An XRay Leads to a Debate.......

Last week I received a gecko in the mail with a curved back. (On a side note, the breeder did not see it until last minute and sent a replacement gecko with it). I wanted to know if it was a break in the spine, and what sort of effects it may have on the gecko's longevity, so I took her in to be Xrayed.

The Xray showed not a break, but a curve in the spine. I am assuming this happened during incubation. The curve is directly between the shoulder blades and does not look to be applying pressure on any of her internal organs. That's a great thing. The gecko is very healthy and exacly where it should be in growth for it's age. I am confident she will live a very normal life.

Now the debate is here...

The one aspect I found VERY interesting about the Xray didn't have anything to do with her back, but instead, her tail. From the outside her tail is 100% normal. From the inside, the Xray showed 2 kinks within the tail. This arroused much interest in me.

There are so many views on the 'right and wrong' practice of breeding leo's with visible tail kinks. How many leo's are out there that have unseen kinks? And Does that bear any weight on what people might think otherwise? (Ie, those who disagree with breeding tail kinks... what if they didn't know there leo's had them??). So I decided to investigate a bit further...

Today, I met one of the technicians down at the clinic and we shot Xrays on 2 different gecko's from reputable breeders.

Both had tail kinks hidden within. Infact, One of them looked like a slithering snake... her tail had so many curves to it (and on the outside, she looks as perfect as can be).

So now I am wondering... are kinks so normal and common now? Have they always been and we just couldn't see them with the naked eye? Remember, I checked a total of 3 geckos from 3 respectable breeders. Now, I would like to Xray these geckos' offspring and see if it is also present in them. I'm just so curious now. What if the majority of the "perfect/breedable" leo's have imperfections hidden within?

I am not done testing this. I hope to further my research over the next few months. I wanted to share my initial finding with everyone though.

Thanks for reading,
Hailey
www.IDGecko.com

(( And so as to start another debate... They were exposed to minimal radiation 1 time. I have been assured that there will be no ill effects on the geckos.))

wow... thats very interesting Hailey, so, so far, your three for three on tail kinks, and on all of those there was no kink visable. That IS interesting. I have always said that in many of these geckos there may be numerous things going on inside that we can't see.

So whats the next step for you? Are you going to be testing various geckos from various breeders to see if this is the norm? I guess as a perfect control you would want a couple of wild caughts to x-ray and see if thier tails have kinks or not.

Its very very interesting to be sure!!! Keep us posted!

Great post, Hailey. I am certain that if we x-rayed all of our geckos we would find the exact same thing in the vast majority of them. I have been giving the 'kinked tail' issue a lot of thought lately, and I have a strong hunch that it is either not the big problem we perceive it to be, or just the tip of the iceberg. Time will tell.

This is extremely interesting, and makes me want to get all mine x-rayed just to see. At least the patties. Maybe I will. Thanks, Hailey. by the way you didnt mention which morph they were. just curious, what are they?

The morphs: 1 snow, 1 tremper albino, 1 tangerine


Wouldn't that be so neat to Xray wild caughts? That would be one Xray slide that I could not wait to develop!!! 5 minutes would feel like an eternity! LoL

That's very interesting indeed... I'd be interested in seeing those if you can find some way to scan the images and post them.

I think the only way to tell for sure is to x-ray some wild caughts as the control group. You could probably make a whole scientific study on it (Reptiles Magazine Article perhaps?). Let us know what you find as you continue.

I also find this to be an extremely interesting find
I wonder what "The Norm" is for the degree of absolutely straight vertebrae in a tail is-how often does that actually occur and remains undetected unless x-rayed as in this case?
Sandy

Wow, very interesting. Does anybody have a wild caught that could be x-rayed?

Just one thing I'd like to know though: were these internal tail kinks a result of a fractured vertebrae healing or a potential genetic occurrence? Perhaps we're looking into this wrong, and maybe it's not genetic at all, but instead a result of being confined in an egg in an odd position or a natural weakness in the tail bone structure of young geckos to produce unseen, minor fractures? Maybe the defect itself isn't genetic, but certain leopards are predisposed to having embryos develop in strange positions? It sure would be interesting to get some x-rays of wild caught individuals.

The only thing that makes me suspect a genetic basis is the new information coming out about the extreme tail kinks in Urban Gecko lines.

I'm very interested in this as I have also, like most of you all out there (notice I didn't type y'all even though I'm from Texas... Yeah but I say it! lol) in the tail kinks of certain geckos and such. That brings up a question in my mind. Perhaps the captive diet that we provide to our geckos might not be the most suffecient diet for them? Maybe they are exposed to something different - nutrients, higher/lower calcium, substrate (don't see how that could affect anything, but hey), and other factors due to their habitat that would affect the way their bones grow and absorb their nutrients. Perhaps the enclosures that we as breeders keep them in (racks and tubs) affect their bone structure.

Food for thought.