hi, all.

my 1 year-old leopard gecko (theo) has lately been soaking in his water dish. it's been about a week consecutively that he's doing this. i've had him for about 3 and a half weeks now.

i am new to leopard geckos (and any reptiles, in fact) and recently i read that leopard geckos don't soak unless they're in pain. any advice would be appreciated because i want him to have a good life.

here are some of my concerns/questions:

-when i purchased him, his tail was in the process of growing back. it's about an inch long now. i feed him a little extra (mostly crickets dusted with calcium but occasionally mealworms) since he has no real tail to speak of. i feed him 6 crickets a day, and then every 2 days i don't feed him. he's quite large around the middle, but doesn't seem overweight.

-there appears to be some dried skin gathered on one of his toes. should i put him in warm water and try getting it off with a q-tip?

-the humidity in his enclosure fluctuates so much (average about 50%, which is too humid). would this have anything to do with his soaking in his dish?

-my biggest concern is that one of his back legs is either deformed or broken. it doesn't seem to bother him when i touch it (he just moves away slightly, which is normal for him as it happens whenever i touch any of his legs) but i'm still worried. it was like that when i purchased him, and the seller told me it was a deformity, and i'm not sure if i should be trusting that.

otherwise, he seems healthy. he eats plenty, drinks plenty, and is fairly active at night. his enclosure, a 10 gallon tank, has a heating pad on one side that stays on constantly as well as a ceramic heat bulb overhead that also stays on all the time. the warm side of his cage is usually in the 85-90F range, and the cool side is usually in the 83-85F range. i don't use special lighting for him, the light he gets is natural from the window above the tank. is this not good?
he also has one plastic humid hide on the cool side of his cage, a foam hide in the middle, and a plastic warm hide on the warm side. he spends the majority of his time in the cool humid hide and his 'restroom' is on the warm side. the substrate i use is paper towel, that i change completely about once a week and change the area of his restroom whenever he uses it.

he's also not skittish at all and enjoys crawling on my hands and arms. i'm just so worried for him and i'm worried that i'm messing everything up. any advice would be very much appreciated!!!