Craziest thing I've seen

[goReptiles]

So I was fixing my heat tape, and when putting electrical tape on the end, the 4 crested geckos in the tub ontop of the leopard gecko rack went crazy.

I finished taping it, and all of a sudden they started going crazy running around and jumping all over the place. I stood up completely to check out the madness, and one gecko had dropped her tail and was running around. Then another gecko with a tail was right at me, next thing you know she's on the other side, but her tail was in the middle of the tub. The third gecko, whoc I've had for about 3-4 years or so (One of my frist cresteds) dropped her tail.

There was one gecko in the lay box, and was going crazy in the lay box, but I'm not sure if she was in the lay box first or jumped in there.

The 4th gecko lost her tail years ago, and was only freaking out for a minute. Then, she went to the top and was looking down at the other three like,
'what the crap is your problem.'

Has anyone ever seen this happen? The heat tape wasn't plugged in so no shock, but then they're on the top of the rack so there's not heat to them. I don't think I bumped the tub, as I was bent over messing with the top level of the rack where I was finishing off the heat tape.

Anyway, after they had all dropped their tails, they continued to run and jump around. They've finally calmed down, but periodically one will jump around for a few sections.

 

[spritzer]

Whitney, I had a similar thing happen to me with one cage of cresteds a couple of months ago. I have about 80 adults and keep them mostly in groups of 1.2 or 3-4 females per cage depending on size. Anyway, this one group of females is always jumpy and I opened the cage to remove old food and two of them went screaming around the enclosure (screen). It was like someone stuck them with a hot poker or something that would trigger an insane response. These two dropped their tails right then and there.

In general I've had a couple of jumpy cresteds that are always nutty no matter what and eventually they go on a tear and drop the tails. One was a perfect chocolate pin female.

Spritzer

 

[Kristi23]

That's really strange. I can't understand what made them that way. I hope they'll all stay calm now.

 

[goReptiles]

They're normally not jumpy, and are typically pretty calm. I didn't even touch the cage. It was very odd. I've had two of them for about 3 or 4 years or so and the other two for about 2 years.

 

[Kilikina]

that's so odd! my crestie doesn't have his tail, but that's because a chameleon bit it off while he was at the pet store he's much better now. but i've never heard of anything like that happening! i wonder what could make them all drop their tails at once like that? bizzare!