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Lizards are born with a line of weakness in their tail, technically called a fracture plane. If a point on the tail is hit or stressed, the muscles along the fracture plane pull away from one another rather than knitting together — this is known as a reflex muscle spasm. The pulling apart of the muscles causes the tail to fall off along the line of weakness.
Lizard tail autotomy has developed so that when the tail breaks there is no blood loss, and the tail regrows over six months to a year. The tail skeleton is replaced by a rod of cartilage with new muscles growing along it, producing a replacement tail that is usually shorter and less coloured compared with the original.
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Juvenile Red-tailed Skink with regenerating tail. Italian Wall Lizard with a regenerating tail. Peninsula Leaf-toed Gecko with re-generating tail. Peninsula Leaf-toed Gecko with recently severed tail. Common Chuckwalla with a regenerated tail. Juvenile Island Fence Lizard with re-growing tail. When they fight, male lizards often bite the other lizard's tail. Bite marks are visible on the tail of the Small-scaled Lizard on the left. It's not common to see whiptails with missing tails, but this Plateau Striped Whiptail lost most of its tail.
Juvenile Desert Night Lizard with severed tail. Adult Desert Night Lizard with severed tail. Sonoran Earless Lizard regenerating its tail. Florida Sand Skink with recently severed tail.
Ashy Gecko with regenerating tail. Chihuhuan Greater Earless Lizard with regenerating tail. When Geckos regenerate their tail, as this Australia Pale-striped Ground Gecko has done, it often does not match the body's color and pattern as did the original tail. This Coast Range Fence Lizard appears to have regenerated much of its tail. This Coast Range Fence Lizard has regenerated part of its tail. Adult Island Fence Lizard with a regrown tail.
Juvenile Island Fence Lizard re-growing its tail. This Colorado River Tree Lizard has a regenerating tail. This Western Side-blotched Lizard has regrown much of his tail. This Western Side-blotched Lizard has regrown the end of her tail. You can see by the color and pattern difference between the tail and the body that this Desert Banded Gecko has regrown most of its tail. This Mearns' Rock Lizard has regrown most of its tail.
Any significant blood flow will need to be staunched as quickly as possible and treated by the veterinarian. Your lizard will be slower and less balanced immediately after the loss of his tail and for the period of time when his tail is growing back.
Keep potential predators away from your lizard while he heals. Keep his living enclosure as clean as possible with minimal dirt, trash or fecal matter present. Discuss your lizard's after care with your veterinarian to see if you need to use a disinfectant or antibacterial medicine on your lizard's tail stump until it heals over. Jen Davis has been writing since She has served as a newspaper reporter and her freelance articles have appeared in magazines such as "Horses Incorporated," "The Paisley Pony" and "Alabama Living.
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