Reptile & Amphibian Forums

when im not looking? of course i get off of work around 6 today, check my voicemail to find out my mother had spotted a newly hatched henkeli. luckily, i gave her the drill before and she knows what to do with my hatchlings. i just kinda worry about this one, because im guessing it hatched in the wee hours of the morning and wasnt discovered until this afternoon sometime, so theres the possibility it may have ingested some perlite. on the (somewhat) bright side, it hadnt started its shed yet so by the time i got home i was able to rid the few stubborn pieces of perlite from its first shed. this one yet again looks exactly like 2 of the other hatchlings i have.

aside from that, on a sadder note, my light-colored satanic hatchling from about 2 months ago dropped its tail. the positive side is its still in good shape, but i really wish i could figure out what the heck caused 3 of my leaftails to drop their tails within a few months of each other. ive noticed that during feeding sometimes the young ones get sight of another's tail, but never saw anyone lunge for another. so im guessing a cagemate was the culprit, might have to start housing each satanic hatchling separately, even though im sure its gonna be a pain.
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-Mike Martin
North Carolina

have you ever had a healthy satanic lose its tail while it was being housed by itself. i know that when i had the two adult male henkels together they would leave bite marks on eachothers tails all the time. also, i know the henkels sometimes rattle ther tail(like a leopard gecko) right before they grab a prey item to distract the insect.do satanics do that to. i can see another gecko going for the others tail in that situation. uright man, good luck with that new baby

yea, ive seen some tail shaking with the henkeli, but really not all that much. more so with signaling to one another. as for satanics, i see a lot more tail activity with them. never lost a tail with a singly housed gecko, and it was only recently that any of my geckos ever dropped a tail. but as i previously stated, these young ones tend to do a lot better than i previously thought they would when they drop a tail.
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-Mike Martin
North Carolina

well mike, congrats on yet another henk hatchling.
sorry to hear about the satanic dropping it's tail. were there any bite evidence markings on the tail?
i don't see why else it would drop it's tail if it was healthy and hydrated.
good luck with it and let us know how it does.

i always keep my hatchlings housed seperatlety, ive noticed that when housed together the growth doesnt seem as rapid,and their is always a chance of aggression. just my opinion on what ive noticed about my geckos.