Cut Egg - Results for the Curious/Scientifically Interested (Warning: Deceased)

Well I cut an egg tonight, and every time I do so I document the results with pictures and details for at least my personal files. I thought this one was interesting to share with you all because I believe we can learn from these experiences. Don't get me wrong, I approach this from as a scientific point of view as much as possible, but I cried over this baby (and he/she is now buried in the backyard). I care for every one of my little ones, even when they weren't meant to be with me in this world.

So warning now... photos of a dead hatchling to come. None are overly graphic and none bloody, but I know some people are uncomfortable seeing photos of dead animals so you have been forewarned!

I had a clutch due to hatch around the end of October, baby #1 arrived on November 1st after 78 days of incubation. I had thought there was something wrong with the second egg since about a month in (from candling), so I wasn't terribly surprised when it didn't hatch on time. I didn't expect it to hatch at all but I'm always hopeful so I left the egg be, until tonight when it deflated and was leaking. Just in case there was a hatchling needing assistance I cut the egg, though I expected to find an only partially formed embryo. Unfortunately the baby was much further developed than I expected, which I think is part of the reason I felt such a loss. However, it was still undeveloped in some significant ways and so not meant to survive outside the egg, so I'm glad it did not hatch. Here are my observations and photos, for what they are worth.

Here is the little kiddo when I popped it out of the egg and let it dry a little (though it's just crumpled because it was squeezed in that deflated egg). Perfect mini 10 fingers and toes, not so perfect other things. As you can see in this photo, the skull and skin over it did not completely close, so there is a small hole on the top of the head. You can see the head/face are not shaped correctly either (you can see that better in the second photo however), though the eyes were fully formed.

Here is a side shot of the head/face, showing an overly short snout, a misshapen jaw, and the dip in the head where there was the hole.

Here is the underside - you can see that the belly is not completely closed (though it was covered in a thin, transparent layer of skin) where babies attach to their eggs. I have had babies with small open umbillical areas here when hatched that closed within a day or two, but never been able to see inside the abdominal cavity like this.

Final shot, showing the belly again and also the misshapen back legs that reminded me of frog legs with the bulbous upper portion.

The good news? I have a healthy, gorgeous clutchmate who weighed in at a healthy 2.1 grams today at 2 1/2 weeks old. This is the first crowned hatchling I've hatched and I believe it will be red or dark extreme harley with a lot of cream, considering what it's showing already! (Parents are Miracle Max and Athena for those who would be interested.) I was extremely surprised when such a gem popped out of that egg, and am thankful I have it to dote over in the wake of the passing of its clutchmate. Here are some unplanned photos from tonight, so he/she is unfired and the quality isn't great, but you can get an idea!

Hope you got something out of my little attempt at a scientific-y post, I figure the more we can learn about these under-developed kiddos the better, especially if they do hatch. In this case I don't think it's genetic as I had all healthy hatchlings from this pairing last year, it was just one of those fluke things. Not meant to survive outside the egg so it developed as far as it was going to, and then probably perished after that point. RIP little one.

Rescue Rehab Success!

The last post that I made back in June was about three rescue geckos that I took in, suffering severe MBD (with resulting deformities) and malnutrition. I am extremely pleased to say that they are now doing very well and will be going to new homes soon. The larger female and male are doing exceptional, they are eating loads of CGD and have recovered their calcium stores so that their MBD is no longer progressing. They've gained weight and both are being adopted by a wonderful gal who plans to give them a forever home where they won't be bred and their health will be carefully monitored. Here are some updated photos of the two (now) chunkies.

The female, who is a sweetheart:

And the male:

The younger female met with some setbacks - she laid two clutches of eggs (infertile fortunately) and lost a lot of weight as a result, as well as adding additional kinks to her tail. However, thankfully because I was supplementing her with calcium and other vitamins, she did not calcium crash. She is now eating better than ever before and working on regaining the weight she has lost, and I have successfully stopped her laying. She still has a little way to go and will need to be watched closely, but I have found her a home with a local friend who I know will do a great job caring for her. The friend is actually the one who originally discovered these cresties being kept in such poor conditions, and she picked them up and delivered them to me. It all has come full circle!!

