Reptile & Amphibian Forums

From the begining when I adopted Ninja, to the day I got him a friend and Ninjete I have made my leos more then just pets, they have become Family and Hobby Mix. And now I added a new adition to the family...

Meet Lizzy.

Lizzy my new adition to my family of leos. She is a regular female, about 4 1/2 years old approx 1 1/2 yrs older then Ninja/Ninjete. SHE IS HUGE, atleast 65% bigger then Ninja and Ninjete, she is a big for a leopard gecko, although not a Giant.

Quick story, she was a gift to a son and the soposely the son lost interest and she was put up for grabs for whoever would give her a good home. Which that home happened to be with me.

I introduced her to Ninja and Ninjete, at first it was hostile, Ninjete and Ninja were not pleased with the new cage mate, but after 3 reintroduces, with Ninjete, they are now fine, tommorow I will Ninja into the bigger cage. Should be no problem, he really has no problem with female leos.

Okay for starters this is great, leos are behaving the way I want, & they(Ninjete and Lizzy) are eating and drinking with no hostility torwards each other.

All Good.

Anyways now for the question, why is Lizzy so huge. She is much bigger then both Ninja and Ninjete. Shes only 1 year older then them as well. And at that, she was Fed 1 inch Crickets no viatamins added. I feed my leos 1 1/2 inch viatamin added, carrot fed Mealies. Did Genetics cause her to get to the size where she is, or food? She is much bigger then the average leo I have seen, and yes she is not a Fat Tailed.

None the less, shes awesome.

Lizzy with Ninjete in Background.

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Normal - Male - Ninja
High Yellow - Female - Ninjete
Normal - Female - Lizzy
Newborns of Ninjete, het for High Yellow

Approximately how long are each of them?

My female gecko, Tigger, is about 10 inches long, which I know is supposedly very large, especially for a female. Her diet her whole life has been crickets, and when she was growing up, it was basically as many crickets as she would eat (usually 5-6 a night).
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

I would guess that the larger Lizzy is just closer to being full grown while Ninja and Ninjete are not as full grown yet. Several different site online say that the average size of an adult leo is 8 inches, which can be reached by 1 year. My assumption is that not all leos get to full adult size by a year, but that is about the youngest that one could be, and that because the average is 8 inches, obviously this means some will be shorter, others longer. And a lot of growth can happen for a small leo in a year.