Reptile & Amphibian Forums

There used to be so many posts on this forum and now there is hardly any. Anyway, I have a small chinese water dragon who has had tail problems since I got her. After she lost about half of her tail the preoblems stopped. A while ago the last inch of her tail turned black but nothing else has happened. Has this happened to anyone else? Thanks.

yeah. the problem with my green basilisk was skin that hadn't shed was cutting off circulation and makes it fall off. i took a little baby oil and rubbed the tail between my fingers and it came off in little pieces. no problems since. the very tip of it's tail turned black and came off and there were places in the tail where it was slightly narrower than others, it made this go away also.

Hey, well I am still here. As for your waterdragons tail I have seen spontaneous tail loss like it in adult animals that were kept in too small a cage. My guess is that they were not active enough to keep their blood circulating properly to the tail. If yours is a baby more then likely it is something else. Maybe a calcium deficientcy cause it to be damaged. Look for other signs of a calcium imbalance like shaky movements rubbery fingers, or jaw,or bloating and stiff limbs.

Dragon tails can be broken off if a dragon turns around suddenly and hits his tail on the glass. This is another reason why they need lots of space to move around.
-----

I was wondering if it is possible for her to be missing some type of chemical to make her tail shed. I know that it is a shedding problem that caused her to loose the end of her tail. Anytime she sheds the skin just won't come off and each time she sheds it gets harder to get it off. I have tried shed sprays and baby oil. The humidity is about 50 and she always sits on the waterfall. She is shedding now but the scales (only on her tail) are coming off one by one instead of in pieces.

try the baby oil again. and do this....
for about fifteen minutes just dab your fingers in the baby oil and rub it into the tail. just keep rubbing it in and make sure the tail absorbs it. the next day do the same. then keep the dragon in some water for a few minutes. oil it again and this time when you oil it " roll" the tail between your fingers ( carefully, obviously you don't want to scare the guy and make him break it off) and look at your fingers. this is what i did for mine like i said before and it still wouldn't come off all in one piece, but it all in fact did come off but in little pieces that were all stuck to my fingers. also like i said before, there were little rings around my basilisk's tail where the skin was cutting off circulation and the diameter of the tail was smaller in these areas, it made these go away and free up blood flow to the tail within the day. i'd say it's worth a shot if you haven't already tried using baby oil in this way. good luck.