Slightly deformed baby...

[Herherpsnderps]

This Mack snow murphys patternless hatched out today..was the first season for the female and the only egg she's laid so far..Was really banking on it being good since I needed him for next year. I told myself if I got into breeding that would I'd be ok with culling and until now I've been incredibly fortunate with my babies. Now I'm faced with it, it's a bit harder..he seems to have very slight irregular breathing but he literally just hatched so I'm gonna give him a few hours. Not 100% sure what to do if he actually starts to be ok other than the ugly face though. He came out at 3.3g which is smaller than most of my others at 43days incubated 88F(my incubator is pretty spot on). Any advice? If he doesn't do well I can put him down easily..just doesn't seem like the deformed eye is bothering him yet, but I'd really hate for him to get out into a home, although I doubt anyone would be crazy enough to breed him still..I've always been pretty on par with keeping the captive bred geckos as clean as possible. So just semi ranting/just dealing with this as well as looking for any advice on it all and what some of you have done if you've ever run into this issue.

http://i.imgur.com/WdcKvdP.jpg (the pic is kinda bad I'm trying not to bother him but his legs are actually fine he was just standin funny)
http://i.imgur.com/HedJSmD.jpg


Edit: Figured I'd throw this in in case any one had any questions, but my incubator they were in was at 88F and 60% humidity outside of the cups. Within the egg cups they vary 80-85% humidity and the eggs themselves on the surface are about 87F. It's a stable incubator so when it flucuates it's only by about a 0.5 of a degree. I've hatched other babies out of it that were perfect and healthy but if any ones has any suggestions I'm always up for feedback on anything(Never stop improving!) Thanks guys

 

[acpart]

Well, the eye looks a little small, but the gecko looks chubby and healthy so far. Can the eye close? In my opinion it's worth waiting awhile to see how it does.

Aliza

 

[Herherpsnderps]

Yea both his eyes have eyelids. Everything seems to be functioning and he's a fast little bugger. I was concerned with the deformed eyes that perhaps his eye didn't develop enough to see as well buy so far he seems to see perfectly fine as well. He's oddly soft though.

I'm just torn because I know it's generally considered a good idea to cull anything sickly, with deformities, ect. I was convinced anyone who would take one look at him would know not to breed him but I had a friend drop by the other night who kinda scared me. He asked why I wouldn't be breeding him because "the genetics are still there" granted this friend knows nothing about breeding but there are lots of people who throw two geckos together... And of course I could find him a home as pet only but who knows what will happen to him down the road if they rehome him. I know I'm over thinking this I just don't want to be rssponsibile for any bad genetics leaked into the captive gene pool ><

 

[DrCarrotTail]

His eyes are hopefully the only thing wrong with him. I haven't hatched out anything similar but I've been lucky finding great pet homes for the few I've hatched out with tail kinks. Local science teachers have a couple in their classrooms and a a couple others went to a few families around town. I like to try to give mine a chance at a happy life if they can meet their needs without much help and aren't in any distress or discomfort as they do so. I feel the choice to do so or not is a personal one tho. You are the one that has to live with the choice and some folks can handle culling better than others.

Id triple check the moisture level of your incubation substrate and make sure it's measured at a .8 ratio of substrate:water and the heat stability in your incubator. If both of those are correct then I would assume it's a genetic fluke, they do happen from time to time randomly even if everything else is perfect, and not worry about it unless you hatch more like it. If you hatch any more and can't find an environmental reason I might not breed that pair again or any offspring back to mom or dad or to each other and bring in some new blood from another breeder in case it's an inbreeding issue.

 

[Herherpsnderps]

I'm usually good about checking the moisture levels but that is the first thing I did, I slightly panicked because it had been a few weeks but the moisture was pretty solid. I only need to add a little every now and again. My second concern was a vitamin A deficiency but I breed and gutload my own worms and I really only feed them things high in vitamin A(Collar greens, mustard greens,carrots, kale, ect) I'm fortunate enough between the beardie and my husbands tortoises that we're always stocked on healthy worm food haha. The gals also get vitamins 2-3 a week by hand to make sure they're getting enough because it's always been a big concern for me.

The male bred with another female who's eggs are due to hatch out soon so fingers crossed they're all healthy . If it's a genetic flaw I'm hopin it's with the female, the male is the mack snow and he's kinda my baby and one of the friendliest geckos I've ever owned(I was bad and got attached). So if it's him I'll end up probably just keeping him anyways as a pet but it'll be a pain My only other concern is I switched to the egg trays this year and while my other babies have come out fine I wonder if the larger eggs are getting squished and that has an effect on them or not. If he's healthy I'll just find him a home, I just wanted a consensus from other breeders on the matter. I feel as though because I can't bring myself to cull a malformed but otherwise healthy gecko that I'd be considered a bad breeder but I really feel bad for the little guy. God knows I didn't get into this for the money -.- Luckily as long as he stays healthy I had an older woman co-worker who wanted him(ironically we worth at a day hab facility for developmentally disabled) So she really liked his "quirks" when I showed her the pictures. Thanks again for taking the time to respond back to me, I really appreciate the input, it makes me feel a bit better for sure