Our leopard gecko is growing quickly, seeing that it had its second shed in almost 2 weeks. He started to look paler dramatically, and you could see a little roll of loose skin around his arms.
In the evening, Ellis noticed Dart scraping his head against his cup in the moist hide (which is a sure sign of shedding). We huddled in front of the tank and saw this amazing feat of nature unfold. The whole process took Dart about 20 minutes, but he needed some help in the end to remove the shed from his legs and tail.
Elliot is the main one in the family to handle the gecko, and he watches the most YouTube videos about gecko care, so it was his territory. I gladly give him ownership of it. Ellis is responsible for spraying down his moist hide with water, refilling drinking-water bowl and freeze-dried mealworms.
Here is a video of the kids helping Dart remove the last bits of his shed. I don’t know how to edit videos yet, and this was my first attempt. I only added music. Lol. Please bear with me as I’m working on this very new skill! Thank you.
21 responses to “Dart sheds again after 13 days”
The kids might enjoy seeing this anole I found in east Texas, doing the same thing in its ferny home!
Thanks for sharing the link! I read it and loved it!!
Yikes
This seems scary 😅
I see what you mean; it’s not that scary when you see it in person. The gecko doesn’t cause any harm and likes to actually be left alone.
It’s cool to see how nature unfolds and animals grow, but Dart eating its own shed was a tad gross. However, its shed has great nutrients for its growth.
Lol…I can tell that a leopard gecko is not the kind of pet you would have on your own. Thanks for still checking it out though. Appreciate it. 🙂
😱
Update on my previous comment: geckos can possibly bite you if they feel threatened, scared, or mistake your hand for food. However, no blood or anything painful. Ellis and Elliot were both bitten each, and nothing happened.
When the gecko was eating its shed, I felt a little queasy but as the mother and teacher, I had to keep a straight face and look amazed. hahahaah
Wah!
This is why I don’t need a gecko
What a different choice for a pet!
However yes, can be used to scared.
I would be more scared if they turn out to be the size of Komodo dragon 🐲
The skin part is really uncomfortable
We would’ve preferred a furry pet, like a dog or a rabbit, but Elliot has allergies, so the only other option was to get a reptile. Even a hamster would trigger his allergies.
Even though I wasn’t so into a gecko as a pet, Dart is growing on me.
Yep, I agree, the shedding is not the most pleasant thing to see. hahaha
Take care! Gotta go. Kids need my computer now.
How fascinating
It’s wild to see the process in person! Dart was sluggish the day before his shed and his skin turned a pale white. When they’re this young, they shed about twice a month.
We just got crickets and one of the big ones shed its exoskeleton. Yikes!
So interesting. Nice job on the video. 😊
I’ve heard of shedding but didn’t get to see one up close. Amazing how the little gecko knows when it’s going to happen and what to do.
Thank you for the positive comment on the video! It was my first time and I was so nervous of messing it up that I pressed every button with bated breath. lol.
I enjoyed it. Looking forward to seeing more. 😊
Wow, your comment made my day! Thank you so much 💓
Interesting how Dart keips shedding his skin – wow. I like when you showed the entire skin after he slithered out of it.
He might shed more since he’s a juvenile. This is the growing stage. I was shocked that shedding occurred 2 weeks later.
I felt good seeing the skin come off the tail. It must be uncomfortable for him during the process. But yikes, it’s strange that the shed gets consumed. Kind of yuck!!
On one of the Michigan DNR posts the other day, they showed a 9-foot snakes skin it had shed — I guess that was unusual that it was still intact. Like he just slithered out of it.
I guess they do slither out of it! We saw a small corn snake shed at PetSmart and it was intact. That’s definitely something to look into. This is becoming our science lessons concerning reptiles, reptile care, and now we are raising crickets. We just saw a cricket shed its skin and they eat lettuce and carrots, and my gosh, they poop so much too!!
Are the crickets like grasshoppers and pee like tobacco juice? When I was a kid, we had a lot of kids on our block and we were all around the same age. We all played together, boys and girls and one boy used to capture grasshoppers as he liked to feel them hopping around in his hands (which he made his fingers like a cage to trap them until he let them go). His hands would be stained brown which he said was like “tobacco juice”. You are learning a lot – live crickets to feed Dart.
You just enlightened me to grasshoppers and the fact they pee like tobacco juice. Wow! Insects are so cool in their own ways and design.
I didn’t even think about pee for crickets. From observation, they poop a lot and they look like small black dots and yep, it has a bad odor. We go through a supply of 30 crickets in about 10 days…a lot of them die prematurely and we don’t feed those to Dart. Crickets are vegetarians and they eat lettuce and carrot. They go crazy on that stuff and it’s down to a nub in 2 days and we have to feed them again. The PetSmart employee told us that crickets like citrus too but that leopard geckos could have digestive issues from crickets on a citrus diet. I had no idea about all this stuff.
That is interesting that you have to feed the crickets. Does Dart eat them whole and wiggling? (OMG)