Many lizards have the ability to drop their tail as defensive mechanism. This is known as autotomy and literally means “self severing” or “self amputating”. Other animals also have this ability.

A tail that has been autotomized will continue to move for several minutes after the incident. This often allows the lizard time to escape while the predator is focused in on the twitching appendage.

How to prevent your pet lizard from losing its tail

Dropping of the tail is almost purely a defensive reaction when a lizard feel threatened. You can’t entirely stop the possibility of a lizard autotomizing its tail but you can minimize the likelihood.

• If your lizard is stressed leave it alone and try again later
• Don’t try to grab or hold it by the tail
• Don’t bump or other wise traumatize your lizard

Treatment of the wound

When the tail is dropped there is a big gaping wound left behind. There’s generally very minimal blood loss as God has given lizards a natural tourniquet; the muscles around the veins and arteries in the tail constrict and shut off the blood flow. The problem is with the possibility of infection.

• Replace the normal substrate with clean white paper towels, or blank sheets of news paper
• Soak the lizard in a 50/50 mixture of warm water and betadine for 10 or 15 minutes
• Put triple antibiotic ointment on the stump. Be sure to use the kind WITHOUT painkiller as this is toxic to reptiles

Be certain that you keep the tail as clean as possible over the next several weeks while it is healing. You should also feed the lizard extra during this time. The tail is used to store fat and your pet will need extra nutrition to regrow its tail and rebuild the lost fat stores.

Additional information

Lizards can only regrow lost tails two or three times. After that the tail will not be replaced. Sometimes the tail will not break off cleanly. In those situations you should take it to your vet so they can determine if it needs to be amputated. When the tail is regrown the bone inside is not regrown. Instead stiff cartilage takes its place. The coloration and pattern will often be different than it was originally.

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