Distinguishing giants from non-giants

[Rhacodactyl]

I'm aware that giants can be distinguished as juveniles by their longer build, but at what point is it fairly obvious? For example, if you had several geckos hatch at the same time and you knew some should be giants, at about what age/size could you visually separate the giants from non-giants?

 

[JConley]

Good question i was wondering the same thing. I just got a new Leo and i was wondering if he was a giant or a large Leo, i asked but no one knew if he was or not.

From what i read when they are young they look gangly (Long and thin & awkwardly built) Mine did look gangly when i got him 3 weeks ago he is a year old and looked skinny at 80 grams, and 11 inches long, he has gained 7 grams in 3 weeks now 87 grams (Thats no junk food either).

I may try feeding him less, but i figured he would stop eating when he gets full! He can easily put away 10 large crickets and 5 to 10 large mealies in one sitting. :freak: Total piglet

 

[Mel&Keith]

It's really hard to tell if you don't have the clutchmate to compare it to. It's easy to tell the difference right when the hatch if one is a giant and the other is a non giant. Giants definitely have longer heads, bodies, and tails and they grow larger, faster. They get tricky to distinguish as a buyer though because all geckos grow at different rates, some are long, some are stumpy. They all very so much. I guess I would value length as being more important than weight when trying to determine whether or not a gecko is a Giant. Males tend to be easier to spot in my opinion. As adults they are noticeably longer than a regular Leo and have much larger heads. Unfortunately, there's just no way to know for sure with out proving them out.

 

[Rhacodactyl]

Well I asked because I'm getting hatchlings from my pair of giants now. If I remember right, a giant to giant breeding is supposed to produce 25% normal sized, 50% giants, and 25% super giants. I want to know which ones are giants and which aren't so I can choose holdbacks, but only 2 have hatched so far and both are the same size and proportion and appear to be growing at about the same rate. Due to the odds, I'd guess they're both giants since there's no size difference between them but I don't have any normal sized hatchlings for comparison. These guys are just under 2 weeks old, do they look to be built like giants to you guys?

 

[Mel&Keith]

Looks like 2 Giants to me! We've only hatched female Supers from Super x Super breedings so they were all the same size. The Super Giants almost looked like regular sized Leos to me as far as body conformation they were just WAY bigger. The first time I saw a SG head pop out of en egg I thought, "Holy cow, how did that thing fit in there?!".

 

[paulnj]

I agree, they both look giant, but you will know as they grow if they are indeed giants. Giants grow quite quickly compared to "normal" trempers and get gangly and long before filling in with body mass usually.

 

[JConley]

To me they both look like giants, but i think the first one will be the larger of the two. The first one looks like he has a longer torso then the second.

 

[yellermelon]

Yea the first one could get big

 

[Rhacodactyl]

Thanks for the help guys. I got the parents when they were already over 20 grams and I've never hatched any leos before, so it's kind of hard for me to make any comparisons to normally sized juvies. Hopefully I'll get a better eye for it over the next few clutches.

 

[malt_geckos]

This is a helpful thread! Thanks for this. I was wondering how to distinguish them as well. The babies make it really obvious to see what giant babies look like.

BTW- those are very beautiful babies!