Runts?

[Khrysty]

A friend of mine recently (last month) had a clutch hatch. Both babies came from normal sized eggs but were ridiculously small. Sire was my Jasper..who is on the larger end, and the dam was one of his girls. Jasper always produces 4 gram straight-out-of-the-egg hatchlings. They grow quickly and by a couple of weeks it's easy to see that they'll be as long as their daddy. Now my friend's girl is is a little petite, but nowhere near what I'd call small. But these guys hatched out at barely 1 gram in weight, maybe an inch and a half long. I have one and he has the other. Mine is doing perfectly, is up to 3 grams now, eats constantly, very active. I haven't heard otherwise from my friend so I assume the other hatchling is doing well too.

I guess my question is has anyone else had this happen? What can you guess might have caused this?

 

[Brewboy74]

Hmmm, interesting. I would be curious to see how much weight the get by 1 year. Maybe a mutation, the opposite of giant? Although this would seem unlikely since they were both small. It would also be interesting if they were bred back together to see the size of the offspring when and if they are of sufficient weight of course.

 

[Khrysty]

Hmmm, interesting. I would be curious to see how much weight the get by 1 year. Maybe a mutation, the opposite of giant? Although this would seem unlikely since they were both small. It would also be interesting if they were bred back together to see the size of the offspring when and if they are of sufficient weight of course.

Both are male so they would have to be bred back to the mother. I'm wondering if it'll cause any health concerns down the road, though. I'm thinking these animals shouldn't be bred.

 

[Brewboy74]

True, I guess it depends on their adult size and how hardy they are though.

 

[MiamiLeos]

In my experience, sometimes they just come out smaller..or larger. I would assume that they will reach normal adult size. However, if they stay tiny throughout adulthood, I would strongly advise against breeding them. Smaller geckos, sometimes called dwarves, have been known to come with a wealth of health issues. I have a dwarf leo. She is healthy, only because I spend a considerable ammount of time with her making sure she gets what she needs. Becides her being incredibly tiny, she does not act like the average leo. She is often out and about during the day, infact she's out right now looking at me lol. She also has a few physical deformities. Aside from that characteristic hump many dwarf leos have at the base of their spine, she also has malformed hands and feet.. something with the joints, I'm not completely sure what. Some would say she's "not all there." She didnt understand what shedding was untill she was about 11 months old. She slowly progressed with that but sill needs my help around the feet and head areas. You could leave a bowl of meal worms in there with her for a week and she wouldnt know what to do with them. She is handfed all her meals. She is also stressed easier than the average leo. Bright lights, sudden loud sounds, things like that make her very uncomfortable. When she is stressed she does this funny spin with her head tilted almost like the Enigma syndrome... except shes not an Enigma. Anyways, I suppose my point with all this is is that tiny leos are cute, but for the better of the species should not be intentionally bred. My Itzy Bitzy Ditzy came from a very reputable breeder and was a fluke hatchling. She will never be bred, as it would likely kill her, and she will stay with me for the remainder of her life. There are those out there trying to get their handa on dwarves like Ditzy in order to breed them and create a new little gecko, even though the consequences to the individual and the species are evident. Anyways, I apologize for rambling. My assumption would be that your little ones will likely reach full adult size and have no further problems

 

[Tony C]

While the point about dwarves are true, and they should be culled at hatching, a small gecko is not necessarily a dwarf. I had a small (43 grams max at 2+ years of age) Tremper female who was one of my best breeders, she laid 6 clutches for me then laid another for her next owner shortly after arriving. Most of her babies were about average in size, but one came out at about a gram. That hatchling is still with me and growing like a weed, no signs of trouble at all. Selective breeding for size, overfeeding to the point of obesity, and the introduction of genetic giants have led people to expect huge geckos, but that is not necessarily the normal state for the species.

 

[rubym]

Our big boy, Oren, hatched out at 1.5 grams. He was from 2 giants so I was very surprised at his tiny hatch size. He is now ( at a tear old) 11.5 inches long and 141 grams. We bred him this year but the female we bred him to laid all slugs. We are going to breed him to a different female next year.

 

[lizardfreak]

I had one that died in the egg after it was due so I cut open the egg to see what was going on. It was a normal size eggs but the baby was also ridiculously small.
RIP No Name Hypo Mack Snow