Re: [gecko]Question on hatchling Gold Dust Day Gecko having trouble shedding egg skin
We did try a little water on a Q-tip and worked on the ring around her neck. It softened a little, but didn't split. My husband was able to barely get hold of it with tweezers to give it a little pull, but it wouldn't split -- and we couldn't get anything in to try to cut it. We are so afraid of doing more damage to her. Her leg was damaged during hatching -- or she might have fallen, as we found her in the bathroom window in the bottom of the sill, while her egg and that of her dead sibling were caught midway up on the top of the open window. Apparently her hatching efforts or another gecko caused the eggs to dislodge and they fell. The dead sibling was not fully formed yet. Although I have not observed her eating, we know she must be. I gather her little tiny bugs off the fallen leaves from our orchid tree every day, plus aphids off some of the greenery she likes (we don't spray poisons), plus the papaya with the fruit flies. And she pooped on me yesterday after she crawled up onto me. ;) But there must be an art to catching the fruit flies injuring them! I've done that with larger bugs before, but all I have done with these is crush them. They are so tiny, they just squish when I try to catch them. Thanks, Sherron Lyle Puente wrote: You have a tough job! Can you mist her and maybe injure some of the fruit flies to make them easier catches? You might need to mist her well and try a fine tweezer to get that skin off? Lyle Lyle Puente President Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.org http://www.MyBrothersBanned.com http://www.myspace.com/MyBrothersBanned On Jun 1, 2008, at 7:15 PM, Sherron wrote: 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 moz-screenshot.jpg -- Gecko aka Sherron, Kailua Kona, Hawaii (on the Big Island of Hawaii) Homepage: http://hale-pohaku.com/sherron - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] See our rats: http://hale-pohaku.com/dennis/ratgallery.html -- Gecko aka Sherron, Kailua Kona, Hawaii (on the Big Island of Hawaii) Homepage: http://hale-pohaku.com/sherron - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] See our rats: http://hale-pohaku.com/dennis/ratgallery.html
Re: [gecko]Question on hatchling Gold Dust Day Gecko having trouble shedding egg skin
Hi Sherron, Try catching some fruit flies and putting them in the refrigerator for a few minutes. That slows them down, and the gecko might be able to catch them. Also, the humid chamber that Elizabeth wrote about has always worked for me with geckos that have trouble shedding. Best of luck! Melody Gecko wrote: We did try a little water on a Q-tip and worked on the ring around her neck. It softened a little, but didn't split. My husband was able to barely get hold of it with tweezers to give it a little pull, but it wouldn't split -- and we couldn't get anything in to try to cut it. We are so afraid of doing more damage to her. Her leg was damaged during hatching -- or she might have fallen, as we found her in the bathroom window in the bottom of the sill, while her egg and that of her dead sibling were caught midway up on the top of the open window. Apparently her hatching efforts or another gecko caused the eggs to dislodge and they fell. The dead sibling was not fully formed yet. Although I have not observed her eating, we know she must be. I gather her little tiny bugs off the fallen leaves from our orchid tree every day, plus aphids off some of the greenery she likes (we don't spray poisons), plus the papaya with the fruit flies. And she pooped on me yesterday after she crawled up onto me. ;) But there must be an art to catching the fruit flies injuring them! I've done that with larger bugs before, but all I have done with these is crush them. They are so tiny, they just squish when I try to catch them. Thanks, Sherron Lyle Puente wrote: You have a tough job! Can you mist her and maybe injure some of the fruit flies to make them easier catches? You might need to mist her well and try a fine tweezer to get that skin off? Lyle Lyle Puente President Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.org http://www.MyBrothersBanned.com http://www.myspace.com/MyBrothersBanned On Jun 1, 2008, at 7:15 PM, Sherron wrote: 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 moz-screenshot.jpg -- Gecko aka Sherron, Kailua Kona, Hawaii (on the Big Island of Hawaii) Homepage: http://hale-pohaku.com/sherron - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] See our rats: http://hale-pohaku.com/dennis/ratgallery.html -- Gecko aka Sherron, Kailua Kona, Hawaii (on the Big Island of Hawaii) Homepage: http://hale-pohaku.com/sherron - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] See our rats: http://hale-pohaku.com/dennis/ratgallery.html ___ Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.com Classifieds http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi gecko mailing list gecko@lists.gekkota.com http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko
[gecko]Question on gecko who fell
Aloha, I have another adult gecko with a problem, although I suspect there is nothing we can do for her. We found her yesterday, but hoped she would be better today. We think she must have fallen from the ceiling, as we found her on the tile floor in our kitchen and she was moving weakly. I set her down some papaya and she wiggled behind a box. Later, we found her on the floor near the refrigerator and she was not interested in moving at all. We tried picking her up with a large ti leaf, but she feebly pulled herself up onto my husband's hand and then fell into my hands. We put her in a cage with a leaf to hide under along with fruit and water and hoped that she didn't have any internal injuries. She seemed happier hanging from the side of the cage and looked pretty good this morning. But a little while ago, she fell off the side onto the floor of the cage onto her back and lay there gasping for breath. I'm not sure if they can breathe properly on their backs, so we turned her over -- which stressed her, but she does seem to be able to breathe easier on her stomach. I also misted her as I thought it might help her breathe and she seems a little better now. But is there anything else I can do for her besides just wait and hope she is just having pain from broken ribs and not from internal injuries? Thanks, Sherron -- Gecko aka Sherron, Kailua Kona, Hawaii (on the Big Island of Hawaii) Homepage: http://hale-pohaku.com/sherron - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] See our rats: http://hale-pohaku.com/dennis/ratgallery.html ___ Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.com Classifieds http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi gecko mailing list gecko@lists.gekkota.com http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko
Re: [gecko]Question on hatchling Gold Dust Day Gecko having trouble shedding ...
