Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is it just me or do alot of petternless leos have kinked tails.....???

I couldnt say out of experience Patt's have more then any other Leo, but I have seen enough to understand why you would ask. Is there a reason you ask this? Are you breeding them or plan to?

Take it easy
-----
www.SuperiorCreations.net

webmaster@Superiorcreations.net

I have seen the majority of kinks in patternless Leos.I have produced one over my 2 season of working with them.The cause of this guys tail was fluctuating incubation temps. I have noticed quiet a few kinked tail patternless and PA's one certain breeder pages. I believe this has come from overwhelming selective breeding.

-----
ChaD
Contact Me
LeoGeoKingdom

No, it's not just you! You will see more kinked tails on patternless Leos. There a lot of thoughts and opinions on why this occurs in this specific morph, buy my feeling is that it is a genetic defect that may be caused by too much line-breeding. Last year, one of my females with no kinked tail produced four clutches with half of them having kinked tails. She was the only one of my breeding colony that did! Although this is a minor defect that seems to have absolutely no effect on the health or aesthetic beauty of the gecko, it is still an undesireable trait. Patternless leopard geckos with kinked tails still need good, loving, homes... but as a responsible breeder I would not knowingly produce them.
-----
Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com

Yes a lot of them do have kinks, and as the others have stated it is probably from too much line breeding. I had an albino het for patternless that I purchased as a hatchling with a perfect tail, about three months later it started to develop a kink tail. At that point I just realized I should get a different male for my PA project. Here's the comparison pics.

This is a picture of him at about 2 months old.

Here's a pic at about 6 months.

-----
The Hypo Gecko

. . . I think that if the tails kink later - it might be a husbandry thing. I'm not ripping your care of the animals - but I have a gut feeling that some animals are much more sensitive to calcium levels than others - esp. douible het and need more special care than the typical animal.

It's just a guess - but I think a valid one.

Again, I'm not being critical of you - just raising a theory. Any thoughts?
-----
Monte Meyer
Powergeckos
Email

No Fru-Fru morphs in the herp room

That is an interesting point. What i'm wondering is.....what exactly is the physiological reason for kinked tails. What causes the kink?

I've seen (in humans) that blood vessel leaks can cause scare tissue that will kink one part of the body...scaring within the skin tissue will also do this.

Is it the bone structure of the tail that kinks or the skin tissue?

Thanks

Red
-----
Crested Gecko Zeek:1.0
LEOS: Boo: 1.0 normal , Bronx & Nala: 1.1 blizzard,
Lily: 0.1 patternless, Abby: 0.1 albino, Zoe: 0.1 reduced pattern, Dot: 0.1 hypo
Chip: 1.0 papillion (small dog)

I would imagine that the kinks are bone structure...and my thought as to the actual structure of the kinks (at least in that albino het for patternless) is that one side of the bone grows quicker than the other, thus causing a bend in the total structure. That happens sometimes in dogs' legs and makes them bend outwards and surgery is required to fix them...although I'm pretty sure in dogs there is no genetic connection with the problem. Anyway...just my thoughts.

It could be, he never really did lick up his calcium like my other geckos. There's also the genetic factor though seeing as patternless geckos are more succeptible to this.
-----
The Hypo Gecko

with patternless geckos in particular, from what I've heard.
-----
Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos