Why did day gecko drop tail?

[Mistral]

My female Giant day gecko who is roughly a year old shocked me this morning when I went to her tank to spray her before work and found she had dropped 90% of her tail off?? The gecko is in great health and housed separately in a large sized planted tank with lots of bamboo and she eats very well and even has calcium sacs growing at a young age.

The tank is not near a window and I don't have cats or dogs in the house that would have scared her. My only guess is that she got her tail caught on some bamboo trying to squeeze between a branch and the tank where I have the end of a bamboo log resting on the top corner of the tank. Otherwise, I have no other clue? Anyone else have a random tail dropping occur? And I'm wondering if once she regrows her tail, if it can be easily dropped off again?

Thanks

 

[leopardman456]

It regrow so that wont be much of a problem. It wont effect its health or anything. Once the tail is fully regrown, it will be like it never happened. But be careful, I think it can only regrow once but im not sure. To stop it from happening again, remove the bamboo or move the gecko to a spot were its tail will not get caught again.

 

[PhelsumaUK]

Only had it happen once (to a grandis as it happens)....The gecko bolted when I opened to door of the room and threw its tail off. Had it happen to a couple of wild lizards when noosing. You don't need to touch or pull the tail for it to happen. It's a defence process for distraction as well as a means of physical escape. The new tail won't break again (naturally) on the regrown part..The bones along the new tail aren't regrown, so there are no fracture planes. There is a new supporting rod of cartilage instead. If 90% of the tail went this time, there is probably at least one fracture plane left (almost directly behind the vent), so there's still potential for her to lose it all again (and a bit more) but it will grow back again from the new break. The more tail that's lost, the easier it is to see a regrown tail...probably won't get back to the length that it would have been initially