If there is a baby at home who doesn't like to eat, taking them to stay at their grandparents' house for a while can often improve the situation. There is a special kind of hunger called "grandma's worry that you're hungry". Grandma's home always seems to have a magical power that opens up one's appetite. Even children who are too thin can be cared for until they are strong and healthy, just like an inflating balloon. The same goes for small animals.
Some netizens have noticed that their homes have chubby geckos, to the point that they are at the "fat tiger" level. Could they also be raised by grandmas? One round and plump gecko has become popular on the social platform "Xiaohongshu". Its extraordinary size has amazed netizens, who speculate that the abundance of "food" like mosquitoes and other insects at home has allowed it to grow a thick tail.
Taiwanese netizens have also seen similar fat geckos at home, with body shapes even resembling Michelin babies. One commented, "Because I just came from grandma's house!" Generally, geckos are slender and long, but this one posted in the Facebook group "Bao Yuan Gong She" is chubby, with short, plump limbs and a tail marked with rings.
Netizens laughed and said things like, "Geckos raised by grandma are extraordinary," "Has the gecko soaked in water?" "It can even stick to the wall," "It must be thinking: I'm not fat, just big-boned," and "Looks like it must live at grandma's house—living the good life."
However, an experienced netizen on Xiaohongshu who has many geckos at home shared personal observations, explaining that a fat tail on a gecko is not because it eats too well, but because after the tail is dropped, the cells regenerate quickly and tend to accumulate fat. This causes the tail to appear plump for a short time before the new tail gradually becomes slender again.
The gecko's tail-dropping survival mechanism is fascinating; the detached tail can even continue to twitch. Curious people have asked, "Does the regenerated tail still twitch after tail-dropping?" The Taiwan Endemic Species Research and Conservation Center explained that the key to the twitching is that the muscles and nerves inside the tail do not immediately die when the tail drops off. They can survive for a few minutes, during which the nerves continuously release substances that stimulate muscle contraction, causing the tail muscles to alternately contract and produce vigorous twitching.
Therefore, no matter how many times a gecko drops its tail, the newly grown tail will also twitch, helping the gecko buy time to escape danger. Have you ever seen such a plump gecko?
