# Mouth opning and goey stuff



## heatfreakk3 (Oct 15, 2008)

Ok so i have no clue what going on. I walk in my room and my citronella had his mouth open and he is open and closing it. He also had stuff on the sides of him, the stuff looked kinda goey. He was trying to rub it off of him while his mouth was still opening and closing. A fruit fly went by and he tried to eat it but he couldnt cuz the stuff and his mouth. He than finaly got the stuff off his sides and just his mouth was a problem so he was rubing that. Than i guess he got it off or whatever cuz he just stopped and was normal again. Is this okay? Im not sure what he was doing. Sorry i couldnt get a picture either cuz it happen pretty quick.
Thanks if you can help.


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## Enlightened Rogue (Mar 21, 2006)

Probably shedding his skin, a sign of a healthy animal.
They also eat it, which is probably what you`re observing.

John


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## heatfreakk3 (Oct 15, 2008)

Oh okay thanks  thats what i thought was going on, but i wanted to make sure cuz i new all you guys could tell me the exact right thing  thanks.


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## jackxc925 (Dec 22, 2007)

you might want to mist him a little. if hes having a hard time but it sounds like hes fine


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## heatfreakk3 (Oct 15, 2008)

Ya i did mist him, thats the first time i saw him do it so i was a little nerbous. But i dont think he was having any trouble.


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## afterdark (Jan 16, 2007)

Yep - sounds like shedding to me. My azureus do that first thing in the morning when the lights come on.


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## heatfreakk3 (Oct 15, 2008)

Oh cool, every day?


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## Estrato (Jan 6, 2009)

One of my intermedius seems to do it a lot in the morning, but I dont catch them doin it every day. It is pretty freaky lookin the first time you catch them at it though.


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## JLHayes13 (Feb 21, 2009)

Wow. This morning I walk in on my Leuc (who had been having some problems but is doing fine for past couple weeks) is doing this same thing. I have had him and two other darts for 1.5 years now and I have never seen this. So naturally I freak out because he doesn't look to be having fun at all. Of course I rush to Dendroboard and this is the first thread in the Disease and Treatment section. It is such a relief that this is normal; it certainly doesn't look normal the first time you see it. 

Thanks,
Joe


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## elmoisfive (Dec 31, 2004)

This is perhaps one of the more interesting dart frog behaviors. In the wild, this has the benefit that toxins present in the shed skin can be 'recycled' so to speak back to the animal as opposed to being lost.

Bill


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## nish07 (Mar 16, 2008)

Here's one of my leucomelas shedding.






-Nish


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## heatfreakk3 (Oct 15, 2008)

Thanks everyone, yes it is very interesting and also scary the first time you see a dart shed. My citronella is the only dart of mine i have actualy seen shed and the only time. Cool video also


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