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Gumby Syndrome?

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Weezy55

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We had a terrifying incident last night with our Chinese Fire-Belly. We noticed that Snickers was flopping around on the bottom of his tank in a distressed manner. One of his back legs was stretched all the way over his body and seemed tangled up with his other back leg. He looked like one of those stretchy Gumby dolls although, of course, there was nothing funny about it.

We were so afraid that he was suffering and couldn't decide what to do. But then he rubbed up against a rock and got the leg "unstuck." He started moving more normally but that leg still looked stretched out. This morning he was looking and acting much better and ate a good breakfast of blood worms.

Could anyone tell us what that was all about and if there's something we can do to prevent a recurrence? Thanks! :(
 
Azhael

Azhael

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I´ve only seen something like that when a newt is shedding it´s skin and it reaches the hind legs (which causes a bit of trouble hehe), or when a female fails to properly lay an egg and ends up with the egg glued to it´s feet.

The fact that the leg unstuck when it rubbed against a rock makes me think it definitely has to be that the newt was shedding, which is perfectly normal.
 
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stanleyc

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Shedding is the first thing I thought of as well, I have seen similar situations with my fire bellies, which they always wriggle out of.
 
Otterwoman

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Weezy, you might have had a scare, think about this: the first time I saw one of my newts shedding, I thought it was eating one of the other newts and I freaked out! I didn't know they were cannibals (which it turned out, they weren't). I was so upset! And then when I found out it was eating its shed, I had to laugh at my silliness.
 
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Weezy55

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Well, I do feel pretty silly for panicking but I'm glad you all were right! Snickers is just fine and seems to be eating more than normal, maybe because he got rid of that too-tight skin! Thanks so much for the information! :eek:
 
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dipsydoodle

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otterwoman said:
Weezy, you might have had a scare, think about this: the first time I saw one of my newts shedding, I thought it was eating one of the other newts and I freaked out! I didn't know they were cannibals (which it turned out, they weren't). I was so upset! And then when I found out it was eating its shed, I had to laugh at my silliness.
Click to expand...

lol. I can't say you are the only one to have done this.
 
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