Mystery Gecko Tail Loss

[Reptiles101]

I was in the process of cleaning all my gecko tubs out, and I checked on my female Pilb and noticed her tail was missing. I've never had a gecko lose a tail ever in my collection. It's a bit of a mystery to me as I can't work out how or why she's lost her tail. I can't even find it in the enclosure anywhere.

 

[PythonLegs]

She kept on her own?

 

[Reptiles101]

She's housed with a little male, what I can't work out is that she had a tail this morning, and I checked an hour later and she's lost it, Also they were in different sides of the enclosure.​

 

[BigDaddyO]

I wouldn't rule out animal stupidity. Possibly she or the younger male mistook her tail for a tasty morsel and ate it once it fell off.
Probably a fairly rare occurrence but I've heard of cases in Leopard geckos doing it to themselves. It would explain why you can't find it and why she dropped it as it is an involuntary response to being bitten. You might find remain in feces if it's not fully digested which would confirm.

 

[Reptiles101]

That was my first theory but I thought that sounded a bit strange didn't think knob-tailed geckos would eat their tails, but that must've been the case. Thanks for your input [MENTION=35454]BigDaddyO[/MENTION]

 

[Thyla]

My adult smooth knob-tailed gecko (N. l. levis) had his tail eaten by either him or the female he was housed with. And one of my sub-adults had his tail eaten by either himself or a clutchmate he was housed with.
Now I keep them separate from a very young age and male/females are only introduced for short periods of time.

Wait for the huge poo to come out in the next few days. This will be evidence to learn towards it being eaten.

A couple of options. The other animal either pounces on it because its wriggling like a little animal and they're food impulse kicks in and takes a bite out of it. If this happens the animal may drop it in self-defense mode.
Other option is they could be more hungry than normal and see it as a massive nutrient boost, which it would be.

I would recommend separating her for between 1-2 years and give her plenty of food and hope she regenerates it before attempting to breed her again.
Good luck.

 

[jedi_339]

She'll recover well @Reptiles101 so long as you keep the food, water and heat to her. As for breeding I wouldn't worry about that for a while. If you don't keep her correctly without her fat stores in her tail and the added pressures of breeding you may lose her