Moist hide help!

Sooo, I have a question regarding my leos moist hide; I want to make sure he can properly shed and grow, so what exactly should I put in it? At the moment I have moist peat moss on top of a tupper ware lid, covered by a thin plastic white deli cup with small holes poked around it and a doorway for my leo. It's positioned half on the warm and half on the cool side of the tank, id this okay? I just read that it is good to also keep a moist paper towel in there at all times as well? could I get some clear answers?

How often should my 3 month old gecko shed?
How will i know when he is shedding?.. . . Or what will his behaviors be ?


Syd

Moss is ok, a lot of the people use them. I personally prefer paper towels, because it has zero impaction risk. I have read & seen some bad pictures of geckos getting impacted after ingesting some moss, it's not fun. Some also like to use coco fiber, which also works well as a laybox medium. What you want to use is up to you. Just moist them up, not dripping wet but wet enough. Place it in between warm/cool side is great.

Here are some examples of how you can do it:





As for how often they shed, they shed whenever they stretch beyond their current skin. There's no set amount of times they'll shed, and it's quite random when they shed. When they are about a day before shedding, they often stop eating, and usually won't eat until a day after they shed. They don't always do this as I have geckos that ate the very same night they shed, but often you will see them skip a meal when they are about to shed.

You'll see their skin color fade out into grey/white color. It gets more white as their skin gets more ready to be torn off. If you have a moist hide for them, they usually will stay in there until they are done shedding. And yes they do eat their skin, it contains protein & other nutrients.

Hope that helps!

Also to add to what Mardy has already said sometimes you wont ever know that they had shed. I know 2 of my females have shed at least twice that i didnt know about. I found little pieces of shed on the toes or on the tail after they had shed and thats the only reason i knew that they had already shed. So sometimes you see signs and know its coming and other times you dont.

http://www.leopardgeckoforum.com/t463-review-of-zoo-med-terrarium-moss

I highly recommend this moss, as does a fellow staff member!

I personally have both. I have a sphagnum moss hide built into eros' rock formations just off his uth, and I have a tupperware/paper towel moist hide on top of eros' hot side hide. His hot hide roof is a piece o natural shale so the moist hide there steams up pretty well. Eros was tub raised by a breeder with paper towel substrait so never experienced moss before... a few bd sheds later and with some reasonable deduction we realised he didn't like the feel of it and wasn't using the moss hide. I have however caught him several times in the paper towel hide. When he starts ghoting up for a shed I refresh his paper towels since they can harbor bacteria and fungus from being moist and warm all the time, soak it with hot water (don't worry it cools after 5 minutes but steaams the hide up nicely in the menwhile) then put it back. He's right in it. However I do like that sphag moss has natural antibacterial/antifungal qualities so you don't have to change as often as long as your leo isn't soiling in there. I also noticed eros prefers a front hole rather than a top hole in his paper towel hide. It also seems to hold the steam in better imo.

Me

I just want to reiterate the impaction risk of moss. I can't link another forum's topic, but the first time you see a picture of what happened to a gecko trying to push out sphagnum moss, you will quickly change your mind. I know I did

Worst of all is all sorts of people chimed in saying they've had it happened to their geckos before, so it's not a rare isolated incident.

I personally use eco-earth for all my moist hides. None of my Leos ever really took to the sphag moss. The eco-earth tho they all love it very much and it retains moisture very well and dont have to worry about the bacteria as much as paper towels. I do like the idea of paper towels for sure and many people use that as there substrate for the moist hides. Sphag moss has an oder to it and i think that may have something to do why my leos didnt use it.

I use coco fiber (eco earth). Its very thin so if they do ingest a bit impaction isn't likely. My leos love to dig in it as well so I'd feel bad getting rid of it.

I use a old cricket tub (washed out of course) with a hole with it half on heat mat half off with spagnum moss x

Thanks for all the Help Abdi seems to really like his moist hide, he's in the at least twice a day(that I see) so I hope i'm doing it right. I have yet to see him shed though.... Such a sneaky boy

Syd

I like to use about 1/2 and inch of Hatch Rite (perlite) on the bottom, and then fill the container with sphag moss. It seems to work well. They both use it and spend about 20 minutes in it a day. I am new to this, and do have a question, does the female lay her eggs in the moist hide??

Yes Dtown that is generally where a female would lay her eggs.

I thought so How many and how frequently do the femalew lay them?

It varies quite a bit depending on the female her age and if its her first year breeding or 2nd 3rd etc...
First year - not so much success but can lay a few clutches
Second year - 8 to 10 clutches
Third - 10 to 12 clutches
Fourth - 12 to 16 clutches
Fifth or more - 10 to 14 clutches
Each clutch will contain 1-2 eggs
These are just estimates. Like i said it varies depending on the female

Cool! I inhereted these little dudes and I am not sure of their age, but I know that they are full grown. Thank you for your quick responses How has your luck been with hatchlings?

Your very welcome glad to be of some help
Well this past season i got a late start with 1 pair and she was a first time breeder and only layed 1 clutch. 1 egg proved infertile in about 5-7 days and the 2nd one is still in the incubator and is on day 46 but im still not to sure if its fertile or not so we will see in a few weeks But this season im wanting to start 2 new breeding projects but it all depends on whether or not they reach laying "Weight" by the start of the breeding season so we will see

Ya I have more incubator already set up and ready to for when the time comes!!! I'm very excited. I've read that the optimum temp is around 84* Does that sound about right??

Yes it is right but it depends on whether or not you want to hatch out females or males. Leopard geckos SEX is determined by temperature of incubation. Check out http://www.yourgeckoguy.com/?post=7F4A75D0-219B-98E4-4E7D05C66EA795E1
it has great breeding info and breaks down temperatures for what sex you want to produce

you have been extremely helpful

Im glad thats what we are all here for.

lets try to stay on topic guys. If you'd like to start another thread in the breeding section dtown, that would be better for your laying question. More people with similar needs works see it there rather than here.

Yea srry bout that kermit i didnt even think about it. I apologize

No worries, just like to keep things organized

I understand you wanting to keep things organized... But frankly I don't see the problem with a thread that has good conversation being shot down because it might go off topic. Isn't that what forums are for? Learning and educating... Any way you slice it, people are getting their experiences and opinions out there. Not trying to stir up anything. I am very excited about this forum and the new hobby of geckos, I just don't see the problem with people helping each other out.