Stuck shed on a monitor?

My sav has so much skin problems since I moved him to top soil. Stuck sheds that when you peel off takes of actual flesh. He has a few sores many of which have started to heal over since he has been on the loose for a week now. Any idea of how to work on getting these sheds off? He's soaking with warm water and veggie oil now. I'm gonna try some new substrate for him because regular dirt has done more harm than good

I would think that so long as the sheds aren't around his toes or tail, it should be ok to leave them alone until he is ready to shed out again. Just make sure no appendages are going to be "strangled" by stuck shed. Patches of old skin shouldn't hurt him, though.

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Originally Posted by JLC

I would think that so long as the sheds aren't around his toes or tail, it should be ok to leave them alone until he is ready to shed out again. Just make sure no appendages are going to be "strangled" by stuck shed. Patches of old skin shouldn't hurt him, though.

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He's sleeping now. I took him out of the bath and rubbed some more shed off. He's under a hand towel laying on my chest. He looks much better after a bath. Are their ears supposed to have a piece of skin in them?

You can see that his skin doesn't look to healthy
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...e823575884.jpg

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2.../Tess/Tout.jpg
Look at his bottom jaw, all of that is scabbed over and if you try and rub that dirt off it starts bleeding

well he looks great otherwise...
i'm no expert, but from what i've been reading, a lot of skin problems are the result of long term diet and/or vitamin problems. just some food for thought.
as far as substrate goes, the one guy i know that has a sav uses orchid bark mulch for his big guy.

its probably not the dirt if you're maintaining it right. make sure you keep it moist. also, what is his diet? just curious.

His diet is mostly mice and rats. I havent had very many roaches to feed him lately. I try and mix in a hard boiled egg and some canned Tuna every one in a while for variety.

that may be your problem... from what i've read, monitors dont typically do well on completely rodent diets when in captivity. and i know savannah monitors typically feed entirely on insects in the wild. i just read a big article the other day... i think it was in reptiles. recommended substrate was a sandy soil mix that's wet enough for them to dig in.

nix the tuna and stick to whole prey items. also, include more insects in the diet. dont you have a lot of roaches? those would work great.

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Originally Posted by mr~python

nix the tuna and stick to whole prey items. also, include more insects in the diet. dont you have a lot of roaches? those would work great.

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Just sent out a money order today for 500 more roaches.