Engimas

[Desdemona]

So, I understand that Enigmas can sometimes be born fine and show symptoms of head tilt and whatnot later. Is there any cut off age where you'll know how good/bad the effect of this gene is on your Leo? Such as, once they hit 5 years if they have no signs then they will probably not show any (for example).

I might breed them in the future, but if so it will be specifically to try and ge a line that does not tilt/spin/etc... if possible. I will not breed any babies that show signs at birth, and was wondering if there was any age where I would know that the gecko is symptom free or if it could pop up at any time between birth and death.

 

[Thorgecko707]

I have heard of them being fine until some form of stress triggering it.

 

[sunshinegeckos]

It can show up at any time especially if there is stress (shipping, breeding etc) In my opinion it is more of a matter of when and not if they will show signs. Just depends on the severity of it.

 

[Desdemona]

Hmm, interesting. My girl that I currently have was pretty normal when I first got her, but then she got a bit tilty though I don't know if there was a specific stressor, and that lasted for 3 or 4 days and then she went back to being close to normal.. but when she eats she seems to be just a little off. She can still manage to catch her food it just sometimes takes her a few extra tries. She had a harder time when it first hit her but then she just seemed to adjust to the difference pretty quickly. Even though she eats the same as everyone else she does manage to stay a tiny bit thinner, but in body not in tail. Not sure if that is related to the enigma gene or if it's just her body type.

She hasn't had a change of status from that so far but I have had her less than a year and she is probably not yet two, maybe a year and a half (I don't know her hatch date).

Is there anyone who is really working with the gene and keeping track of it's effect. Ie
Gecko hatches: DATE, Effect Shows: DATE/AGE/SEVERITY Possible Trigger Event: Diet:
(etc).

It would be interesting to compair. Could learn some valuable info. Maybe they can show that some lines have a 30% chance of severe disorder and a 70% chance of mild while other lines only have a 10% chance of severe and a 90% chance of mild.

I'd do so but I don't have enough space/time/etc to do a major project with multiple lines of Enigmas.

 

[Desdemona]

OH, also... has anyone compaired male to female? Does the gene effect them both or does one gender show more negative effects over the other? Has anyone ever tested to see if there is a difference?

 

[sunshinegeckos]

I dont know if has to do with being male or female but my female is the one with the problem while my males have no issues. Also my males are much better eaters than my female

 

[Desdemona]

It will be interesting to compare my male with my female, but since one comes from unknown breeding and the other from those with a good reputation it's not a really good comparison.