Red Tegu with shedding/weight issues
My red tegu, Gizmo, hasn't been doing well lately. She has really bad shedding issues, she's overweight and she isn't eating. The odd thing is, I can pinpoint the time when things started to decline. It was around October 2012. It wasn't sudden, just gradual. But I can't for the life of me think of anything that changed for her at that time. Until recently I haven't had good equipment to get accurate measurements of her environment, just those cheap $30 hygrometers from reptile stores. So I've been left to guess at ambient temperatures and humidity. However, I picked up a Kestrel 4000 weather meter and left it in her enclosure to record hourly ambient temperature and relative humidity.
I put the data in an excel spreadsheet and took some high resolution photos of her so you can see what her skin is like. Here's a link to the files: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yimhdmazye5ciu2/fAH8ppGB1S
As I've mentioned on these forums before, I've taken her to the vet, but he didn't have any suggestions. The vet I took her to came widely recommended as knowledgeable about reptiles. I've been spraying her cage daily to keep humidity up and even put some moss under her log. Unfortunately after putting the moss under her log she refused to sleep there anymore. She also hasn't been eating. I've offered her mice, horn worms, silk worms, super worms, mango, raspberries and blueberries and she's refused them all. She hasn't eaten in about 10 days. The last time she ate, it was a bit of mango, but I had to open her mouth and put it in. I'd like to stress that I didn't force her mouth open, she allowed me to open it and place the mango in her mouth without resistance.
Despite her lack of eating, she hasn't lost any weight and still looks quite fat.
From the data I collected, ambient temperatures range from as low as 72F at night to 87F at midday. Relative humidity drops during the day due to the heat until I spray. Lights come on at 7:30AM and humidity falls to as low as 45% by noon. Then I spray and it peaks around 85%. Night time humidity tends to range between high 70s to mid 80s. She has two basking spots. One is an MVB over some rocks. Temperature is approximately 118.5F. She tends not to stay under there too long, probably cause it's really hot. I may consider moving the light a little further away. Her second basking spot is just a heat lamp, no UV. It hovers over a water dish to help with humidity. This secondary spot has a temperature of 107F. She spends more time here than on the rocks.
I've tried a lot of different things to help with shedding. I bathe her at least once a week, sometimes twice, for 45 minutes. Afterwards I've tried applying mineral oil. I've also tried using A+D ointment. Both have had minimal effect.
I'm not really sure what to do now. I've considered spraying twice a day to keep humidity higher and more consistent. I've also considered adhering moss to the walls/ceiling of the enclosure in the hopes of keeping humidity up.
Hopefully you guys will have some suggestions.
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Originally Posted by SnakeCharmr728
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