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: gecko@lists.gekkota.com 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: gecko@lists.gekkota.com Sent: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:21 am Subject: Re:
[gecko]Re: Up Underwoodisaurus!
Chuck, Your statement about the inclusion of sp. *milli *rendering *Nephrurus*polyphyletic (READ: biphyletic) would only be correct if additional taxa (not *Nephrurus* or *Underwoodisaurus*) would be lumped in by this taxonomic change. As Dr. Werner states, Melville et al (2004) recovered a phylogeny with *(N.) milli* as the sister taxon to the clade containing four *Nephrurus* *sensu stricto* taxa, thus the clade containing these five species and their most recent common ancestor (MRCA) is monophyletic. I'd think with your pedigree you would know that you don't have to refer Underwoodisaurus milii to Nephrurus. I must admit I haven't read all the papers you mention but from your outline and my understanding of current views in systematics and phylogeny you want genera to be monophyletic. If U. milii were added to Nephrurus then it would be biphyletic. That indicates to me that milii should be kept in Underwoodisaurus. If scientists don't agree with a paper then they don't accept it's conclusions and if enough people don't agree with a paper then the conclusions are rejected. I believe that should be the case here. Since phylogenetic reconstruction is dependent on synapomorphic (shared derived) character states, one could argue that the lack of the synapomorphic tail morphology of *Nephrurus sensu stricto* in sp. *milli*could be used as evidence to continue the recognition of Underwoodisaurus. Hope this helps clarify the nuance. Best, Laurence Laurence Frabotta, PhD Director, Special Research Programs The City University of New York
Re: [gecko]Question on hatchling Gold Dust Day Gecko having trouble shedding ...
Aloha, Elizabeth We have her soaking in the hot tub now. The temperature is about 83 F, which seems to be as warm as we can get it without melting the plastic from being too close to the lamp. She really doesn't like being there, whether it is because of the dampness or just not being in her familiar surroundings with her leaves and things, I'm not sure. Maybe she doesn't like the texture of the washcloth. She went straight for the walls and tried to crawl up them, and has continued to do so. Much of the time, she just moves her arms and legs (which she can actually now do in the increased moisture level) without moving her body, but she has managed to crawl about half-way up the wall before sliding back down. I worry about the energy she is expending, but she is determined. Update: my husband tried the tweezers again (my hands shake too much) and we managed to get the skin off her head! Also part of it off one arm and a big hunk off her stomach. We had to keep wetting her and she ran all over the place -- we can't actually hold her as I think we would break her arms if we tried, so we just try to corral her between our fingers! And after being in the sauna, she is really active!! But we are so happy to have some success, just wish it had gone faster. We put her back in the sauna to help loosen up the skin as it had started to harden again. This time she isn't even trying to crawl the walls. Smart cookie -- she is just sitting in the middle where we put her. She already has learned the drill. Maybe the next tweezer session will go easier. Ha, ha. ;) Having wild geckos all over is one of the things I love most about living in Hawaii! We have geckos everywhere! Most prominently the day geckos, but a fair number of house geckos and a surprising number of mourning geckos, too. When the day geckos were first introduced into Hawaii a few years back they thought it might be the end of the some of the original varieties. However, we have found that the mourning geckos are making a bit of a comeback, even though they are at a distinct physical disadvantage. But they are much smarter -- very quick witted, fast, determined and will stand up to someone twice their size! I was so amazed when I saw them down in the bananas arch up their backs like cats and stare down big old day geckos thrice their size over papaya! And they quickly learn that I mean them no harm and will take mealworms out of my hand, even the ones that don't live in the house! They are really fun to watch! But that doesn't mean I don't love the day geckos, too. They are so endearing because they look at you interact with you so much. As I sit and type this, I have a little one named Sneaker Girl who is sitting between some papers on the table next to my laptop watching me. I have water papaya out for her and give her an occasional mealworm. She used to live outside on the lanai, but decided to come in one day and staked out my table. She sits here for a few hours and then goes off and does other things. She's called Sneaker Girl because we had a friend over who wore bright green sneakers and the gecko was attracted to them so much (I have no idea why) that she climbed up on the lanai table leg and jumped over onto the sneakers. Luckily our friend likes geckos, too. ;) We are really keeping our fingers crossed!! ;) Mahalo, Sherron [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
Re: [gecko]Question on hatchling Gold Dust Day Gecko having trouble shedding ...
