Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Another baby came out today. At first I was overjoyed at she appears silver..didn't know they were het for anything. After a closer look my heart sank..just past the vent, there is a gnarly curling kink in the tail. It is past the vent, so I dont think it would hinder defacation, but I don't ever think it could breed. Do you think this one will make it? Should it be culled? The next one I looked at appears to be silver and it has no kinks at all. The previous one I posted looks more normal..what you think? I had a hard time keeping it in focus..sorry






The sib that looks good

-John

That really sucks as thats a nice suboc. I've had kinked babies before and know how you feel. As hard as it might be I would put it down. I would definatly not recommend breeding it and even if it's past the cloaca it's hard to say if it would bother it or not. As severe as it is it probably would. I tend to put any baby down if it's definatly kinked even if it's just a fraction of that.
That other one in the clutch is nice and that's killer if the thirds a silver especially if you didn't know the parents were het. Good luck. Randy W.

I agree with Randy about putting it down, especially if the kink keeps the animal from shedding properly or passing feces, etc.

On the other hand, those animals don't look like silvers to me. I'm seeing some interstitial yellow/buckskin/tan in the background color, and that just doesn't happen on axanthics. Sometimes the pattern/color on animals that haven't shed looks somewhat "ghosted". Wait until they shed to see.

silver = axanthic = a complete lack of yellow

It's rare that someone would sell you a pair of animals without even telling you they are het for silver, because that would have been the strongest selling point.

Silver is a 100% genetic morph. Either it's 100% there or it isn't. It's not a "tendency" like with the grayish/tan subocs that are sometimes encountered in the wild. It may be that you do have one of these "hypoxanthics", with reduced (but not absent) yellow, making the light gray stand out more. This is not a simple recessive trait. In layman's terms, it's what I would call a "tendency". For example, there is no such thing as a normal corn that is het for Okeetee or Miami phase.

DR
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