I've only seen one in person, others in photos or by description. When I bought my first leo at the East Bay Vivarium, they were trying to sell me one with a curled tail. It looked very different than that though, the whole thing was curled up and the end curved up, sort of like a pigtail or short corkscrew, not just that little tweak on the end. I believe it is also a problem in a lot of patternless geckos, I know a breeder who was having a particular gecko throw several geckos with curled/kinked tails and so retired her. Most geckos did not show the defect, but enough did, only from that animal, so that it appeared to be a pattern that indicated a genetic problem. That particular defect looks different than others I've seen personally, and with the other one hatching without a tail and no other problems from the line I agree it strongly suggests it is probably incubation in that case, but as tail defects are a known genetic problem in general...when in doubt...not worth the risk as you clearly agree. I'm sorry if it sounded like I was implying you have genetic defects in your line, that was absolutely not my intent- I just wanted to make the point that geckos with deformities should not be bred if there is any possibility the defect is genetic, and this is a known genetic problem in general. There are plenty of healthy beautiful undeformed geckos to breed, not worth passing defects into the species' genetic future.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos
