Reptile & Amphibian Forums

In the litter, I noticed two of the babies were much smaller
than all the others... runts perhaps?

here's a normal size sibling:

and this is one of the runts:

here the runt is under one of the normal sized ones:

just thought the size diff. was interesting, all the babies
but those two runts are basically the same size.

It's going to take me a while to decide which one I want to keep!

here's a shot comparing a light baby and dark baby..

I have had twins born before. Yeah I know they are all twins, but these two were identical twins that were still connected to the same external yolk, were the same sex and size. They were almost exactly half the weight of their litter mates. Even had similar patterns.
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Rick Staub
R&R Reptiles

I hadn't thought of that, good thinking! I did notice the
patterns were similar but I didn't compare them closelyand it
did seem odd that out of all of them only 2 were this small..
I'll compare tonite!

I have also had identical twins before that weighed about half the weight of the normals and really looked identical in every way.
Bill Kirby

You may want to keep those two and see if you can produce a dwarf line of redtails. Gotta start somewhere.

April, I had a similar animal born this year. The twin theory is a definite possibility. In my case, the runt appeared to be the twin of another sibling that didn't form. All there was, was a large liquified egg mass. I was about to throw it out when a tiny head popped out.

This boa is nearly three months old now and although he is eating regularly, there has been no increase in length. He is bulking out in girth however.

As you can see from the photo, he is considerably smaller then normal. If you've got a girl, we may need to get these together in a few years.

Reptilian Dreams

I checked out the other runt and they do appear to be twins, I
am trying to leave the babies alone so they settle down...
but from the saddle counts and comparing speckels they seem
to have the same pattern.
I have been unsucessful in sexing the babies with the 'popping'
meathod, I need someone to show me how to do it!
BUT, I may keep one or both of the runts, I haven't decided yet..
but if I do... a future breeding loan may be in the works!

-April

mini-red tails!