Growth rate differences....

[saltwaterreptiles]

Been noticing something interesting about my last batch of hatchlings...

They were all hatched out within 24 hours or so of each other and were all pretty much the same size when I placed them into the large hatchhling tub I have, but one of them has skyrocketed in size...

It's kind of hard to tell in this pic, but the darkest leo, is easily twice the size of the others, so much so that I had to seperate him out from the other three from fear he was bullying the food supply....

http://www.saltwaterreptiles.com/albums/album30/leobabes.jpg

the other thing I noticed on the big one is that he has an extra long tail as well compared to the others. Now, as far as I know there is no giant blood in these geckos, though with the amount of crossbreeding and such that is going on its hard to say for sure WHAT'S in there, but isn't a longer than normal tail one of the early earmarks for giants? I don't for a minute think he is, but wanted to get others thoughts....

Thanks for looking...

[CoolGecko]

Yeah... I notice that a lot and more often with Bell Albinos even ones not from Kelli... There is must something going on with Bell Albino Genetics. Bell Albino genetics are not played well yet as Tremper. That will be neat to see what will happen in future. I had one clutch mate hatched, one is over 6 inches at one and half year old while other is 4 inches long. Only some more breeding will tell us the story.

Other thing I notice with Tangerines, once you do cross out for few years, they gotten bigger and more fatty appearance. Once, inbreeding it improves color quicker comparing to cross out in some way. For example; Some breeder do inbreeding for 2 to 3 generations and cross out heavily with unrelated stock to expect some improvement from out crossing, to gain Carrottail or Tangerine intense or not. It is just my thought from my observation in my experience of breeding Leopard Geckos.

Anyone got to share their thoughts?

[saltwaterreptiles]

yeah, I'm not sure if you knew previously or not, but those hatchlings pictured above ARE all bell hets as well... interesting input there Preston thanks...

[o0 RYAN 0o]

I think in this case housing hatchlings alone is the way to go. They grow like weeds in their little tubs. If you're keeping all of those guys together in a big hatchling tub, you're probably going to run into a few issues. They're pretty easily stressed when they're younger, and the tubs should be smaller and simple in setup. The big one is obviously doing a little more eating than the others, so they're not growing as fast in comparison. If they're all housed alone, they can all grow at their own rates without competition and possible stress from the others. I know all geckos are different and in some cases everything might work out perfectly with housing leos together, but personally, we like to keep them alone until they're much larger. Even when they're larger though there still may be some issues. We have a group with two females that just hate eachother, so they're now kept alone. They'll all grow differently but if you have the space, I think you'll have the best results if they're by themselves growing up.

[saltwaterreptiles]

Ryan... out of curiosity, what size tubs do you use for your hatchling enclosures?

[o0 RYAN 0o]

We use sterilite 6qts. http://www.ryanroth.com/leos/info_about_6.html

We keep them in there until they're 30ish grams or so, then they're upgraded to a 12qt.

[saltwaterreptiles]

yup.... thats what I thought, I'm going to take your advice on that Ryan and see how it goes! Thanks for the input sir

[USAGECKOS]

I do the same as Ryan, occassionally if I have a lot of babies, I will house 2 together, but only if they were both incubated for female, and I will seperate them immediately if I notice any signs of stress on either of them.