So, I have a leopard gecko named Romeo who is about 3 years old and is having the worst time shedding the skin from his toes.... I was checking up on him this morning, and two of his toes had fallen off. It was horrible. I make shure that he has damp paper towels in his hidey-hole, but nothing seems to help. He has rough bark and a few rough stones to help him shed, but nothing has worked. I even went as far as to fill the bathtub with just enough water so his toes were wet and then letting him try to scrape it off. I can't stand looking at his little stumps of toes, and am afraid that he will lose the rest if I can't figure out what to do. Please, if anyone knows anything, please, please, please, give me some suggestions.
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What is the humidity in his enclosure? And welcome to the HC

the humidity for a leo shouldnt be a problem as they need none except in the hide box. i would keep on soaking him and apply some neosporin to those toes every day to prevent infection. and in the future...there are some commercial reptile sprays that help losen the skin plus vegetable oil works for the same thing and it's cheaper.

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-Adam

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I'm not sure how well paper towels work in a hide, I would definately try some sphagnum. Glad you made it over and hope all works out for the leo.

Hello,

Papertowel is great for hatchlings but isn't that great for adults. I use sphagnom moss with all my adults and it works great.

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Okay, I'll try the moss. Thanks for the tips, everyone! I'll try the veggie oil, too. Do you guys suggest putting the veggie oil on top of shallow water, or veggie oil only? I'm not sure how to do the neosporin either, I'm afraid the sand in his cage will stick to it and his situation will be even worse. Should I put him in a plain hospital tank, do you think?

Well you dont want to have sand as a substrate at all, as it causes impaction. I would put him on paper towels with moss in one of his hides until his toes are a bit better

Thankyou so much for your replies, everyone. I will change his substrate, I was just going for the natural desert vivarium look. Is there any other substrate I could use (after his toes heal, of course!) that would still keep the various cacti alive and well? Perhaps I could put the cacti in pots and hide them behind artful rock creations.....

Oh, and an update on Romeo:

Some more of his toes fell off. It was pretty bad, but, fortunately, I was able to help him enough so that it was not the whole toe, but tips of them instead. It still is sad, but a whole lot better than it could have been. He is in a plain aquarium with a Zoo-Med cage carpet and a bark hide with some sphagnum moss. He was some rocks to bask on, as well, and seems to be in a much better mood since his toes have been better(He bit me twice! But, hey, I would be irritated too, if a huge thing was pulling extra skin off my toes with tweezers and bathing me ni veggie oil! He probably didn't know I was helping him out.). His apetite has even increased!! I had no idea that his toes were to blame. He was looking pretty skinny there, for a while. His tail not its fat, beautiful self.

Anyway, thanks to everyone. He is recuperating nicely, and once he sheds one more time and I see that it went well, I'll put him back in his old tank. I still have to figure out what to do with the plants, though...

Many people say if you take a wet Q-tip and gently rub it on his toes it will help him, hope that helped!