Reptile & Amphibian Forums

LEEWAY CORUCIA RESEARCH CENTER (LCRC)

Hello,

We have two young fimbriatus that have each lost their tail. Being the tail is specialized and prehensile, will it grow back?

Thank you for any info,

Sincerely,
Brian
LCRC

It will grow back, but it won't be nearly as impressive as the original... It will be without significant "fringes" (ie smoother edges) and smaller in overall size...
-----
Ben

LEEWAY CORUCIA RESEARCH CENTER (LCRC)

Thank You Sir!

I am at a loss however to explain how two tails were lost in 12 hours without being grabbed or having the tails caught on something. They are broken in the same spot at the narrowest point of the tail stem.

Sincerely,
Brian
LCRC

I have very close ties with an instiution with over 70 specimens of 7 Uroplatus spp... They've had mysterious tail drops also, and not to scare you, they have found a couple of these individuals dead within the next few days...

Although there is no true evidence that the tail drops caused death, professional necropsies didn't turn up any better answers... When a tail drops, I find it in the best interest of the gecko to get assisted feedings for a while...

Are your geckos kept in the same cage?... Could they both be juvi males?... Possibly a scuffle was the cause?... Someone out there may have some better answers, but I'm afraid more research is needed to fully understand why this may happen... I'll do some corrisponding and try and dig for a better explaination...
-----
Ben

well, i posted awhile ago about a male uroplatus lineatus that i had for a few days, it's tail withered, dropped without being touched by anything, started convulsing then died.
about two days later, another male lineatus i had, it's tail started withering and just overall became very sick looking. i sprayed it non-stop for 5 minutes about 5-6 times that day watching it drink every time and within 8 hours it looked perfectly healthy.
conclusion: even if you think you're watering them enough, the humidity, temp., substrate and everything are perfect. WATER THEM MORE.
before i lost the one and noticed declined health in the other i was spraying quite well 2-3 times a day and keeping the substrate moist. apparently that wasn't quite enough.

.

I will also add;
As long as you are cricket dusting very regularly, this may be overkill... However, because regenerating a tail is very energetically costly, I would assist feed your juvi fims with a chicken babyfood/nutrient/pedialyte mixture... if you need to know how to do that I can explain in greater detail...
-----
Ben

LEEWAY CORUCIA RESEARCH CENTER (LCRC)

Hey Ben,

Thanks again,

Yes, I would be interested in what proportions and method (spoon, syringe, etc) you normally use.

Sincerely,
Brian
LCRC

Do you have a gram scale?... because if you do it will make my proportions make a lot more sense... and make the mixture a lot easier to mix...
I have gotten to the point where I just mix them up without measuring, so I could just give you an explanation based on useful measurements you can picture or do yourself without a gram scale...
-----
Ben

i haven't worked with fimbriatus, but my lineatus that i got wild caught 2 of the 3 had regrown tails. like someone else said, it won't be as attractive as the other, but with lineatus it is almost the same size as the original.
lineatus have a _/_ shape at the end of the tail with a checkered darker and lighter pattern. when regrown it is a / pattern without the checkers and is an over all translucent color.

/