I'm quite happy with the homes I've found for these rescues, and even more pleased with the recoveries they made. Now they're moving out, and I've got lots of new kids moving in. ;) More on that soon!

Rescue 911, Gecko-Style

The story behind the rescue of these geckos is a bit long, so here's the short version - All 3 were up on my local craigslist for sale but due to their horrible conditions, upset members of a forum I am apart of sent enough angry emails to apparently convince the guy to give them up for free. I hadn't seen the ad or the forum thread until the day they were picked up by another member who I sold her first crestie to. She went and got them and we were in contact the whole time. She's fairly new to the Rhac world and was feeling overwhelmed by their medical state so I offered to take them and they were in my possession later that night. They were all 3 (1.2) kept in one big barren Exo and from what we can deduce, being fed a diet of mainly unsupplemented or gut-loaded crickets. As I'm sure you can guess, we have some severe MBD (Metabolic Bone Disease) and deformities as a result, as well as other issues. More on that later. Onto the photos!

First up is the male, who seems to be in the most pain. He was also the most underweight but he has been chowing down on his CGD and already looks healthier in that regard. :D However, he's absolutely PSYCHOTIC to handle (I think due to the pain), just moving him to get a photo and then into his new tub was a zoo. He tried to bite me multiple times, gaped, ran and jumped as suicidally as possible... even got into the vacuum at one point. ](*,) So for now, I am mostly leaving him alone to just get more weight on him and some extra vitamins and calcium in through his CGD. Here he is (I'm considering calling him Straightjacket but I thought that might put off future adopters, maybe I'll call him Zen):

He has a very hard, wavy tail and hips twisted to the right. He was very underweight when he arrived but has already gained several grams (though this is uncomfirmed because I'm sure at this point a date with the scale = I'd be missing a finger and he'd be hiding somewhere in the basement). He also has a back deformity most likely due to the MBD.

This is what he has to say about being handled! Though he did give me a very nice view of his non-existent calcium sacs.

Though seriously he didn't have as much to complain about as he was - this is his superdedupercustommadeforhim tub. It's a lower/shallower tub so if he does happen to fall he won't hurt himself, with low things to climb on and plenty of hiding spots (he loves paper towel/toilet paper tubes). He's been all over the place exploring.

This is the big girl of the group, mature and I'm fairly certain gravid. She's also got the hip twist and a wavy tail, though it has actually already improved a little bit. It's not as hard as the other two and I have hope with supplementation/UVB she might get it even straighter. She's pretty sweet too, not used to being handled but fairly even-tempered despite that.

She has a sweet face. <3 She is the only one whose jaws look slightly affected by the MBD (which would make sense if she's been laying), but it isn't very significant thankfully.

Exploring her tub, checking out the laybox (which I cross my fingers and pray she can use successfully... incubator ready and waiting just in case.)

Her tub. And I realized I had not yet put food and water into the tubs yet when I took these pics - don't worry, they're in there now!

Little girl, a beautiful butter yellow! Her hips are not as rotated as they look in the photo, it's just the way she's sitting (though they are twisted to the left somewhat). Her tail is very hard and the worst affected. She's underweight too and I hope that changes now that she is by herself.

She just looks scared of life! I feel so bad for her. She's very flighty to handle. I really hope she is not gravid, she's much too small and malnourished.

And finally, her tub. Lots of climbing things, she's the most active climber of the three. Added a laybox for her just in case and she's already played around in the moss.

So... my plan of action is this: I'm first going to start supplementing their CGD weekly with Herptivite (a multivitamin powder), and when they're eating well on that I plan to treat them all with Flagyl (a medication used to treat protozoan infections such as Entameoba invadens). I'm fairly certain of parasites in all three due to their appearances, lethargy (in spite of the crazy moments), and consistency/smell of their poop. When they get settled in a little more I'll be dosing them all with Super-Cal (a high dose calcium supplement). I'm also putting one tub under UVB a day, so they get it every third day (didn't want to run the risk of any eye problems). I've placed all their tubs in an area which gets a good dose of sunlight for much of the day too. Hopefully this will do the trick as far as nursing them back to health and they can be adopted out to good homes after awhile. And I do mean hopefully, I may need to sell a kidney to recoup what I have spent on them!

I plan to keep the blog updated with their progress so keep your eyes peeled for rescue posts! :-)

What was Lost is Found

Tonight as I was misting and removing dishes for soaking, I noticed one gecko hadn't touched his food. He always does, so I went looking for him to check on him (he's always hidden in the evenings). Couldn't find him in his cage and I knew I wasn't missing him. Crap. Lost gecko. Lost in a walk-in closet full of clothes, shoes, boxes, and more. Double crap. I've lost geckos before but never with this much stuff in there (I'm staying at this house temporarily while my husband is deployed).

I was not feeling well tonight so was not up to a full-scale pull-everything-apart gecko search. He couldn't have been out of his cage more than 2 days so I decided to do a once over, and then turn out the lights, wait a bit, and look again. Then tomorrow I'd do everything I could to find him. So I finished misting everybody and did my once over. Just as I was about to leave and turn out the lights I simply looked up from bending over, and right at on a shelf at eye level - bam:


Yup, that's right, he decided to go ahead and make his grand escape into... a jar. Granted it was completely on the other side of the room and he had to make quite the trek, but still, really?! Every other escapee I've found has been quite hidden, curled up somewhere dark and secluded. Apparently this guy isn't worried about such trivial things when choosing his hiding place.

In any case, I kind of got a kick out of it after seeing that he was ok. Defintely very thirsty, but he will be just fine. What a weird gecko. Good thing he's pretty. ;-)

New Projects Decided

Well, I've decided what I'm going to do for the upcoming year. I'm excited for some new projects!! I talked with a good friend of mine and fellow gecko/reptile breeder and enthusiast, A.F. Parker (aka Styx), and we came up with some great ideas. The first idea (that I'm thrilled is now possible) requires a bit of back story.

In the spring of 2010 my friend had a horrific and completely unexpected occurance happen to several of her baby geckos. She fed several of her animals (4 baby cresties, 2 baby gargoyles, and 2 sub-adult cresties) butterworms one day. She noticed that as the geckos bit into the worms the worms arched and released a clear fluid onto the faces of the geckos. There are other details, but in a nutshell, after those geckos shed it became clear that they had caustic burns (scales missing and all), 2 severely. The reason never became fully clear though thankfully the geckos did recover. Read through Styx's forum thread, "A Warning: Use Caution With Butterworms", to get all the details, hypotheses, vet information, and more. I especially recommend reading it if you feed butterworms to any Rhac species (they seem especially vulnerable with their small scales and delicate, thin skin.

Before this incident occured, I had already decided to purchase a baby gargoyle from Styx because it was from a beautiful red base pairing and I loved both parents. Unfortunately my little baby, "Hida" was one of the gargoyles to be burned, and one of the 2 most severely burned geckos. Here are some photos of her post-burn - she has salve on her, hence her "goopy" appearance (all photos in this post are by Styx):




She was truly a sorry sight for quite some time. I told Styx I was still going to take her anyway, no matter how she turned out, and give her a loving forever home. Hida did heal up and I got her last year. Before she came to me she was a very stunted, slow-growing baby who Styx didn't think would ever reach normal size, so Styx requested I not breed her because of her history. However, the amazing part is that she is now a huge, healthy female who has even had to go on a diet! She is by far the largest-bodied and heaviest animal in my collection. Hearing this, Styx gave me the go ahead to breed her this year! Whoo hoo! She is a red based, orange blotched reticulated. Simply gorgeous (I'll be getting photos of her soon). I can't wait to breed her to Frank, those are going to be some stunners of babies. Red bases all around, if I had to guess! So as for the gargoyles, this year I will be breeding Frank to Hida and trying again with Pâté as well. I really hope to be successful, I just love gargoyle hatchlings. They're so chubby and adorable.

On the crested gecko front, Styx helped me out there too! Ok she probably coerced me, but I'm perfectly happy with the result. :) I had been looking for a mate for my extreme harlequin male "Vizzini", so asked her if she had any adult females for sale. She named a few off and I fell head over heels for "Nova", a tri-color extreme harlequin female she was considering selling. She's a beautiful girl and I've been told she's even better in person. Check out her awesome sauce:


Then Styx played dirty, showing me an ad she had just posted for an outstanding young male lavender extreme harlequin with markings that I *love*. Besides his base color, he looks a ton like his dad, the now-famous Inazuma:


I can trace back my little guy's lineage 2 generations, with photos of all grandparents. He is without a doubt a cornerstone male worth building a project around, and I plan to! I will be breeding him to "Nova" (I may change her name) when he's old/big enough. He's only about 10 grams right now. But he's outstanding, and will only get better! I'm going to have to come up with the perfect name for such an incredible animal. Here are some photos of him:




Isn't he just the most handsome little devil? I'm thrilled with him and can't wait for both of them join me (it'll be a few more months or so for weather purposes). I may still breed Nova to Vizzini (if she's not still gravid by one of Styx's males) to see what he produces, but as of now he's for sale. I am male-heavy and I just don't really have any females that would compliment his unique pattern/color, and can't find any either.

Lots of changes, but I am happy with where this is going. I have a feeling lavender and creams are going to stay in my future for awhile, what with this new boy and also I'll probably be keeping my 100% lavender pinstripe male to breed into my current lavender/cream lines. And I can't wait to start with the gargoyles again, I want to see what Frank can produce with another red based female (or two)! ;)

Kiddos leaving the nest...

I always am a bit sad when shipping geckos off, or passing them off to their new owners. My little ones have always had a lot of time put into them and were definitely not cared for as just "one more" in my collection. Each gecko I own is special to me. But these two are going to wonderful homes where I know I will receive updates, so that makes the "hand-off" much easier!

First went a juvenile gargoyle, currently unnamed. She went to the home who bought my leachie a few weeks ago. I wasn't suprised when their wonderful family came back - the mother fell in love with Frank (the kiddo's father) when she came to get Gherkin and both her and her son were very interested in the gargoyles. If you haven't heard - Rhacs are like potato chips, you can't just have one! (I'm living proof. It all started with one here too.) Enjoy your new home, little one! Here she is fully fired, though this is an older photo:


The second little one to leave the nest was a holdback of mine, but I'm trying to thin out my holdbacks because I have outstanding ones from last year and recent hatchlings from my lavender project that I think will be equally amazing. It was a true orange brindle with reverse pinning (seems like you don't see that color so much, it's either red or yellow, not a true orange...)/end muse. This is going to be this person's first gecko and she is so excited. :) She did her research and asked a lot of questions, I felt quite comfortable about sending the little one home with her and I know it'll be spoiled rotten! Again, an older photo but still a good representation:


Weighing my options for spring breeding! Leaning towards adding to Frank's harem at the moment, I really do love raising gargoyle babies. They're so chunky when they hatch and seem much less fragile than cresties. Heck, they weigh twice as much or more at hatch! I don't have any stripes in the mix so that cold be a fun addition. I'll keep you all in the loop.

Lavender Development

I apologize for the delay in posting, I've been ill. However, I did follow through and got some photos to show you how the hatchling lavenders show their color right after their first shed! Here is The Flash, all adorably curled and sleeping in some egg carton, less than 48 hours old:




See how the base color has already gone to a light greyish color with an almost purple tint? Just like mom and pop when they're unfired! Most hatchlings have a red base for at minimum a few weeks, but not these kids. I think it's pretty neat.

I also got a photo of some older kids, these are Liebchen's but also sired but Inigo. They were awake and climbing around, so I can't say these are their "sleepy" colors - they're definitely lavender fired down. Meet Surprising Lee (hatched 12-8-11) and Normal Lee (hatched 12-11-11 and the one on top):


You may have noticed that these older kids seem a lot creamier. Don't worry, Match and The Flash will follow suit! That's another change these particular lavenders go through really quickly - the orange color of their markings turns into lovely cream. Here's more proof for interest sake! This is Normal Lee hatching:


In other news, I sold my Nuu Ana leachie (Rhacodactylus leachianus), Gherkin, a few weekends back. I admit that it was a very difficult decision, but I decided that with my health problems I can not afford to keep around many animals as pets. Leachies are so notorious for compatability issues that buying him an appropriate mate had the potential of being difficult and much too expensive. He turned into a gorgeous animal and deserved to be bred. He is now in a wonderful home where I know he will not only be loved as a pet but they also plan to try and breed him in the future. So I'm going to stay focused on my two current species for now, though I'd really love to get into R. sarasinorum or E. agricolae. We'll see! I may just add to the red-base garg project, or get one or two nice crestie females for my groups.

