the eggs?
2yrs ago or so I made a horrible trade.I got totally burned.I traded a high dollar boa for what I thought were high end leopard gecko pair.They looked normal as hatchlings but as they grew I noticed that the females eye was not developing right.She ended up mostly blind but can see enough to eat if hand fed.
I put her in with the male because I had to downsize(space issues) and she never got prego so I thought she was sterile and left her in instead of pulling her back out.
She laid eggs last night.I dont know if I should keep them or not.I hate the idea of just throwing out the eggs but am afraid the babies will also be blind or have eye problems(the male is okay but from the guy so who knows if he carries the same genetic defect).What would you do?
BTW These are her first and last eggs as she is being housed alone now.
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Help with this dilemma...Should I crush
Replies (5)
To go ahead and throw out the egg.Its only one and I really dont think it would have been a healthy gecko anyway.I really dont want to have to feed another blind gecko by hand.So I have separated the pair, she gets the original tank since she is familiar with it and he gets a bin for now.
I tell you what Ive more bad luck with reptiles(getting ripped off etc)...Think I will get into birds.
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More than likly the problem is going to be recessive and the babies might be fine....any other opinions?
could be recessive or it could have been developed during incubation or as a juvenile. i would try to hatch the eggs and see what happens. also, if the first egg was fertile, there will probably be more eggs to come even though it is not housed with the male anymore. geckos can hold sperm and lay fertile eggs for the season from one mating..
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1.1 Western Painted Turtle (Mougly, Scooter)
1.1 Albino Leopard Gecko (Daphne, Guy)
1.0 High Yellow Leopard Gecko (Sunshine)
1.1 HTCT Leopard Gecko (Rocket, Dot)
0.1 SHTCT Leopard Gecko (Tequila)
The big reason to be scared is if it is recessive as all of the babies would carry the gene and the problem would be passed on to consumers undetected. The breeding trials to prove that take 2 years. I knew someone who has had 40 eggs from a female over 2 years and only one ended up with bad eyes meaning it is unlikely it was recessive since your odds from het to het are 1 in 4 and it more likely was just an incubatory issue. Then again it may be a gene that is variably expressed and even if a gecko is homozygous for the bad gene it may not show it. The short answer is i dont know what you should do. maybe there is more information out there on the eye defects that i dont know about so definitely worth asking one of the big guys. Let me know if you need help mapping out test breedings to prove the genetics of your gecko.
i wouldnt say last eggs they can store sperm...
i would incubate them and see what u get, you never know the babies might be healthy, the female may have had a bad incubation, i had one clutch hatch out after my thermostat died, i didnt catch it right away, and got a couple premie leos, 1 survived and was healthy the other died off, so nature will decide for you which can live and which cant.
