Axolotl's spine sticking out of tail

[faebugz]

I have an axolotl I rescued about 2 months ago from someone who basically wasn't feeding it. He's about 1.5 years old, but wasn't even 6 inches when I got him. He looked anorexic.

Besides having an hourglass figure, he also had some of his bones sticking out of the top of his tail. Here's a pic from when I first got him

It's taken a lot of work to get him a healthy weight, but I'm happy to say he is starting to become a very chunky boi. Unfortunately though, he has never fully grown flesh over the bones on his back.

Will it just take some more time for it to grow in? I'm guessing the regenerative abilities were put on hold while his body repaired itself, it was scary how close to death he was.

The big chunk missing I'm guessing is from stress biting? Since I'm just noticing it got bigger. We had a small setback this last two weeks when I was camping and my FIL apparently wouldn't let the person I paid in to feed my animals behind my back frustrating but at least he's okay.

 

[SirTorro]

Sometimes if the axolotl does not get enough nutrition during the period where the injury was still new, they don’t fully grow it back. I’ve had this happen to some of my own, where they had lost limbs and such and never fully grew them back. A rip in the tail poses no threat to the animal if the injury is closed up.

…and don’t worry, that’s not the spine, just filaments of tissue from the tailfin. The spine is in the meatier part of the tail, in the middle.

 

[faebugz]

Sometimes if the axolotl does not get enough nutrition during the period where the injury was still new, they don’t fully grow it back. I’ve had this happen to some of my own, where they had lost limbs and such and never fully grew them back. A rip in the tail poses no threat to the animal if the injury is closed up.

…and don’t worry, that’s not the spine, just filaments of tissue from the tailfin. The spine is in the meatier part of the tail, in the middle.

That makes sense. He seems to have grown back a little bit of flesh, but he will probably be okay without the rest of it. Just scary to see

In your opinion, do you think I can expect him to ever reach the size of an average full grown adult? I was hoping to eventually house him with my other axolotl, provided they are the same gender.

Hoooooo thank goodness that's not the spine, that makes me feel 1000x better! I tried to look up some skeletal diagrams, but google was lacking of any from the right perspective.

Thanks a bunch for the insight! You've put me at ease about him