently with a
    tweezers or small scissors.

    What is the problem with her right leg?  Might you have a new pet
    here?

    Elizabeth

    Subj:[gecko]Question on hatchling Gold Dust Day Gecko having
    trouble shedding "egg skin"
    Date:6/1/08 4:16:39 PM Pacific Daylight Time
    From:    [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Sherron)
    Sender:    [EMAIL PROTECTED]
    Reply-to: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
    To:    [email protected]

    We found a tiny hatchling on May 13 that was a little
    underdeveloped and was still in that grayish skin they have when
    they first come out of the shell. She was dehydrated and has a
    problem with her right leg, but is spunky.

    We haven't been able to release her outside like we do the rest of
    the hatchings we find, as her bad leg has kept her from being very
    mobile, but she has been doing pretty well eating tiny bugs &
    aphids I collect for her. She has also shown a real interest in
    the fruit flies around her papaya, but I don't think she has
    managed to catch any yet.

    But she started having trouble yesterday and was real cold &
    clammy, so we put a heating pad near her cage to help warm her up.
    It seems to have started her molting her "egg skin", but she has a
    bunch of it around her neck that she can't get off.

    Is there anything we can do to help her? She is so tiny we don't
    see how we could try to cut it off! The rest of the skin except
    for around her neck should slough off okay, but the stuff around
    her neck is several layers and is a ring, so it may be another
    matter. :(

    Any help would be greatly appreciated as she is really a spunky
    little girl.

Mahalo, Sherron





-----Original Message-----
From: Gecko <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:21 am
Subject: Re: [gecko]Question on hatchling Gold Dust Day Gecko having trouble shedding ...

Aloha, Elizabeth

She is about 3/4" from nose to vent -- she is the smallest day gecko hatchling we have ever seen, although some of our mourning gecko hatchlings are even tinier.

This sounds like it might work! If it would just soften enough to pull off her or get a split started, I think we could get the neck skin off. We have been misting her little cage and putting a heating pad next to it, but that only helps a little and wasn't keeping the humidity up high enough. She has never seemed to be able to fully control her right leg, and her right foot is smaller than her left and the toes kind of clumped together. She often tends to move the joint and leg together as a unit, so there may be something wrong with the joint, too. Although in watching her with the skin problem, some of that may just be the skin being so tight it restricts her movement.

Usually when we find the hatchlings, most of that first skin has already been shed, but she was fully covered with it and it has only recently started splitting. We do think it hinders her use of her limbs -- her arms are only about the size of thin pencil lead, and the skin seems to fully coat those.

She has been doing okay up until the last couple of days, though, when the skin (I hope that it isn't something else, too) started really becoming a problem. She now gets around by lurching her body back and forth because her little arms & legs are still encased in the skin, although it has come off some of the back. And she is green underneath, not gray!

We haven't ever actually kept any of the geckos before, as they run all around our house, lanai and garden (Phelsuma laticauda, house - Hemidactylus frenatus, & Mourning - Lepidodactylus lugubris). But we had to make an exception in her case, since she couldn't fend for herself. Usually we just take the hatchlings outside so they have a better chance of survival -- we have lots of big geckos running around inside and they don't last long if we don't get to them first. :(

Mahalo, Sherron






[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

Hello Sherron ~

Try the humidity chamber trick. I can't view your photos at home because my laptop is really memory-challenged, so I don't know how big this gecko is! However, my mourning geckos are 1" 3/8" at hatching. Try placing your gecko in a vented plastic container with a damp washcloth inside. Place this near a light. Almost immediately you will notice beads of water accumulate on the sides/top of the container. After a few hours or so perhaps you can remove the rings of old skin around her neck gently with a tweezers or small scissors.

What is the problem with her right leg?  Might you have a new pet here?

Elizabeth

Subj:[gecko]Question on hatchling Gold Dust Day Gecko having trouble shedding "egg skin"
Date:6/1/08 4:16:39 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From:    [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Sherron)
Sender:    [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-to: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
To:    [email protected]

We found a tiny hatchling on May 13 that was a little underdeveloped and was still in that grayish skin they have when they first come out of the shell. She was dehydrated and has a problem with her right leg, but is spunky.

We haven't been able to release her outside like we do the rest of the hatchings we find, as her bad leg has kept her from being very mobile, but she has been doing pretty well eating tiny bugs & aphids I collect for her. She has also shown a real interest in the fruit flies around her papaya, but I don't think she has managed to catch any yet.

But she started having trouble yesterday and was real cold & clammy, so we put a heating pad near her cage to help warm her up. It seems to have started her molting her "egg skin", but she has a bunch of it around her neck that she can't get off.

Is there anything we can do to help her? She is so tiny we don't see how we could try to cut it off! The rest of the skin except for around her neck should slough off okay, but the stuff around her neck is several layers and is a ring, so it may be another matter. :(

Any help would be greatly appreciated as she is really a spunky little girl.

Mahalo, Sherron


~~~geckos make my heart sing (and dance)~~~

l l l ^^ /..\ ^^ /..\ ^^ ^^ /..\ ^^ l l ^^ llll \\\ l l llll ///
       l  l                    llll                      \\\
       l  l  ~~              llll                      ///
  ~~  (                ~~    )   ~~         ~~   (    ~~
           )                   (                            )
        (                        )                       (
           )                   (                            )
     lappert(a)               robert(a)                    hubert(a)
17.50 yo r.i.p. r.i.p.
                            (All Lepidodactylus lugubris!)







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Homepage: http://hale-pohaku.com/sherron - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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