Heheh, he didn't hurt himself or actually masticate the tail. He just struck, got it, looked confused, and backed up off of it, working his throat in a way to make me thing that he had swallowed it and had to regurgitate a little. The tail looks undamaged. It was mostly just hilarious.

But I think the tails do regenerate somewhat when they grow. The cornsnake had a shedding problem when he was younger where the skin didn't come off of his tail right, and it looked mangled for the next five sheds, and then looked just fine.