Poor plant! It looks both dehydrated and etiolated. I take it you kept it in your warm house and kept it dry. Plants in a warm house must be watered, plants on cold rest must be dry. Pot it back up, give it a few days for the roots to heal, then water it a little bit and give it some bright sun, gradually, start low and move to brighter sun llevery few days. Finally in full sun 6-12 hours every day. I would leave the etiolated bits on until the plant is in full sun and plump, then you can whack them.

If you do end up removing them try to root them. What has happened to the base of the plant?

Sans I was wondering the same. I think the cactus doesn’t have roots. The bottom part looks like a dead pad.

Brandon if I‘m right and there aren’t any roots I would personally cut were I placed the yellow line.

Cut the lanky bits off too. Those will never look normal at this point. Sometimes if you catch etiolation quick you can save it, but the pads on your Opuntia are too far gone. The growth is real weak.

Let the cut cactus callus over for a week in a shady area. Then repot in a fast draining mix. Keep out of harsh sun and no water till roots form. Once there are roots you can slowly acclimate to stronger sun and begin to water. It’s the growing season so roots shouldn’t take too long. Opuntia need good sunlight grow right;).

Yes it was in my house and. Yes it got water about every week. It was back there for about 5 months. Can’t do much about that.

As far as the first pad, it was a plant I scavenged and potted it. The whole thing came out of the substrate when I was moving them from their room inside to outside today.

Also, I just broke those leggy growths off and threw them in the flower bed outside. First off, I really don’t need any more of this plant occupying pots, second off, I’m interested in seeing if they’ll live naturally outdoors in my area.