I was discussing the two leopard geckos I have with someone today, and I explained that one of the girls had lost her tail and been attacked by a cat and was done with all her antibiotics, and on the road to recovery.

He stated to me that he does not want anything that has lost its tail because it shortens their lifespan


Did I miss this day in school, because I have never heard of this, but maybe I was asleep on the job that day, lol

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I have sucker tattood on my forehead

A gecko that has lost its tail(especiall thick tailed geckos like a leopard) has lost a significant fat reserve and will be more vulnerable to stress, so it is possible. A does come at a bit of a cost to regenerate a tail, but I would not stress. Once is fine, nothing to worry about.

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the tail that is growing back is extremely fat, so than it is true? it will shorten the life span of her? He also stated that it is any reptile that loses its tail??? Shortened overall life span because of tail loss?

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I have sucker tattood on my forehead

well not as straight forward as just shortening life span...growth will stop or slow down during regeneration and other things could fall in place, alot of internal work and stress on an animals health takes place when regening a tail. In the wild it is another story, a whole lot of things could be affected...also not as simple as life span shortening but other things that could end its life. Infection could get in, speed and balance are affected, more vulnerable to predators, saftey mechanisim(ie. tail autotomy) is not present, some species camoflauge is affected, prehensile tails lost make it harder to move around trees, some geckos use tails for sticking to walls, iguanas use them to swim ect ect. this list goes on and on...could keep thinking of more but I think point is put across...but we are talking about captives here.

But yeah I reckon it is safe to say that life span may be affected...just as reptiles that have reproduced have shorter life spans than ones that have never. The process of losing and regaining body mass etc. has a toll on it's life span. As to how much exactly...it is not known yet

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but then again I could be wrong...logically it just makes sense to me...a question I have asked myself before, i just looked at it in a scientific manner and came up with that conclusion. Some species tho, specimens with full tails are rare so it is a natural thing...don't worry over it

Any other people had any experience with tail loss and life span?

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hmmm interesting, thanks Devon! I will have to do more research into this as I think it may prove interesting.

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I have sucker tattood on my forehead

never seen any work on it.....will go through some journals and ask around too...haha has ignited another thing to look into..... we are forever learning! herpetology rocks! we know a fraction of what happens in these creatures lives...keeps me going at least

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I had never heard that before either...I guess it makes sense in the wild, for sure, as you said, but I'll be interested to in what the findings are!

-Anna

I have never heard anything like that either. To me it doesn't make much sense!
Granted losing that much fat reserve would be a stressful occurance, but these animals are designed to do just that!
Maybe if the tail is repeatedly lost it might have an effect on their lifespan just like too much breeding. I wouldn't think that a single loss would have any effect.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

yeah that is why I said it is not as simple as just losing life span if a tail is lost... animals health, body mass and age will make a huge difference but I really can't see how the strain of regenerating tail will not have an effect on something. In the wild animals generally live shorter life spans then that in captivity (not in all cases I know), the leopard gecko is definitely one of those. I really don't think it is something anyone should really worry about if their gecko drops a tail once...if it does have an effect it probably won't be noticeable. One thing that is a fact is that the regeneration is a strain on the animal, therefore there has to be some effect on the animal...the same as we see with other "natural design" features of herps. As I said before, we know an animal that has never layed eggs will live longer than one that has. An animal that has been power fed will live shorter than one that has not. These things are all natural occurring things but shorten life spans. Even though their tail is designed to fall off it does not mean it has no effect on their well being..it saves their life if used as it was designed. A shortened life span may be a price to pay for avoiding death.

These are all just my thought tho...don't take any of this as gospel! I am just brainstorming and writing my thoughts on the subject. this theory is making sense to me...but I would love to have someone scientifically prove me wrong...that means we have learned something, th goal of discussions like this

Research will have to be done. A group of geckos absolutely healthy, same age and gender and not morphs would have to be studied. Kept in the exact same environment and half have tails removed. We could then safely assume if it has any effect once they have all died of old age.

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