Re: [gecko]Deformed Leopard geckos
I have seen eye mutants, dwarf leopards, and tail kinks. I have heard from several sources that eye mutants are due to a vitamin A deficiency, and a bird supplement called Vionate will provide the right balance, although i have never used Vionate myself. Has anyone used Vionate? I have observed eye mutants seem to come groups (supporting a temporary deficiency problem in the mother that was remedied later in the breeding season). A few years ago the first eight leopards I hatched of the year were all eye mutants (from different females in the same breeding group), but I only hatched a couple more that year out of hundreds of eggs. The dwarf leopards are cute, and usually catch up in size over time. I have looked inside the eggshells of dwarf hatchlings and found unused yolk, so it appears this may be due to some sort of development problem. I think of them as premies. The tail kinks definitely appear to be genetic on some level, possibly bahaving as a recessive trait. It seems to be especially common in patternless, or het patternless animals. I always thought it would be neat to do some controlled crosses to figure out how the tail kink trait works, but then again I don't want to propagate this fault! Regards, Steve www.geckosetc.com --- nathan greenlay [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: - julie, I seem to get dwarf leopards more than anything else. i would agree with this. most non-normal leopards seem to be smaller in general as hatchlings and as adults. An interesting note, the slight tail kink guys I have kept don't seem to produce any abnormal babies that I have noticed i have a patternless male leo with a small kink in the tip of his tail. his offspring with two kink-less patternless females are about 50% with kinked tail, 50% without. it seems to be inherited somehow. i would also agree that most of these mutations (such as the tail kink) would arise from genetic inbreeding. no other gecko has been bred to the extent that leopards have, so this does not surprise me. take a look at what a couple centuries of inbreeding has done to the common goldfish...now, there are some hideous mutations!! nathan nathan greenlay www.geocities.com/geckoboy14 - The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* ___Global Gecko Associationhttp://www.gekkota.comClassifiedshttp://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgigecko mailing [EMAIL PROTECTED]://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko ___ Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.com Classifieds http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi gecko mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko
Re: [gecko]Deformed Leopard geckos
I had a dwarf last season. She wasn't eating so I had to feed her Ensure out of an eyedropper twice a day. As of a couple of weeks ago, she hadn't grown much bigger than when she hatched, although she was eating mealworms on her own. Being mistakenly housed with two other babies who grew normally may have contributed to the problem, however. I guess that dwarfs and all hatchlings should be housed individually to avoid competition for food and territory. When she hatched, there was some kind of mass (not yolk) occupying half of the egg. At 03/03/2004 01:04 PM, you wrote: I have seen eye mutants, dwarf leopards, and tail kinks. I have heard from several sources that eye mutants are due to a vitamin A deficiency, and a bird supplement called Vionate will provide the right balance, although i have never used Vionate myself. Has anyone used Vionate? I have observed eye mutants seem to come groups (supporting a temporary deficiency problem in the mother that was remedied later in the breeding season). A few years ago the first eight leopards I hatched of the year were all eye mutants (from different females in the same breeding group), but I only hatched a couple more that year out of hundreds of eggs. The dwarf leopards are cute, and usually catch up in size over time. I have looked inside the eggshells of dwarf hatchlings and found unused yolk, so it appears this may be due to some sort of development problem. I think of them as premies. snip ___ Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.com Classifieds http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi gecko mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko
Re: [gecko]Deformed Leopard geckos
I used to work at The Gourmet Rodent, the biggest leopard gecko breeding facility on earth. They discovered that too much calcium caused deformities. I am unsure exactly what kinds of deformities theywere had.They combated the problem by adding a multivitaminto the mealworm cup kept in each cage, always keeping it full of mealworms and vitamins.They alsotake the geckos off of calcium carbonate sand once adults. Crickets are dusted with calcium powder and added twice a week. At least this is the method used while I worked there a couple of years ago. If you are out there sorry Bill and Marcia, in case this info was supposed to be classified, TimPaul [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello all,I have seen some deformities cropping up in leopard geckos from a fewdifferent breeders (ex. Tail Kink and Malformed Eyes.) Does anyone have athero of facts on what causes these deformities (ex. Incubation technique,breeding or genetic?)Paul___Global Gecko Associationhttp://www.gekkota.comClassifiedshttp://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgigecko mailing list[EMAIL PROTECTED]http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search - Find what youre looking for faster.
Re: [gecko]Deformed Leopard geckos
Julie and all, A breeder I contacted off list belives the tail kinks are symptoms of calcium defiency, and the malformed eyes are a vitamin A defficiency in the mother. Any opinions? Paul - Original Message - From: Julie Bergman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2004 12:24 PM Subject: Re: [gecko]Deformed Leopard geckos Paul, I seem to get dwarf leopards more than anything else. The next most common thing would be a tail kink, usually very slight. Lots of inbreeding has been done with leos and genetics are a good bet for some of these traits. An interesting note, the slight tail kink guys I have kept don't seem to produce any abnormal babies that I have noticed. Julie B. Paul wrote: Hello all, I have seen some deformities cropping up in leopard geckos from a few different breeders (ex. Tail Kink and Malformed Eyes.) Does anyone have a thero of facts on what causes these deformities (ex. Incubation technique, breeding or genetic?) Paul ___ Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.com Classifieds http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi gecko mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko ___ Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.com Classifieds http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi gecko mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko
Re: [gecko]Deformed Leopard geckos
julie, I seem to get dwarf leopards more than anything else. i would agree with this. most non-normal leopards seem to be smaller in general as hatchlings and as adults.An interesting note, the slight tail kink guys I have kept don't seem to produce any abnormal babies that I have noticed i have a patternless male leo with a small kink in the tip of his tail. his offspring with two kink-less patternless females are about 50% with kinked tail, 50% without. it seems to be inherited somehow. i would also agree that most of these mutations (such as the tail kink) would arise from genetic inbreeding. no other gecko has been bred to the extent that leopards have, so this does not surprise me. take a look at what a couple centuries of inbreeding has done to the common goldfish...now, there are some hideous mutations!! nathan nathan greenlay www.geocities.com/geckoboy14The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* ___ Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.com Classifieds http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi gecko mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko
