Hi Hilde and all,
My other adults, 1.1 (unrelated) that I bought, 2.0 that I have raised, are all big like yours, at least 8" STL. The bug-eyed one about 5" STL, so way bigger than 2 months. You have to look carefully to see that his eyes aren't normal. His lack of vision is actually more noticeable, since it gives him a "vague" expression rather than the usual alert/watchful one.
From what I have heard, not that many ciliatus were originally imported, so our genetic pool is small on these. So this could be inbreeding. Since I bought my big-eyed one (this was not obvious when I did) I do not know background info like how related the parents were. That would be useful data from anyone who has it!
Melody
Hilde wrote:
Melody Hartley wrote:
I have a male ciliatus that I bought as a juvenile about 5 years ago. I am wondering if he is what you are describing as bug-eyed. His actual eyeball sticks out unusually far, skin around the eye is normal.
Your gecko sounds about the same as the two I was asking about. The one that Sara is caring for
right now has somewhat larger eyes, but not extremely large. The other one though has big bug
eyes, easily the first thing you notice about him/her. They look like frog eyes - they stick out
way past the skull height and width. It's as if his eyes grew to approximately normal size but
his body stayed put at about 2 months size.
Inbreeding could explain it, though I have no clue about either of their parents, but there
would/could be enough generations in captivity for it to show up.
My original 1.2 breeding group was hatched in 1996, I got them in early '97. I rarely see adults
as big as they are. The first thing people ask me when they see them is what I kind of steroids
I've been feeding them. The male lost his tail years ago, but he's still about 5 inches SVL, and
the females with tail are over 8 inches. So, could the shorter/smaller adult size we now see be
an indication of inbreeding, and bug-eyes be another sign? That would mean the bug-eyes could
be passed on to offspring?
Thanks for the help, it's certainly an eye-opener, I hadn't even considered inbreeding this 'soon' in their captive history.
Hilde
_______________________________________________ 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
-- Hartley Enterprises, Inc. Technical Writing Services ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HeartSong Sanctuary Asian turtles, day geckos, and frogs http://home.netcom.com/~mhartley/
_______________________________________________ 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
