Hilary perhaps it should go nack to Arizona. It;s lonesome for it's bothers and sisters. It needs Arizona soil. and weather conditions. Keep it in cool spot and the roots dry so not to rot, plant back in damp gritty soil, no peet moss wait a week and water. Put outside and do no water again un till june or the plant jumps and bites you. Norma

thank you for the advice, but it can't go back to Arizona, what's done is done. It was very happy for 4 years in a pot in Maine. Now I live in Connecticut, so it can't go outside here either...I bet 4 feet of snow is not so good for the rat-tail cactus, although we do have prickly-pear growing wild here for some reason.
ok thanks! Hilary

It sounds like pieces have broken off and you perhaps just have cuttings now. Leave them dry, I doubt they will root before spring. You'll have to protect them from the sun and possibly they would be better in a garage or utility room than in a very dry warm house.

What I'm really curious about is what your plant is. The standard "rat-tail cactus" would not be found wild in Arizona, it is from South America. Maybe it is an escapee but maybe it is something altogether more interesting. Possibly altogether more tricky to grow, since the standard rat-tail is almost a weed.

Thank you Shrubs...well, I thought it was a rat-tail, they are said to grow in Mexico and my grandmother's house (where it was transplanted from) is really only about 20 minutes from there. But I don't know...that is a good point because the Tucson cactus club doesn't list them. But Tucson is about 2 hrs north of where it was living. Whatever it is, it looks just like a rat-tail and hopefully it will be just as durable. Do you think I should just leave the segments in the dirt they are potted in, without any water, or should I transplant them or what. I am at a loss here. Thanks again!!

If you're in Connecticut, It's only September and you shouldn't be getting any frost yet. So you've got at least a month they could go outside. As for the "cuttings", If you leave them in the pot, don't water them much... Maybe every other week and not a soaking!. My cuttings dry pretty fast outside, but I'm in Tampa so I water a little at a time but only once a week. The roots will grow stronger if they have to search for the water... Keep it too wet and the roots don't need to search so they grow weak. But I usually keep my cactus cuttings out of soil for about a week to two weeks to allow them time to callous over. Unfortunately, depending on size, I've had some that just dried out in a week.
Since you have quite a few pieces, why not try leaving half out of soil to dry and leave half in the pot. Then plant half of those left out in a week and the rest in two weeks? If it's a rat-tail, if they all take, you'll have a nice full pot!
So, how 'bout that picture? I think you've got more than a few of us curious as to what type of cactus you really have.

Hi there, thank you for the advice. My plant cannot go outside because I live in an apartment and have no land, and also I wish I could post a picture but I don't know html. paulzie, your advice is interesting because someone at another forum just gave me some similar advice, but that person suggested I actually cut the base off the the cactus pieces. is that what you are suggesting I do? because the "cuttings" form naturally out of little segments. anyway, i had excactly the same idea as you, that is, to try the out-of-soil technique on half instead of all the shoots.
thanks so much --Hilary

First, I wasn't suggesting cutting anything. You said a bunch of little "cactus bits" came off your plant when the pot landed upside down... I was talking about using those.
Now for a quick lesson on picture posting. HTML isn't that difficult for posting a picture. First, you need to get the picture from your camera disk to your computer. Then upload it to a photo hosting site like Flickr or Photobucket. Then take the Address for your picture and then it's time for your code...
First type the "Less Than" symbol (found over the period)
I'd type the whole thing here but it won't show so I'll spell out the Greater-than and Less-than symbols...
Less-thanimg src="yourimageaddresshere"Greater-than
Again:
less-thanimgspacesrc="yourimageaddresshere">

And too type it out one more way:
Less-ThanimgspacesrcEqualsQuoteYourimageaddresshereCloseQuoteGreater-Than

Hope that helps... Now I hope you'll put your plant up now :-)

Oh... And I forgot to mention, Usually, most photo hosting services if not all, will offer a link to your picture for use on forums or other such sites. :-)

does this work?

Here is a link that might be useful: cactus pictures

so, that is my cactus. it is a rat-tail, right? it used to have longer, taller, and hanging tendrills but now they are gone. I haven't done the method of picking out the little ones and drying/replanting them yet, but I will later, maybe.
so please let me know what you think about this cactus.

Well, I think it's an etiolate Peanut cactus (Echinopsis chamaecereus). I suppose it could be a Rat-tail cactus (Aporocactus flagelliformis) But the larger pieces look more like a peanut cactus. Either way, it definitely needs more light. But Both should root easily.

What's everyone else think?

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Wow! Its in trouble if its the Echinopsis. Lets hope its the Aporocactus (=Disocactus) which should look a bit like that only more densely spined. Neither are Arizona natives. Have you ever seen flowers? It would be good to know for sure what it is so could treat it the way it likes. Either way it doesn't look like its going to die any time soon :)

I did find a native of the southern states (although not really Arizona) which can be called Rattail (Mammillaria pottsii), but it is nothing like this plant.

well, I guess we don't know what he is...it is so long and stringy when it is healthy, the peanut cacti I saw all looked rounder and fatter. The reason the big sections are short is that I accidentally fried them under a skylight last summer and had to "trim" them in half. And it has never flowered, the poor thing. So I will have to guess forever.
But just one more thing....paulzie, you just said it surely needs more light. But I thought, from all the advice I got including yours, that it needed LESS light. Since it has perked up some since I moved it into a dim room, I'm keeping it there till further notice (two weeks? a month?). I just need my poor guy to rest and get better. Maybe I should buy a new plant to distract myself with, or even pay more attention to my schoolwork. Bye and Thanks!

Less light for a few weeks until it roots itself again, but more light after that because it looks etiolated. If it is the Aporocactus, it is supposed to have long thin trailing stems but I still think these look too thin and stretched.

Hi Hilary, I didn't say less light in any of my posts. I usually try to get my cactus as much light as possible... Direct sunlight if I can. Even when I'm trying to callous a cutting. In the dark or dim light, the cactus cutting will not dry out much and will not be so eager to send out roots to find more water.
As for peanut cacti having short round joints... not always... just the new joints. I had one that had joints that were 6-8 inches long... some a bit longer. But look at the difference in the areoles and the placement of them and the lenth of the spines in the following pictures. The Peanut Cactus has shorter, stiffer spines than the Rat-Tail and they're white as opposed to yellow. The first is the Peanut cactus the second the rat tail.
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Now look at the areols on your larger pieces of cactus? And by the way, the larger size is probably more like how large all the branches should be. :-(

And another Peanut Cactus
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And the Rat-Tail cactus
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Which looks closer to yours?
How about this peanut cactus?
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Here's links to both cactus on Desert-tropicals.com. Read the description/"Growth Habit" of both.
Echinopsis camaecereus
Disocactus(Aporocactus) flagelliformis

I still think it's a peanut cactus... Which way are you leaning now? :-)

I am now convinced it is a rat-tail...especially since it has fluffy spines like little hairs, not stiff at all. The ones I saw growing wild at my grandmother's house had long, thin, straggly arms snaking all over the ground. One of the bigger pieces on mine is half yellow so I'm going to cut it in half, then it will look more like a peanut but I swear I think it's a rattail. Maybe it is an invasive species or something. Thank you so much for helping me id my cactus, that is so nice of you!