My First Babies Look Different

[Nynecho]

Hi, this month I had a couple babies hatch from my first pair, and even though I incubated for female, they're both boys. That's not my main issue, I'm sorta worried about the way they look.

They're Hypos het Murphey Patternless, hatched 4/15/14.

The first hatched would appear to have an underbite, the second hatched may have an eyelid crinkle, and two of his toes are white. Both boys have very small eyes in comparison to their heads. They are perfectly healthy otherwise, the first one bites me and barks at me, the second one is just as lively without the aggression. They're developing nicely, the second being lighter than the first.

hm1

hm1 (underbite)

hm2 (white toes, last 2 digits on back right foot)

both boys

hm2 (eyelid crinkle)

 

[Kristi23]

It looks like both have deformities. It could be from fluctuation of temps during incubation or not enough supplements from the female that laid.

 

[DrCarrotTail]

Kristi sounds spot on. My guess would be incubation temp fluctuations since you intended females and got males. It could be a bunch of other things as well (supplementation, moisture levels, inbreeding, etc.) but temperature seems like the most obvious and something you can try to correct to see if it helps with future hatchlings if you have more eggs.

What temps were you aiming for and what kind of incubator/substrate/containers were you using?

 

[stager]

It looks like both have deformities. It could be from fluctuation of temps during incubation or not enough supplements from the female that laid.

Agreed. But why do you say they are male they look to young to sex

 

[acpart]

Yes, I'm dying to know how you can tell they're males after 5 days. I spent most of last season peering at gecko bottoms with a 60x loupe and couldn't tell even at 20 grams sometimes.

Aliza

 

[Nynecho]

I candled them using a flashlight, I can see they have hemipenes clearly through their tails. I'm using a hovabator, which I did have to transport a few weeks prior to them hatching, so that could be where the fluctuation occurred.