If you have a crested gecko as a pet, and if it’s the first time you’re adopting a reptile, you are bound to have many questions. A common question many have is, “Do crested geckos grow their tails back?”.
It’s common for a reptile like a crested gecko to shed or drop its tail. There are a number of reasons for it dropping its tail. For example, it may be stressed due to its environment, lack of sleep, lack of nutrition, injury in its tail, etc. In the wild, your crested gecko also sheds to distract its predators.
Once a crested gecko has dropped its tail, it cannot regrow it. It may not hurt your crested gecko to drop its tail, but once it’s dropped, they have to get used to living without a tail.
Reasons Due To Which Your Geckos Can Drop Their Tails
Below are some of the key reasons why crested geckos can drop their tails.
Using It As A Defence Mechanism
Your crested gecko is surely loved by all its predators. When they are out in the wild, they have a very high chance of being hunted down by big animals who are preying upon them. One way by which your crested gecko might defend itself or try to escape from being hunted is by dropping their tails.
When your crested gecko has an idea that they are being hunted or they sense that someone is behind them chasing them, they immediately drop their tails at that spot and run away.
Geckos try to distract their predators as it’s natural their predators will try to find them where they have dropped their tails, and due to this, your crested geckos may get enough time to hide somewhere safe.
Due To Stress
It is very natural for your crested gecko to drop their tails when they are under stress. It’s their way of showing signs of discomfort or feeling threatened.
There is a phrase for geckos: any small thing happens to them, and they will shed their tail. Most of the time, your crested gecko is stressed because of something you have done.
Confused about what may cause stress in your dear gecko? These simple reasons might surprise you.
- Your crested gecko does not like to be held by you or handled by you for an extended amount of time. They get stressed and restless if you hold them or handle them inappropriately. They may get used to your handling later on, but initially, if you are holding them a lot, you may notice that it has dropped their tail.
- Another reason that your gecko might feel stressed is inappropriate temperature. Your crested gecko needs both high and low temperatures in their captivity.
- They may feel dehydrated if the temperature is not suitable. You may see them pacing a lot when they feel the temperature is not right and shed their tail while they are pacing against the walls of their captivity.
- Your crested gecko might feel stressed if they have not been able to sleep enough. Your geckos are nocturnal. They like to sleep for at least 10 hours a day. But if you wake them up to bond with them or hold them, they may shed their tails.
- Also, if your crested gecko is not getting proper food or nutrition, then also they may feel stressed and drop its tail.
Difficulty In Shedding
Your gecko sheds its old skin once a year or maybe twice a year if they don’t get rid of its old skin completely the first time. It may feel very stressed when it’s not able to shed any particular area, even after trying continuously. Crested gecko shedding frequency depends on many factors such as diet, age, and growth.
If in a case where the shed is stuck around the tail and your gecko is not able to get rid of it, it may try to drop its tail to remove the old skin stuck.
You may notice all the signs of your geckos being happy after this kind of activity, as they get too stressed and irritated if they don’t shed properly and completely remove their old skin.
Injury
Getting into an injury causes a lot of pain even to us. So, in the case of reptiles like crested geckos who are too fragile to even hold, injuries are very normal. You may tend to drop them while holding them in your palm, or they may try to jump for your palm to escape from you.
In all of this, they may end up getting hurt badly and drop their tail due to stress or pain felt.
Your gecko may get injured if it gets into a fight with another insect, animal, or reptile. And if the other one has injured your gecko’s tail, they may drop it to get rid of the pain and injury caused to them.
You can check out this video showing how a crested gecko dropped its tail.
Is It Painful For Your Crested Gecko To Shed Their Tail?
For your gecko dropping its tail is just like normal walking or eating, or doing all of the things it normally does every day.
You must be wondering how any creature existing on this planet can lose its body part and not feel the pain from it. The answer is pretty simple, i.e., because of how they have been made or their structure.
The place where your gecko’s tail is attached to your gecko’s body is known as a feature point. So just like in a perforated paper, you can see an outline and easily break it. Your gecko’s tail is exactly fixed like that, wherein a little effort is made, and easily breaks off.
So, you must be wondering if there will be no bleeding. You will see some spotting after your gecko has dropped its tail, but there will be no sign or place for heavy bleeding. From this fracture point, if your gecko loses its tail, all the blood vessels around this area constrict spontaneously.
Do Your Cresties Regrow Their Tails?
It is completely justified for you to think that if your crested gecko drops its tails so easily, then it may have the superpower or ability to regrow it. But no, your cresties can’t regrow their tails back. Once they have dropped their tails, then they have to adapt themselves or get used to living without their tails.
After you have noticed that your crested gecko has dropped its tail, you should give it some support while it’s climbing initially. You should also figure out the reason for it dropping its tail and try to fix it, as it may be under a lot of stress or pain.
The first thing that you should do after you notice that your gecko has dropped its tail is to transfer it to some other enclosure. You should leave your dear pet alone for around two weeks. By this, it will have its own personal time and can calm down.
You may think of taking it to a vet if the reason is very serious, like an injury or an extremely stressful situation.
Conclusion
Wrapping up, you are now aware of all the reasons for your gecko to shed its tail. If your gecko is under a lot of stress, shedding its tail can be an alarm to a chronic situation or a disease. So, you should definitely not wait before consulting a vet. You should look for any mark of injury around the area where your gecko’s tail was attached to its body, and if you find anything, you should take it to the vet as internally, it can be under a lot of pain.
Though your crested gecko cannot regrow its tail, it is definitely capable of living without it. Crested gecko’s bodily functions are not affected if they drop their tail. Though there might be some problems in balancing, you can definitely help them and train them.
You may not even see any bleeding after it has dropped its tail. So you don’t need to worry about the question, “Is my crested gecko under a lot of pain after dropping its tail?”