Do you have a small scissors for sewing (or even perhaps a straight pin) that could perhaps begin a split/tear in her skin at the neck?? I don't know how active she is, but you might be able to hold her firmly against some solid padded surface like a table.? Hope that something works for you both. Elizabeth -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: gecko@lists.gekkota.com Sent: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:52 am Subject: Re: [gecko]Question on hatchling Gold Dust Day Gecko having trouble shedding ... 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: gecko@lists.gekkota.com 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
[gecko]Re: Question on gecko who fell; and on euthanasia
Ah, our poor little girl started having trouble breathing and her color started turning really bad -- she started getting black blotches on her skin and her eyes started sinking. She would gasp for air every so often, obviously in distress. So it became obvious she did have internal injuries and was not going to make it after all. As long as she seemed to be comfortable, at least when she wasn't moving, we held out hopes of it just being a broken bone or two. Especially since her color was still good this morning and she was breathing okay. But when we have done the only thing we could think of to ease her pain and distress, and that was to put her in the freezer. Since she is a reptile, we are hoping that was a kind thing to do since her body temperature should fall quickly. It is not something we would do with a mammal. Can anyone advise on a better way to put a gecko out of their misery? As long as there is hope and they aren't in obvious distress, we prefer to try to keep them quiet, out of harm's way (from cats, dogs, mongoose or other geckos) and hope for the best. But we do have occasion when they are in obvious pain and it is no favor to them to keep them alive. Once we had a little house gecko that someone had tried to eat and whose skin was partially gone and the ants had gotten to before I found him. He was e but beyond saving, and obviously in pain, and we froze him as we did not know what else to do. If there is something better we could do for them, we would like to know, as unfortunately it is likely to come up again. The day geckos do prey on our other two species, as well as their own youngsters. :( Thanks so much, Sherron Sherron wrote: Aloha, I have another adult gecko with a problem, although I suspect there is nothing we can do for her. We found her yesterday, but hoped she would be better today. We think she must have fallen from the ceiling, as we found her on the tile floor in our kitchen and she was moving weakly. I set her down some papaya and she wiggled behind a box. Later, we found her on the floor near the refrigerator and she was not interested in moving at all. We tried picking her up with a large ti leaf, but she feebly pulled herself up onto my husband's hand and then fell into my hands. We put her in a cage with a leaf to hide under along with fruit and water and hoped that she didn't have any internal injuries. She seemed happier hanging from the side of the cage and looked pretty good this morning. But a little while ago, she fell off the side onto the floor of the cage onto her back and lay there gasping for breath. I'm not sure if they can breathe properly on their backs, so we turned her over -- which stressed her, but she does seem to be able to breathe easier on her stomach. I also misted her as I thought it might help her breathe and she seems a little better now. But is there anything else I can do for her besides just wait and hope she is just having pain from broken ribs and not from internal injuries? Thanks, Sherron -- Gecko aka Sherron, Kailua Kona, Hawaii (on the Big Island of Hawaii) Homepage: http://hale-pohaku.com/sherron - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] See our rats: http://hale-pohaku.com/dennis/ratgallery.html ___ Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.com Classifieds http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi gecko mailing list gecko@lists.gekkota.com http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko
Re: [gecko]Question on hatchling Gold Dust Day Gecko having trouble shedding ...
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: gecko@lists.gekkota.com mailto:gecko@lists.gekkota.com To:gecko@lists.gekkota.com 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
