My shanjing is, um . . . dirty.

[david]

I don't have a photograph of him now, so I can't show you what I mean, but right now he looks sort of like a T. verrucosus. Is this just how a T. shanjig looks before it sheds it's skin? He seems to be acting normally, but it's summer time up here, and he's gained a layer of grime on his skin that doesn't seem to come off. I don't think it's fungus but I could be wrong. At first I wondered if it was because his home was too damp, so I used a few paper towels to absorb some of the excess moisture from the cage, but he still looked the same after a while (sometime worse). Then I noticed that the U-shaped piece of wood he uses to hide under now appears to be rotting and can't be touched without leaving some residue. It's been in there for years, but I guess a damp environment will do that to a piece of wood.

What do you guys think?

 

[wouter]

I've had this too with 2 T. shanjing some years ago. One of the two had all sorts of little black spots (looked like dirt first) but it didn't come off. This one died after a few weeks.
The other just shed his skin, and still lives today...

But I think the whole problem is the shedding of the skin. Sometimes I've got the idea that Asian Salamandrids quickly get problems with shedding their skin if the temperature or the humidity isn't good enough.

 

[david]

When I examined him last night, it did occur to me that he was shedding his skin, but in little flakes, so I let him be. When I checked on him today after work I noticed that his skin was back to it's normal bright color. I guess he shed it completely, though I was seriously starting to wonder if he had a fungal infection or something.