Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi All

Before I begin I just wanted to say thank you Rick and Diane for your help previously and to Diane as per my previous thread, here in the UK they class silkworms as waxworms so I will have to look into that a little more. And what I now think is a 'He' is doing fine with zophobas but not so well with the crickets still. I am still working on the food thing.

Now for my sad 'tail' :-{ He {Rocky} has been acting very strange lately. I have a carpet like subtrate base in the enclosure under some spaghnum moss and the humidity is never below 60% and he has started hiding under the moss. The reason I am saying this is because 1} hopefully you are going to tell me this is normal; and 2} what I am about to tell you may have something to do with this.

I have 2 children 7 & 10 and they love Rocky and so very gentle with him and he loves them too. He has gotten very adventurous in the past few months and moves like the wind, jumping onto things that aren't even there lol {unlike hunters dragon who never seems to miss hehe} I don't know if I mentioned in my previous threads that when we bought him there were several kinks in his tail where the pet shop owners had grabbed him by the tail to prevent him from escaping {something we have NEVER done}, yet a few days ago my daughter went to spray his enclosure and came running to me in tears with Rocky in hand. She just laid him on my chest and pointed at him unable to speak! It took a few seconds for me to see what she was referring to and then I almost fainted {I am not kidding} half of his tail had come off!!!! The rest of it was still in the cage!!! Now this cannot be normal... this is one thing I have never read about before! We have never mistreated him or taken him out of his enclosure if he struggled. We do have to chase him sometimes if he runs towards the wiring behind the tv etc but other than that he really is a free spirit. He even gets along with the cat and has free rides on the dogs head/back! hehe I have spoken to someone who owns an iguana about this and she told me that they drop their tail sometimes when stressed/very afraid as a defense mechanism but I really don't know how he could feel this way when nothing at home here has changed. Could you please advise me on this and will the tail grow back? I feel like a terrible person for letting it happen even though I don't know the cause, a tremendous amount of guilt is consuming me over this!

These were taken before the incident {except the one of him inside his enclosure}.

Image

ok so I added some more pics to the album ~ there are now a mixture of pics before and after the incident. When I get a decent digital camera and not have to use my phone to take pics I will post some nice ones :-} He really is a beautiful funny little thing and these pics don't capture the best of him :-{ I have seen some really amazing pics of WD in this forum!

Losing a tail is definitely traumatic (probably more so to the owner than the dragon). it will grow back, somewhat,slowly but dark and never the same. odds are he got it caught on something in the cage. Clean the nub with peroxide and apply neosporin if it is an open wound until it heals over and the risk of infection becomes less. Poor Rocky! Hiding is usually a stress sign. Even when they are friendly and acclimated to your household, the slightest new perceived "threat" will create a return to more secure habits. Hiding in the water and hiding anywhere available. Drago is presently spending 3/4 of her time in her heated pool and the other 1/4 draped over a plastic "rock" formation in her viv. Every 3 days she is perched on her grapevine in the front of the viv waiting to be handfed 8-10 superworms and then she returns to her pool. what crazy behavior! Good luck with Rocky!
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dianedfisher@yahoo.com

My 3 CWD-Avanyu, Tripod and Drago

Thank You Diane for the advice on cleaning the wound :-} Luckily it seems to have healed completely and quickly too! The other day I found a huge and I mean HUGE beetle in his cage. I don't know where it came from and I don't really want to either, but I thought maybe the beetle could have bitten the tail off? I am not kidding as to the size of this thing, it's body was wider and longer than Rocky's! Anyway just a thought :-}

Thanks again for the advice!

LOL-probably a superworm beetle. Avanyu LOVES them. You can hear him crunching on them from yards away. The superworms dig into the moist substrate and become a big, off-white encased pupae and then this big beetle emerges. No, I'm afraid the beetle didn't get Rocky's tail-but I am glad to hear that it has healed. These critters are REMARKABLE healers once you get them on the right path. You just have to watch them carefully, because they're also experts at masking their illnesses until it's almost too late to help them. DM
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dianedfisher@yahoo.com

My 3 CWD-Avanyu, Tripod and Drago

Yes, my Charlie also lost a good portion of his tail when I first got him. Wow, I look at all the photos of WD's with intact tails. He was probably only three months or so, when he lost 3 inches!! Now, he is over two, but about 20" total length, due to the missing tail portion. Awwww, I was very sad indeed!