Theres plenty of info out there on how to look after your leopard gecko, but if it drops its tail, many keepers are shocked, scared and dont know what to do.

Heres my tips on what to do in this situation

First, DONT panic.

Second, your leo is NOT in pain.

Third, Leos (and many other lizzards) are designed to do this, its what the body is made to do, so dont worry.

OK, so why would your leo drop its tail?

Well, its a natural defence system. When your leo gets scared or thinks its at risk, it will raise its tail and swing it side to side quite slowly. It does this to attract the attention of the hunter, who often mistakes the tail movements and thinks its the leos head.

When the hunter attacks, Mr leo (or Mrs) detatched part of the tail, drops it on the ground, and runs for dear life.

The dropped tail has a nerve reaction that makes it wriggle around, thus fooling the hunter into thinking its still alive and still a tasty meal.

So how does this affect the leo?

Short answer is that it dosnt present any instant problem to the leo. It will heal and that will be end of that.

Long answer is that there could be some problems as a result of dropping the tail.

The main problem is infection. The end of the tail is an open wound and so infection can get in. The other problem is that the tail is where leos store fat reserves, the loss of these reserves makes it all the more important to supply a good balanced diet.

The best way to deal with avoiding infection is to seperate you leo, place it in a smaller tub or viv and only use paper towel as substrate.

Change this daily or twice daily. Only feed when you are able to watch, crickets and mealies have a habbit of attacking open wounds.

Dont leave food in the tub until the wound is healed.

The tail will grow back, but wont look the same, why is this?

An original tail bone is made up in sections that can detatch. A regenerated tail can not reproduce these sections, and so the bone, from the pint of the detatchment is one long segment, which changes the overall structure and appearance of the tail.

It is possible for a leo to drop its tail more than once, but neve below the highest point of regeneration.

Heres a photo od a small albino who was kept alone yet still dropped its tail, I dont know what spooked it, but something did



and an end on view


and lastly the dropped tail


in this photo you can see the hollow structure of the tail



So, the general advice is dont panic, keep it nice and clean, and feed a good diet and your leo will survive.

As always, if the wound fails to heal, become smelly or discoloured, or if your leo fails to eat, consult a vet, you may need to get antibiotics.

Hope this helps calm you down and provide some instant advice should you ever suffer this problem.

Hello I have a female gecko I was given which has dropped her tail at some point.
Here is a pic of the re-grown tail. One pic compares against a normal tail.

Firstly very informative post PJ

If nothing has actually spooked the little hatchling s/he could of bitten itself during feeding.

Now for the above quote,
I would recommend ( if you haven't already done so ) removing the skin around your geckos toe's it can and will cut off circulation if left which result in toe loss. Which is another problem people get with leopard geckos and other reptiles.
Because the skin cuts the circulation off it causes the blood flow to be stopped which results in dead flesh which eventually drops off.

So be careful guys with shed around toe/s it can and will cause problems.

Thanks hun, this skin was removed shortly after the pic was taken

Wow thanks guys for that useful info. I don't know much about Leo's but did know they could loose a tail and why.

This is going to be a great help to newbies out there and other gecko keepers to. I have certainly learnt a few things for these posts.

So thanks for your time and effort it adding this great info

Cresities looks their tails but don't think theirs grow back, but assume its similar principals as to why they loose them and the aftercare

We are always here to help those who need it

why thank you! ......................................... coz sum of us certainly do

Pandora has a dropped tail plus some toes missing because of bad shed she was given to me about a month ago she only 6 months tiny little thing to,very skittish but can eat for england and hopefully will get use to us and let me hold her with out having to cup her in my hands all the time .Will try get a picture but its not easy when as soon as she see me she heads for cover and squeals at me

Some pictures of Pandora.

what a super pattern, thats a nice leo

looks like you got her tamed down a little as well.

Great example of a regen tail that ultamatly has not effected the leo.

thanks for sharing