Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ive noticed that alot of leos have kinked tails. One that I bought from a breeder, who I will not name, has a kink at the tip of her tail, even though in the picture on the breeders website and in the description there was nothing about a kink. Ive also noticed that they offer a few kinked tailed geckos for sale every year... Another one that I just adopted has a kinked tail as well. Then Ive also noticed on a few other breeder sites that there are geckos here and there with small kinks. Ive also noticed a few in petstores with kinks, plus in pictures on the internet. I was wondering if anyone else has noticed how common the kinked tails have become and what people think about it, for example: do you think its a genetic defect, incubation related, the result of injury, etc.
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Leopard Geckos 1.7.6
1.0 Blazing blizzard
0.1 Tremper albino
0.1 Tremper 66% het bliz
0.3 Normal 66% het blazing bliz
0.1 Giant het Tremper
0.1 Carrothead Tangerine Giant Tremper ?% het RAPTOR
0.0.3 Blizzard
0.0.3 Normal
Bull Frog 1.0

I'm pretty sure they are from bad sheds. One of my leo's has one but I don't pay much attention to it.

I've always heard that too much inbreeding was the biggest cause of tail kinks and that leos with them should not be breed. I also saw a breeder talk about how she had several of her leos with normal looking tails x-rayed and found even the normal looking tails had kinks in them. All of them had kinks that you could only see on a x-ray.
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www.StoplightCityLeopardGeckos.com

I think there is many reasons why a tail can kink. One of my breeders has a kink and it is from her bad shed. Sometimes the shed will stay on the end of the tail and the skin under that can not grow normally. It can also be from incubation...jumping the temps high to low and so forth. I'm sure it can happen during mating too.

Yeah, I have noticed that on some of mine. I don't think in my case they are from bad sheds because I check them everyday to make sure there is no shed skin stuck on any toes or anything (just got a bit from a nose today). The kinks in my geckos' tails seem to be pretty natural-looking so I usually never paid any attention. I hope it isn't some strange undesirable genetic trait!
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-Kristin

0.1.2 Leopard Geckos
(Monet, Kumquat, and Tamale)

There are many reasons why a gecko may have a kinked tail.

The most common reason is genetic, and they will hatch with the kink in the tail. Certain morphs are infamous for their kinked tails...patternless being the biggest one. With careful breeding and outcrossing, the kinks are slowly being eliminated from the patternless morph.

Next would be a calcium problem. The gecko won't have a kink when hatching, but later on can develop a kink if it's not getting enough calcium.

Injury can cause a kink. This is a little more unusual, as most injuries bad enough to break the tail bones would cause the tail to drop in that area. Unlike the first two causes, the area of the break is flexible and can increase and decrease in severity with movement of the tail.

It's possible that stuck shed could do it (never seen it myself)...but it would take many problem sheds in that area to alter the growth of the tail enough for it to kink.

The main problem is, it's pretty much impossible to tell what caused the kink unless you see it as a hatchling and know its full health history.
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Official Leopard Gecko Herder

6:12:2 Leos Gilean, Aurora, Tigerlily ...Getting to have too many to name here!
2:0 Cats - Troi and Mitsu (shhhhh...don't tell them they're neutered!)
1:0 Husband - Eric (He's a lot of work, but it's worth it.)