Small Females.

[Paco]

I am just wondering how many of you out there have Small females. I recently purchaed a group of females and they are all Small Body and Head leos. Compared to the other femals I have. They are all 100% Healthy and have Fat Tails. They are all just about a year old now, some are a year a few are 10-11 months. The smallest girl is 41grams the Biggest and Oldest girl is 48grams the other girls are between these 2 weights. I know that everyone wants to breed females above 55+ grams but I have a feeling that a few of these females will not reach this weight unless I make them extra fat, which I do not want to do. So tell me about your small females. What's the smallest Adult female you have.

 

[Halley]

Smallest adult female that I have is stuck at 34 right now. I got her 4/10 and she hasn’t grown a gram, and she has a clean fecal sample, eats a lot, etc. She is a bell enigma, and will not breed until large enough, which with this one should be about 45 grams. However I would think with geckos, as in humans some will always be a bit smaller. I had two BB females that I got at 22 grams each; they grew on average 9 grams a week, so I thought that they would get extremely large. Well the toped off at about 47 grams, and haven't grown any for about 2 months. So this is the size I will breed them at, as this is the largest size that they will probably get. They are both healthy, fat-tails, so why not breed them. I also just recently had a 30 gram female that wasn't breed, lay two eggs, without problems. She just developed them, and then laid them. She passed them fine, and when she gets large enough, and I’m sure she is in fine health to breed, I will breed her. If I had a female that was stuck at 41 grams, I would most likely give her a little bit more time. If she stays at 41 grams, and doesn’t grow, then I would breed her. A small gecko should be able to have eggs, just like a smaller person can give child birth. Just make sure she is at full adult size. Otherwise it is like making a 12 year old girl give birth.

 

[Paco]

The next question would be then, when do they become technically adults? Is when they reach a certain weight or is it age based? I know it's a combo of both but is a 65gram 6 month old Ovulating Female an Adult or is a 12 month old 41 Gram Ovulating Female an Adult? What is the definition of an Adult Leo?

 

[Halley]

Well although you can breed a 68 gram 6 month old female. I don't think she is an adult. I consider an adult leopard gecko to be full grown. I guess another human example of this is. Shaquille O'Neil was probably bigger than most full grown men in the 7th grade. That didn't make him an adult; it just means that he was larger as an adult. Just like with you giant. However I think that there are some people in their 40s that are only like 5'. They are full grown and adult. Same with leopard geckos. Your 41 gram is just 5’, and your 68 6 month old is SHAQ. Hope I did better with the question, than the last question of yours I tried to answer.

 

[Paco]

Nicholas... You still have not answred the question yet. What's your definition of full grown? The 6 month old female may not be a "adult" by age standards but what if thats the biggest she will ever get and does get? That would be full grown in my opinion. The question still is, What is an Adult?

 

[Baker14]

I have to say full grown is around 12 or so months old.

 

[Paco]

OK

I have to say full grown is around 12 or so months old.

More of the answer I was looking for. Anybody else care to comment?

 

[Paco]

To clarify.

Nicholas... You still have not answred the question yet. What's your definition of full grown? The 6 month old female may not be a "adult" by age standards but what if thats the biggest she will ever get and does get? That would be full grown in my opinion. The question still is, What is an Adult?

For this I do not want people to think that feel it's OK to breed such a young female. I was trying to make the point, that If the Female can no longer get any bigger I would consider that full grown, not necessarily breedable but full grown.

 

[DLS Reptile]

Leopard geckos are not fully grown at a year old. Though they look like adults they do not fully mature until they are around 18 months. A typical normal non giant female is usually at 40-50 grams at their first year. I had a het raptor female that was 46 grams at 12 months. By the time she was a year and a half she was pushing 70 grams. This is pretty much the norm for most. Some will obviously get a little bigger than others but this is usually the case...