Water Dragon Tail Partly Missing

[kronky]

Hi guys,
Been a long time reader of the site but never posted.

Anyway, I have two eastern water dragons which are approximately six months old. I keep them both in a tank which is 3 foot wide by 2 foot high by 2 foot deep. There is quite a fair bit of spots for them to hide including branches, logs and fake plants. I put a picture down the bottom where you can see the smaller lizard also

I have a massive problem that the smaller of the two, Thora, has had her tail getting constantly smaller and smaller with more and more missing off the end. I've attached a bad picture of this too. Every day slightly more is missing, and in the last two days two cm has gone. I am extremely worried about what is going on, and I don't know if its the bigger one, Gizmo, or if she is eating her own tail. Why is this happening, please someone help me

I feed them 5 medium crickets each (about 1.5cm each) every two days, leave rep-cal bearded dragon pallets in there, as well as numerous veges. Please help me.
Thanks so much
Mick

 

[spilota_variegata]

It's the bigger one. Dominant dragons quite often bite the end off the tail of the more submissive animals. I think you need to put them into a bigger tank to give the other some room to get away.

 

[Noongato]

Also, if a W dragon takes a tight corner in the tank sometimes the tip of the tail gets stuck under a log or something and the instinctively stuggle to get free and end up snapping it off.

Dont fret - their tails grow back.

 

[cris]

They arnt really prone to eating parts of cage mates and the tails do sort of grow back, more of a stumpy point than a tail though. Im not really sure how its happening, from the pic it looks as though its been phiscally removed somehow in which case it wont be a problem.

I would just keep an eye on it and watch for infection(shouldnt be a problem).

 

[kronky]

In a way I hope it was that it has just been physically removed, as this wouldnt be a lasting problem. However initially there was only a little missing, and each day the length of the lizard has been decreasing. One day it even looked as if part of the tail was just hanging there, chewed a bit but not removed as of yet.

My thought were that it was the bigger one. But i thought that if thsi was the case and that he was just tryin to prove himself dominant that the smaller one would avoid him a bit. This does not seem to be the case however, with the sitting near him quite often

 

[kronky]

The larger of the two lizards is still attacking the smaller one, and as I cannot afford a new tank I was wondering if any one would be keen on taking one of the lizards off my hands. Either is fine as I can't pick between the two as to which I would rather keep, as getting rid of either will be hard. If interested please message me, or reply to this post. Pick up only, located in Mooroolbark, Vic. Thanks
Mick

 

[MERKIN08]

i was told that because wds dont drop their tails, they dont grow them back????

 

[MoreliaMatt]

yes the do grow them back, but nowhere near what an original tail looks like!!!

i had the same thing happen with my 2 dragons at about the same age aswell, i actually saw the bigger one bite the smaller ones tail after a while.... i put a cardboard divider down the middle of the tank to seperate them, but the small one would always get over it or past it or under it and end up sitting as close as possible to the attacker....

Once moved into a 5x2x2 this stopped as they had more space each...

 

[JasonL]

i was told that because wds dont drop their tails, they dont grow them back????

Water Dragons, unlike most other dragons, do grow part of their tail back, though it's not the same colour nor does it reach the same size, sometimes just a black stub. I have even seen a EWD with a twin tail, where it split into two tail tips.