Broken tail

[mascutt]

Oddly enough I just posted a few days ago about one of my geckos jumping out of my hand, and was concerned his tail would break from the fall. It didn't. But I have been gone from the house for one hour and my female has torn her own tail off. Why would she do that?

Yesterday she had a shed, except for the first time ever she has not been able to get the skin off her tail. She's been picking at it. When I try to help her with it, she snaps at me. So I've been doing the sauna thing. Soaking her and just trying to rub it off gently. I did that at 11:00 this morning. Now she has removed it. I assumed she was picking at the skin on her tail, but obviously she was biting at the tail itself? Could a bad shed in which the skin does not come off the tail cause her to just drop it?

No incident has happened with her - although she is the one who dropped her tail last summer too for no apparent reason I could ever figure out. Since then I've videoed them at night even to make sure there is no fighting.... and there's never nothing.

My other two geckos had their sheds this week too (all on the same schedule) and have had no problems? Are some geckos just higher strung than others?

This is sooooo frustrating. I spend such great pains to take excellent care of them... temp, environment, humidity, diet, etc... and this same gecko keeps dropping her tail... (( Makes me feel like a bad gecko-parent

 

[Dog Shrink]

Sorry to hear your girl keeps dropping her tail. What morph is she? Yes some can be more high strung or stress out more easily than others. Maybe she dropped it simply as a primitive instinct to something grabbing her tail despite the fact that it was HER grabbing her tail. I really don't know... it truly is odd.

 

[fuzzylogix]

i immediately thought enigma when i saw this. do you notice her biting her tail when there is food in her enclosure? if she's having problems with shedding i would make sure that your moist hide is misted every other day or so to help her with the issue. if some shed keeps getting stuck on her tail, it could be irritating her thus causing the biting. is she in an enclosure with other geckos? if so i would recommend removing her and keeping her seperate to see if that fixes the issue. could be another gecko biting her or her just being stressed.

 

[Dog Shrink]

I thought enigma too Shawn but I figured it better to ask rather than assume.

 

[mascutt]

Thanks for all the input. I'm gonna try and answer all the questions.

As far as morph, I got her at Petco a year ago, and when I posted pictures of her here (Lola) asking what kind she was, everyone told me "Normal." She is in an enclosure with other tank mates, but there is no biting. I have it set up with a video camera because the last time this happened that's what people told me (Just cuz you can't see it doesn't mean it's not happening). So I video all the time. I've checked the vids for the last couple days and nothing. No altercation.

As far as shedding goes, she doesn't have problems normally. This was the first time this happened and it's not just that she had some skin left on her tail like how sometimes flecks will be left on the head. The entire tail was still encased in the old skin. You know how they get a grip and pull, and it generally pulls all the way to the bottom of the tail before breaking off? For her it only pulled the length of her back, breaking off right at the base of her tail, which is an impossible place for her to begin trying to get a grip again. But she's been biting at it constantly. I tried to use the saunas and cotton swab to try and get it started again so she could get ahold of it.

But the base is also where her tail broke off. Last time she dropped it she only dropped it at the half-way point. This is why I'm thinking it had to have something to do with this shed gone wrong. The old skin broke off at the base of her tail, and now that's where her tail broke altogether.

Makes sense about dropping it as a reaction to biting, even though she's the one doing the biting?

And to answer the question about biting while she has food. No, whether there's food or the dish happens to be empty, she never just bites at her tail. This is the first time - but it is making me that perhaps it also might have something to do with the time she dropped it last summer

 

[Dog Shrink]

When it comes to primitive instincts such as what causes them to drop a tail, with a sketchy leo even doing it herself could possibly cause her to drop. It's an instinct not always a choice. Also if she is a shy sketchy lizard just the living with another gecko even with out biting or bullying could be constantly keeping her on edge at an elevated state of anxiety so the slightest stress will have double the effect it would on another leo of calmer temperament. I honestly think she should behoused alone given her temperament and nervous personality. After all leos are solitary creatures and don't crave communal living.

 

[Jordan]

Im curious as to how you know no fighting is occurring.
Is there a video camera in every hide? and from every angle.

What i find is, when leopard gecko's are housed together, the fighting occurs most commonly in the hides.
Ive found that within the hides the gecko's will end up walking on each other or into each other and getting in each others way, and this normally sets the fight off. Sort of 'the last straw' for a stressed gecko who doesnt want a cage mate. So when said cage mate walks in to the same hide making it cramped and maybe trodding on you, this is when the fighting occurs. And so you may not have seen then fighting.