Every lizard parent has seen its pet shedding, or molting. You must be asking, “how do I care for my lizard during the shedding?”. Or “how do I help my lizard shed?”. Let’s discuss lizard shedding and how to take care of their nails (which is also very important!). We will discuss how to trim your lizard’s nails/claws safely.
General tips for all lizards
Generally, creating a hide cave for your lizard and increasing moisture levels inside it and the whole terrarium would be recommended. You can also use the shedding spray, mineral oils and placing hard surface items such as rocks around the terrarium. This will help them rub their old skin off as well as keep the skin moisturized.
We would also recommend keeping a diary of your lizard shedding times, so you can see how it’s growing and to predict the next shedding. Regular molting is also a sign of a good health. Usually lizards do not need you to give a hand, but you should step in if any pieces of skin are stuck on their tails, around the eyes, ears and claws.
Humidity levels
Lizard’s skin needs a lot of care and attention. Your lizard will spend most or all of its time in the terrarium, and the optimal moisture levels are very important for the pet’s skin. Wrong humidity levels cause a big stress for lizards and make their skin shedding process difficult and uncomfortable.
Low humidity levels or metabolic problems can lead to skin getting stuck between their legs and end of a tail. During molting this dry skin can compress their hands and tail and cause organ death.
Humidity levels are important because low humidity levels and low water consumption can make the lizard refuse to eat. This can also lead to stomach problems… Let’s talk about every type of lizard pets and how to care for their skin and help them molt.
Skink skin shedding, or molting
Skinks need a lot of attention when molting. Many skinks completely cast off their skin, but most of them shed slowly, getting rid of skin patches gradually. Some even have two shedding processes at the same time.
Skinks often need help if molting gradually – some skin can be left on their claws and end of their tail. You should soak their tail and claws in warm water (or give them a warm bath) for easier skin shedding. Otherwise, compressing skin stops blood flow to their claws and tail and can cause death of these organs.
Leopard gecko molting
Gecko have a thin skin, which is covered in scales and lots of blood vessels. Same as with other lizards, make sure to monitor their molting and make sure there is no skin left between their toes, in the ears or on the tail. If you find any stuck skin, use an ear wool bud to remove the pieces after giving a gecko a warm bath or skin soak.
Note the white skin that is about to shed
Adult geckos molt around once in a month or two, and hatchlings and babies shed their skin as often as once every week.
Geckos usually eat their shedding skin, so sometimes you may even not notice any skin in their enclosure. Baby geckos molt more often as they are growing and their coating becomes too small for them. Normal molting includes peeling and white skin.
You can also help gecko shed its skin by increasing humidity level in the terrarium. This can be done by creating your own moisture camera: you can use a simple container box with a lid.
This container should be larger than your gecko. Make a 3-4 cm hole so it can go inside and on its bottom, place some humid substrate, such as coconut flakes or vermiculite. You can also get a lizard cave, and put some vermiculite or moss inside.
Some people think that just spraying side parts of terrarium can increase humidity to optimal levels, but that is not true. Humidity cave is also required when a female gecko is getting ready for laying eggs. If she lays eggs on the bottom of the terrarium and buries them there, they will stick and can be damaged when you take them out.
In this post, you can learn how to make a humid hide for your leopard gecko for shedding.
Bearded Dragon skin shedding
With bearded dragon, follow the tips that have already been discussed. Bearded dragons shed in small patches, gradually. Generally, try to monitor its shedding and give short baths (around 30 minutes) or mist the dragon twice a day to help moisten the skin.
In this bearded dragon, the skin around the toes has built up and constricted the blood flow
Do not take the skin off, especially if it’s not dry yet, because you can break the skin and cause infections. Spraying water to the sides of the terrarium and the bearded dragon itself would help it to stay moist.
You can use a shedding aid spray like this to help your pet shed faster and promote new and healthy skin growth. But generally, if your bearded dragon is shedding well, it doesn’t need any help from your side.
After your bearded dragon has finished shedding, check its toes, tail and limbs for any retained skin. Any skin that hasn’t come off needs a gentle rub with warm water to peel off. If you don’t peel off retained skin, it will constrict the blood flow and cause death of digits, tip of the tail etc.
Iguana skin shedding
Iguanas shed their skin a bit differently to other lizards. You can always notice that iguanas molt gradually, in different parts of their body.
The shedding skin loses its bright color and is usually separates in patches.
How often do iguanas shed? There is no specific answer, as all iguanas shed at their own times, some many times a year and some only hardly few times a year.
All of this depend on the age of the lizard, as well its health, humidity levels etc. As with other lizards, to help them shed you should keep them moisturized (you can mist them and use the cave).
You can also help by removing the old shedding skin with wool buds, to prevent any reduced blood flow around the limb etc. You can also use mineral oil to soften the skin and make it ready for shedding.
Chameleon skin shedding
Chameleon’s skin shedding also greatly depends on its age. Younger chameleons shed much more than the older ones, and take only few hours to do so.
Keeping the track of their shedding can really help you monitor chameleon’s health. Also, don’t worry if you chameleon starts eating less or refuses to eat during or before the shedding.
The best idea to keep them moisturized is to use the shedding spray or water sprayer and generally increasing moisture inside the terrarium.
Chameleons are not big fans of baths, so you should try going with just spraying or increasing moisture in their hide caves.
Some tips for for all shedding lizards…
Note how a problematic shedding in this leopard gecko that caused eyelid swelling.
With all other lizards, the procedure is very similar to ones explained here. Look out for skin color changes, and always help your lizard shed if you feel the need to do so. Generally, creating a hide cave with high water content substrates will keep them happy and help concentrate the humidity in that area.
If for any reason the shedding did not happen and you didn’t help to remove the shedding skin, contact your veterinarian immediately. Suspicious signs are breaking toes or tail or suspected problems with its ears or eyes.
There can be a problematic shedding, when there is retained skin after the general molting has finished. You need to help your lizard by soaking it in a bath (you can add some reptile shedding bath solution) and peeling the skin that is soft with tweezers of fingers.
Don’t pull the dry skin or you might cause bleeding and infection. Remove any retained skin around toes, eyes and tail or it can constrict the blood flow and cause toe or tail tip loss.
To prevent any retained shed, create a moist hide, supplement your lizard with minerals and vitamins (especially vitamin A or (better with beta-carotene) and vitamin E). You can also spray your lizard with water or reptile shedding aid spray to help the molting,
Lizard nail or claw trimming
Caring for your reptile’s nails/claws is also very important. Most lizards wear down their nails naturally in the wild, while climbing trees or moving around.
In captivity, most lizards don’t move around or climb too much. This is why their nails become long and need trimming.
In all lizards, there is a blood vessel that runs through the nail, and it is called a ‘quick’. You must be very careful not to cut the nail where this nerve runs.
You should trim your reptile’s nails in a well-lit room, and use a lamp to see through the nail. This ‘quick’ blood vessel looks like a black line that runs through the nail. Clip under the line. If you cut the nail too high, your reptile will get angry and might bite you in pain.
If the nail starts bleeding, use styptic powder, flour or even cornstarch to stop the bleeding. You should also consider restraining your reptile by placing a towel over its head. It will be easier for two people to 
trim the nails, rather than one. One person can hold a lizard – against you with lizard’s belly up and holding the head up. Another person will trim the nails.
You can ask your vet to trim the nails and watch him or her the first time.