In any case, I took some shots of Gherkin for his now-owner before she got him, and I would like to share them. I got Gherkin as a 6 gram unassuming-looking hatchling. But I saw potential! Here he is the day after he came home:


You won't believe how he developed. His pattern became absolutely beautiful, he got a ton of "snowflakes" (the light spots), and he is now well on his way to being a "New Caledonian Giant Gecko". Check it out (and yes that is my totally awesome fish/cat/dog-chewed-on Smokey the Bear ruler):


You read that right, 8 inches nose to tail, and he's not even straight! He weighs just under 60 grams. He's going to be a very impressive gecko when he completely fills out and reaches his full-grown size. Some more shots (I love the snowflake patch on his head!!):




Goodbye beautiful boy. I will certainly miss you. Enjoy your new home and be good for them!

Major Updates - Life and Geckos!

I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted, but the months since then have been a whirlwind! I went and did the unthinkable, and got married. ;) My husband is in the Air Force and left for a 6 month deployment to Afghanistan the 8th of this month. Obviously we were not together long - only about a month total since our marriage on November 12th due to his training - so I miss him a lot. I decided to get off my butt and restart the blog to not only keep myself busy, but since I've actually got things happening now (gecko-wise) and other goings-on as well with the horses, etc.

Biggest news is... *drumroll please*... we've got hatchlings, folks! 8 of them, in fact. All are sired by Inigo and out of either Panic or Liebchen. Both moms have 4 each. :) And they're all outstanding - it's obvious literally after their first hatchling shed that they are going to be lavenders like their parents. They fire up a purplish color and fire down very light grey with creamy markings - just what I hoped for with this project! The first 4 hatchlings will be going to the person I received Panic and Liebchen from (when they're old enough and the weather is good), and I'm keeping the rest for a bit to see who I want to keep for myself.

I don't have the lightbox set up and I've been really bad about taking pictures (but I have a good excuse as you now know!) so don't have photos of the older hatchlings yet. I will try to get some soon. I do, however, have photos of the last two just after hatching - "Match" on the 16th and "The Flash" on the 18th. Though bear in mind that because these are "just hatched" photos so you don't get a true feeling for their coloration. If you've seen a lot of hatchlings you may notice that they don't have the quite the same reddish tint typical of crested hatchlings (it's more purple/dark), which I have learned is the first sign the baby will be lavender. And any reddish color at all is gone after the first shed. If I remember I'll try to get a picture of these two tomorrow to show you what I mean.

So, meet some Inigo x Panic kids, fresh from their eggs! First is Match:


And his clutchmate, who hatched tonight - The Flash:


The Flash... has a story. He hatched in a way I had never had one of my babies do before. I was feeding the geckos and almost done, so checked on the egg, expecting it to hatch anytime. No pip (hole), no nothin. Literally moments later I turn around and there is a fresh gooopy hatchling sitting in the incubator!! I realized he was the bumping around I'd heard behind me because he had left yolk splattered everywhere and dripping from the top of the incubator! Proof:


He even had almost completely buried his egg in perlite. My best guess? He pipped his egg and shot out of it immediately after... upwards! No reason for it, other than he's The Flash. And gosh he has some attitude, little bugger was gaping at me when I was getting off some perlite a few minutes later. Look at this sassy face, he knows he's hot stuff with all that cream!


I also got a pretty good shot of The Flash's egg teeth, so I thought I'd share for those who haven't seen or got a good look at them before. They use these specialized scales to slit their egg open, and then they are lost with the first shed. See the two little bumps at the end of his snout? Those are them! (And excuse his ridiculously goopy head, he hadn't had time to dry off at all after all The Mad Egg Escape.)


If you want to see any more photos of these kids I've got some more "just hatched" pictures on my iHerp account.

Nothing makes for a better first post of a new year than babies! I am very excited about them, all of the hatchlings from my lavender/cream project are turning out incredible. Obviously there was no success with the dalmations or gargs, but now I've just got more to try for this year! :) Before I talk your ear off, I'll end this post here. But I've got lots of things to post about soon... I've got more gecko news, interesting wildlife sitings, horse talk, lots of photos, etc. Stay tuned. ;)