Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I purchased a baby male beardie 2 years ago. He's a Super Orange X Sandfire dragon and had what looked like a nipped tail when I bought him. This year, I bred him with two of my females for the first time and now I am noticing something strange with the babies as they grow. About 80% of them look like the tips of their tails are withering up (it doesn't look like tail nipping nor have any of the babies exhibited any nipping behavior). The worst ones have slowly lost over 1/3rd of their tails! I have been treating them with neosporin, but I can't help but wonder if this is possibly a genetic problem? Has anyone ever heard of this before?

I have been breeding dragons for several years and have never had this problem before.
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1.4.0 Bearded Dragons (Frodo, Red Sonya, Galadriel, Arwen, Lakis)
1.1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleons (Fred and Wilma)
1.1.0 Peacock Day Gecko
0.1.0 Gold Dust Day Gecko
0.1.0 Columbian Red-Tail Boa (Bilbo)
0.1.0 Ball Python (Daisy)
0.1.0 California King Snake (Cali)
2.1.0 Honduran Milk Snakes
0.0.3 Fire Belly Toads
0.1.0 Fat Cat (Mollie)
1.0.0 Mini Pinscher x Chihuahua (Pepper)

never heard of genetic problems with the tail like this (heard of kinked tails etc but not rotting off). Have you checked to make sure there is no unshed skin on the tail tips? THis can constrict over the tail and prevent blood flow, thus causing the tail tips to die off.

I suggest taking a few to a vet and get them to do a bacteria/virual culture on the tails, see what is affecting them or may be the cause. It may be some sort of flesh eating bacteria that has infected the entire brood, or it may be genetic, or unshed skin. Only real way to know about genetics, is to see if all this dragon's clutches exhibit the same symptoms.
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PHLdyPayne

Thank you for the reply. I don't think it's being caused by unshed skin because it starts happening before their first shed. I am going to take your advice and bring a couple of them to the vet to get tested. I'll post an update as I know more. Thank you.