My Super Giants

[xboxmember1978]

Here is Stan, he's currently 14 months old and is a Super Giant Mack Snow, The son of the famous Buffalo Bill. Got him from Designer Gecko's/ He's currently exactly 10 inches long and 96 grams.





Here is Lee, currently 10 months old and is a Super Giant Banded Albino , the grandson of the famous Moose. Got him from Ron Tremer himself. He's currently 11 1/8th long and 98 grams.





Here is my setups. Just though I'd share my photo's.

 

[sausage]

these guys are great . Iv recently had one of my 2011 babies come back to me, the lad got bored of him . hes 11 inches and weighs 121g, neither of the parents are giants but maybe there is some where in their family line.

 

[xboxmember1978]

I'd like to see him!

 

[sausage]

Here he is, the monster Bruno





He might be big but he is massive softy . got his mums temperament and his dads build lol

 

[morphmom]

Wow! What amazing super giants!:2thumbsup: The grandson of Moose!? I'm so jealous! I actually looked into that and the shipping to Canada would have killed me. LOL! (not that I'd trade Mylo for the world) I'll be happy if my "giant" reaches 100grams but for me, the bigger the better I just can't imagine my life without a Leo buddy and I'm glad I went with a boy with some size

 

[Phoenix1115]

Wait im confused, what are the weight/length ranges that constitutes a leo as normal, giant, and super giant?

 

[morphmom]

Here's a quote from The Urban Gecko:

"Giant males can attain a size from 80 to 110 grams and females will range between 60 to 90 grams. Male Super Giants will grow in access of 110 grams while females can get to be over 90 grams. These abnormally big geckos can attain these sizes within 12 months."

 

[Phoenix1115]

I have a male that will be 2 years in september and he is 96g and between 10 and 11 inches. Would he be a giant or his he just large? Both his parents were average size.

(Sorry if this is considered hijacking the thread!)

 

[OnlineGeckos]

I have a male that will be 2 years in september and he is 96g and between 10 and 11 inches. Would he be a giant or his he just large? Both his parents were average size.

(Sorry if this is considered hijacking the thread!)

You can have a large gecko, but it doesn't mean the gecko has the giant genetics to pass down to the offspring. It's only a genetic giant if you know for sure the parents are giants/super giants. With the kind of feeders and supplements we use these days, it's easy to have a large gecko. I have bell albinos that are in the 80-90g range, they definitely don't carry giant genetics. My g/f has a set of normals from petstore that are over 90g each. Weight really isn't a determining factor anymore. It's about knowing the lineage, and knowing whether you have a genetic giant or not.

Visually, super giants do stand out around 5-6 months when they visually look a lot larger than geckos of similar age. They'll be longer, head larger, body structure more stocky looking. And genetic super giants should easily hit over 110g within the first year.

 

[lisa127]

I as well have a male tremper albino (not a giant or super giant as far as I know) that is 11.5 inches long and 120 grams as of today. I also don't know his exact hatch date, though he was a young juvenile when I got him. My best guess is he is now around 14 or 15 months old.

At what point will he stop gaining weight? He doesn't even eat that much.

 

[xboxmember1978]

Let me chime in on some of these questions, I have had several years experience with Giants and Super Giants so I'm kinda confident in this. Lets throw the weight right in the garbage because it has very little to do with determining normals from G/SG. You can easily have a 90G SG and a 120G normal. Giant and Super Giants will have a much longer torso, tail and much wider and longer head from normals. They will look very unproportionate then normals. They are very easily visually different the a normal. It is very possible to have a very long normal BUT you can still be able to tell by looking at their body structure.

 

[morphmom]

Really!? That is interesting! My eye isn't as well trained but I can honestly say that I noticed the different head shape and it was one of the features that really made me want a giant.

 

[xboxmember1978]

Unfortunately a lot of breeders sell "Giants" and "Super Giants" but actually they aren't. I have even noticed some selling them as such just because of them being higher weight and just using that as a way saying they are. Very bad thing, I would never buy unless it was old enough to be able to tell for 100%. I see so many of them being sold very young at a high price tag and see them to grow up to be normals....even myself have been burnt a few time doing this

There is a small chance though that a real 100% G/SG will only get to 9 inches in length but seems to be very rare. If your Giant isn't at least 10 inches or Super Giant at least 10.5 inches I'd be questioning it

 

[lisa127]

Let me chime in on some of these questions, I have had several years experience with Giants and Super Giants so I'm kinda confident in this. Lets throw the weight right in the garbage because it has very little to do with determining normals from G/SG. You can easily have a 90G SG and a 120G normal. Giant and Super Giants will have a much longer torso, tail and much wider and longer head from normals. They will look very unproportionate then normals. They are very easily visually different the a normal. It is very possible to have a very long normal BUT you can still be able to tell by looking at their body structure.

Ok, so if you see a pic of my gecko would you be able to tell if he is a Giant/SG or just a very large normal?

 

[xboxmember1978]

Post some pix

 

[lisa127]

sorry they aren't the best. They are cell phone pics. They are also a couple of months old I think.

 

[morphmom]

I'd like to guess!!! I'm going to say, a very large normal! Just a guess tho.

 

[lisa127]

That's my guess, too.

 

[xboxmember1978]

Looks like a very large normal. Not bad! Your very lucky, that's for sure. Lets see some better newer pix!

 

[OnlineGeckos]

Unfortunately a lot of breeders sell "Giants" and "Super Giants" but actually they aren't. I have even noticed some selling them as such just because of them being higher weight and just using that as a way saying they are. Very bad thing, I would never buy unless it was old enough to be able to tell for 100%. I see so many of them being sold very young at a high price tag and see them to grow up to be normals....even myself have been burnt a few time doing this

There is a small chance though that a real 100% G/SG will only get to 9 inches in length but seems to be very rare. If your Giant isn't at least 10 inches or Super Giant at least 10.5 inches I'd be questioning it

Agreed, I too have purchased a "super giant" and paid the super giant price a few years ago from a quite large giant breeder. And while he's a beautiful gecko, he turned out to be just a giant sized gecko, not super. He's under 100g, and shorter in length. When compared him side by side with my real super giant, there's no comparison. When confronted, the breeders had no explanation.

A year ago when I was a new breeder I did sell a couple of super giants young. One customer complained about their gecko not reaching super giant size, so I asked Ron Tremper what happened because the breeders came from Ron himself and they were guaranteed genetic super giants. He pretty much said it's better not to sell super giants as hatchlings, because you don't know whether the geckos will grow out to be a super giant sized or not. He said reputation is everything, selling them young is risky. Needless to say, I'll no longer sell super giant hatchlings without a disclaimer.

If there's an advice I would give to those looking to buy super giants, it's that wait until a gecko has grown out to be a super giant length & weight before purchasing them. There are a few breeders out there selling super giant geckos young, some even as hatchlings. Many go strictly by weight gains, but there's just absolutely no way you will know for sure if a gecko growing fast in the first 6 months will end up being as big as you had hoped. If you want to make sure what you buy is going to grow out to be large, then wait and pay the price on a real super giant. You'll notice Ron doesn't ever sell any super giants until they've reached the ideal length & weight. And apparently it's not all too uncommon to breed sg to sg and have gecko offspring that never reach super giant size.