Hi all,
I recently adopted a leopard gecko (Bell Stripe APTOR) and discovered it has vision problems. The best he seems able to do is sense are shadows that pass over his eyes. He had no reaction to feeding tongs being placed very close to his face. Being an albino, this makes sense. It was silly of me not to have thought of that beforehand.I don't regret it; he's large, healthy, and quite beautiful. I'd like to take the credit for him getting comfortable in his new enclosure so quickly (with one of my females)but his previous owner kept him in good health. Plus leopard geckos seem amazingly resilient in general so maybe the lizard deserves all the credit.
I have 3 females that I've been keeping for years, going through a slew of problems but figuring out through trial and error the best habitats I could provide for them. One dropped a tail but other than that, no serious problems.
I adopted this male with plans to breed him and my females, but this vision problem has me hesitating. Unless I'm mistaken vision problems seem well known albino morphs. I realize that this is a pet, and not a wild animal but I feel guilty producing creatures with a mutation that impairs their vision. My females all have good eyesight. I'm often impressed by how accurately they strike at their prey. They're voracious little hunters!
Perhaps I'm looking at it from a blatantly human perspective. In the wild the odds are definitely stacked against an albino animal surviving. Yet in his enclosure, I do everything I can to guarantee he thrives. From a survival perspective, his vision problems really aren't a detriment, I suppose.
I'd like to hear how animal breeders in general feel about this issue, because I'm assuming it doesn't just apply to leopard geckos but albinos of many species.
