• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

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    Posted 08/15/2025
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    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

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    Addendum: 01/10/2026
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    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Frank Hayden

Frank-

It's okay, I think you could tell from the tone of my emails I was just trying to help you. Aside from my family, my leopard geckos are my life, i love them. I hope everything works out and yours get better soon. They are really neat animals to work with.
 
Without getting into any of the specifics about if this should have been posted or not (got that whole "to jump or not to jump" thread about that)...

You can't clip off the tail of a lizard and expect it tro grow back, tail autonomy doesn't work like that...

The tissue structure is shaped in such a manner that when broken off above a point of pressure, between the vertebre, the remaining skin and muscles fold over the open wound and the blood vessels constrict so the animal doesn't bleed to death.

This happens at specific "break points" the entire length of the tail, but since these break points have virtually no thickness, the chances of getting one when trying to remove a bend or break in the tail by cutting above it is virtually nil.

By cutting the tail yourself at an essentially randomly chosen point, the adaptations to allow autonomy would never trigger and the animal would likely bleed to death.
 
I'm not trying to jump on you Frank at this point, I read what you said to me and I understand where you're coming from. As far as I'm concerned I'm just happy that you did your best to put all these animals in good homes.

I do want to expand on what Seamus said though:

"By cutting the tail yourself at an essentially randomly chosen point, the adaptations to allow autonomy would never trigger and the animal would likely bleed to death."

If the person you sold the Iguana to killed it by clipping its tail, you would have been responsible. While you didn't directly encourage it, you still gave the idea that it would be acceptable to do. THAT would have been an experience....
 
Ah, I don't even want to think about that. I couldn't get over it. I'm wondering why doesn't a Cuban ig die when it's tail gets bitten off by another Cuban ig?

And what's the warning levels all about?

Frank
 
I'm wondering why doesn't a Cuban ig die when it's tail gets bitten off by another Cuban ig?
Click to expand...

Because natural tail autonomy would allow the tail to drop above the area of the bite at the next natural break point as pressure is applied...

But an ig biting and twisting another ig's tail is not the same as a knife or scalpel being used to press down and slice through the flesh.
 
My Last word on Frank Hayden

Seamus:
Thanks for all the great info. I'm going to bring this up to a few other biologists at my job and to a herpetologist at USF. It's an interesting topic. I'd like to expore it further academically. If anyone wants to know what I learn email me personally. I don't think the BOI is the place to continue this topic.

Steven:
All I'd like to say is I understand your concern regarding my ad with the Cuban. I'm sure my ad sounded like something I never intented it to. I should of elaborated a little further and mentioned that a novice shouldn't attempt the removal of the kink in the tail and that a Reptile Vet should be the only one to attempt such a procedure.

Kelli,
Thanks for the concern. When I recieved your email I honestly didn't know you. I generally don't like to take the advice of the general public in regards to caring for my animals. I'm sure your email was well intentioned. If you sent more than one email I don't believe I recieved it. In any event, the tang is doing well. I have a hypo tang male that I hope to breed with her in the future when she's healthy and prospering.

Take Care and Happy Herping. If any of you are going to Daytona I'd like to meet you in person.
Frank Hayden
 
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