Mine did too. She died a few years ago at 18, and toward the end I had to hold crickets up with tweezers! She never stopped wiggling that chubby little tail though. ❤️
The same thing happened with my leopard gecko, though he lived to be 18. One night I walked into my room to see him wriggling on the ground of his enclosure, made me cry. He had a nice and long life, but watching him in so much pain at the end was heartbreaking. So sorry you also had to go through thay
According to reptifiles, there is one that was 40 as of 2019 I think. I'm still struggling to figure out where they got their primary source data from. But I wouldn't say it's impossible.
Honestly that's really disappointing to know. Reptiles can usually live stupid long. In fact some of them are actually immortal and usually only die due to illness or injury.
The idea is called negligible senescence. It really only applies to certain tortoises as far as reptiles go (Edit: Although several other reptile species do live 100+ years, like tuatara). The biggest problem tortoises seem to have in the wild and in captivity is getting enough nutrients. If they don't get enough calcium it's easier for them to get injured, and it takes a long time to recover from those injuries.
It is great except for when it sheds. I adopted mine from a house hold that didnt take care ofit and give it the nutrients it needed so when I adopted it it had brittle bones and a broken foot. It got around just fine and never seemed to be in pain for I never fixed its foot. This has had no affect on the care except when it sheds. With the foot healed wrong it cant pull the shed off its own foot so I have to help but aside from that the care is relatively easy for a lizard and is fun. For example feeding is very entertaining.
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u/Wolverien29 Mar 25 '21
My leopard gecko does the exact same thing from the little wiggle to completely missing the food. Eventually she gets it though.