Female eats males tail

[arcasey]

Okay so we have had these geckos that we bought about a year ago. One male and One female. I have done so much research and talked to many people about it and was leary on having them together, as i know u should have more females than males. BUT the previous owner had them together since birth and they had been great cage mates. So we separated them at first and they seemed very lonely and bored, almost "depressed" like. so we put them back together and they both perked up. They were great together for the year we've had them. One day we watched the female bite the males tail off and then eat it. We immediately set up a hospital tank for him and tried to nurture him back to health. None of the vets in our area deal much with reptiles and didn't know much about their care. Mind you, they were both in Great health before the incident. He seemed to be healing well and acted pretty normal. Three weeks later, we found him dead. Was wondering if the tail loss was what killed him, why SHE did it?, and if anyone else has experienced anything like this?

 

[arcasey]

they are, by the way, leopard geckos.

 

[Dog Shrink]

First let me offer condolences on the loss of your leo. Second the stress and shock from losing his tail could possibly have caused the death. How was he acting up until his death? was he eating normally? Pooing normally? was he depressed, not moving around alot? How were his tank temps? What is the hospital set up like? How were you treating the tail injury? when the tail was broken off did it break close to the body or a little further down the tail? How old was the male (I know at least a year but was he older)?

Sorry I have more questions at this point than answers, but I know that having some of this info will help some of the more experienced keepers on the forum to answer your query.

 

[arcasey]

Thank you. for my kids' sake, we had a nice little burial for him. he was 2.5 years old. up until his death he didn't eat quite as much but was still eating normally. we tried to feed him a little extra, since he no longer had a tail, but he wouldn't eat as much. she bit his tail just about at his boy parts. very close to the body. his hospital tank was almost an exact replica of the original tank. he pooped normally and he has always been a bit lazier and less active (compared to the female) but yeah he was doing a bit more lounging. his tank temp was roughly 85. for his tail we were putting neosporin on it. It appeared to be healing quite well. and there were no signs of infection. also, his skin was shedding a Lot more. and i dont think it coulda been impaction cuz we only for one week used sand and then we bought the tank carpet, like outdoor carpet or whatever it is. and the sand was used when we first got them, so i doubt that. anyhow, and why would she have done that to him after all this time together? i know they are "wild animals" but maybe he was trying to breed with her?

 

[Dog Shrink]

His temp was too low. Leos need a hot side temp range between 90-93 degrees F for optimum health. You should have a probe thermometer on the floor of the hot side directly above your heat mat to make certain your temps are accurate. If she damaged his boy parts in the removal of his tail there could have been internal damage that was never noticed but enough to cause him problems. You said you had seperated them for a bit then put them back together. Maybe the lack of activity you were seeing wasn't depression but relief as being together and being opposite gender may have been causing them stress. Being apart maybe they were finally able to relax. Leos are solitary animals and only come together for breeding in the wild. It is not a natural thing for males and females to colony together that I'm aware of. She could have been coming into or out of a shed which makes a lot of leos irritable, she could have been ovulating and he could have been prematurely trying to breed with her causing her more aggravation. There a million reasons why this could have happened, I'm no where near as experienced with leos as some of our more senior members so these things I'm trhowing out here are purely guesses from what reading I have done on the net and on the forum about leos. Again tho my condolences on the loss. It's never easy to deal with.

 

[arcasey]

Thank You for your responses. I have adjusted my temps so they increased 5 degrees up to 90.

 

[Quantumhigh]

Very sorry to hear about your leo. Yea I would say that it could of been a combination of the both shock and stress of a tail drop and low temps. 85f is kinda low for a warm side but that wouldnt kill him alone. You should notice her more active with temps at 90. I push around 95f with my racks. Some of my tanks tiles hit 100f but thats max.

 

[Jordan]

Wow im sorry to hear about it.
Im surprised she ate his tail. Must have been quite a mouthful.
Again im sorry to hear