Geckos dropping tails.

[NickGeee]

I have never had a gecko drop a tail while in my care and wanted to ask afew questions..
How much pressure or stress would you have to put on a gecko for it to drop it's tail?

It sounds like a stupid question but I'm just wondering.

 

[spud_meister]

If you pick it up by the tail, it will drop it. If it's running across the ground and you're chasing it, it'll drop it.

Come to think of it, I wasn't very nice to wild geckos when I was a kid, but the dropped tails made fantastic fishing bait.

 

[NickGeee]

Thanks.

 

[Paintbrushturkey]

If you pick it up by the tail, it will drop it. If it's running across the ground and you're chasing it, it'll drop it.

Come to think of it, I wasn't very nice to wild geckos when I was a kid, but the dropped tails made fantastic fishing bait.

see i was / am still not very nice to geckos (beause let's face it they don't want to be handled, but you have to sometimes..), but i have nigh never had one drop a tail (there are exceptions ie when i mistimed my grabs)... you need to apply physical force for them to drop it, they can break their tailbones at will, but they win't if you aren't touching their tails (no point dropping bits of your anatomy when a predator has you by another bit ;-). I found that picking them up (gently by the upper torso or head works very well in avoiding dropped tails

 

[Thyla]

Tail autotomy (voluntary detaching of one's tail) will occur when the gecko thinks he/she is being predated and wants to create a distraction and make an escape. There is no certain level of force that causes a drop, more a judgement call by the gecko if it thinks its in enough danger to warrant giving up its tail.

It's a very successful strategy they use to survive but it does take a toll on the gecko. Remember that the majority of a geckos fat reserves are stored in their tail so losing it would be costly and take a lot of energy and time to regrow (sometimes many years). On a side note, some geckos will run faster without a tail and some that use their tail like a rudder will be slower to escape because they don't have that counter weight to balance their movements.

 

[jordo]

If you pick it up by the tail, it will drop it. If it's running across the ground and you're chasing it, it'll drop it.

Come to think of it, I wasn't very nice to wild geckos when I was a kid, but the dropped tails made fantastic fishing bait.

They wont drop it if you're chasing them and there are many 'drop-tail' species that you can pick up by the tail and they wont shed them. Some captive geckos, eg: levis wont drop the tail if they're a well handled captive, also many larger skinks, and pygopods can be picked up by the tail. Even wild Pygopus and Lialis are very unlikely to drop the tail if picked up by the tail (they wont shed it unless they start thrashing).

The physical breaking of the tail is more a result of the tail being restrained when the lizard is trying to escape, as mentioned above in most cases if the lizard is still it wont shed it's tail even if you have it by the tail. But the second they realise or start to try and escape they will break it.

 

[LaDeDah]

Stupid question, but does the gecko feel pain when dropping a tail?

 

[Thyla]

Stupid question, but does the gecko feel pain when dropping a tail?

Good question. I don't know how you would measure pain on a reptile but if you consider that the gecko voluntarily detaches the tail using specialized muscles at the base of the tail (for those with true tail autotomy) which contract and sever the tail, I would say it doesn't hurt the animal. For those geckos that lose part of the tail involuntarily (by being bitten by a predator for example) then I would assume it would hurt.

 

[Paintbrushturkey]

Tail autotomy (voluntary detaching of one's tail) will occur when the gecko thinks he/she is being predated and wants to create a distraction and make an escape. There is no certain level of force that causes a drop, more a judgement call by the gecko if it thinks its in enough danger to warrant giving up its tail.

The vast majority of lizards are incapable of true autotomy, exeptions are legless lizards and some others (which i can't rememeber) all of which are capable of true autotomy, as such they are capable of fracturing the vertebrae of their own tail, however they are unable to shear the skin, vasculature and connecetive tissues. Thus a certain amount of force needs to be applied to the tail in order for autotomy to occur.
given that there is nervous tissue present in the tail I imagine tail autotomy is as painfull as havign it amputated by other means

 

[Thyla]

The vast majority of lizards are incapable of true autotomy, exeptions are legless lizards and some others

I'm pretty sure that most geckos are capable of true tail autotomy, and there are thousands of gecko species in the world however one only needs to count the number of pages that skinks takes up in an Australian field guide to realise that they count for a vast majority of total lizards. This thread is about geckos dropping their tails and I would say 9/10 do so with true autotomy.

 

[Paintbrushturkey]

I'm pretty sure that most geckos are capable of true tail autotomy, and there are thousands of gecko species in the world however one only needs to count the number of pages that skinks takes up in an Australian field guide to realise that they count for a vast majority of total lizards. This thread is about geckos dropping their tails and I would say 9/10 do so with true autotomy.

As i was saying this has not been my experience, perhaps i have merely been lucky ;-). I think the issue may lie in the definition of "true" tail autotomy. Which personally i define as the loss of the tail without the application of physical force to said tail. This is, to the best of my knowledge not the case. That said they can facilitate easy breakage of their tails which is a form of autotomy, but they will not drop them when startled or restrained by their head or chest...

 

[spud_meister]

They wont drop it if you're chasing them and there are many 'drop-tail' species that you can pick up by the tail and they wont shed them. Some captive geckos, eg: levis wont drop the tail if they're a well handled captive

Well, my experience is mostly with Marbled Geckos I caught when I was a kid, and they'd drop their tales any time they felt they were gonna be eaten.

 

[jordo]

Well, my experience is mostly with Marbled Geckos I caught when I was a kid, and they'd drop their tales any time they felt they were gonna be eaten.

Did they ever drop their tails before you actually touched them? I doubt it.