Breeding leopard geckos article

[ciafardo 4]

Hey did anyone see the article in octobers reptile mag about breeding leopard geckos? Anyway there's a pic of two super giant albinos i was wondering if any members have any super giants. The ones in the photo weigh 150 grams!If you guys do i would love to see some pics!

 

[jojackson]

Somebody I know has a rather large male that might weigh in close. I saw the article, lots of interesting 'morphs' about, infact so many, I'd be more intrested in seeing a natural Wild caught speciman's looks.


I wonder if this size is only reflective of normal genetic potential rather than any deliberately bred 'strain'.
Largest/heaviest wildcaught speciman would be of interest to me.
Captivity generally yeilds larger/heavier/older specimans for obvious reasons.

 

[Vegas Chad]

Ryan is the Giant gecko man... He has some leopards that you think are a bearded dragon before a double take look.

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

Here are a couple of my giants , The small one is a 109 gram Giant and the larger one is a 135g SuperGiant . He is still growing I hope he hits 150

 

[Pure]

I wonder if this size is only reflective of normal genetic potential rather than any deliberately bred 'strain'.
Largest/heaviest wildcaught specimen would be of interest to me.
Captivity generally yields larger/heavier/older specimens for obvious reasons.

It was just a fluke, a breeder ( forget his name) had a baby that just got huge, He bred it and got more that bot huge. You can read about it here

I also understand this genetic trait to be co dominant. So you can mix it with other dominant traits and get a combination of the 2 parents.

 

[jojackson]

Cool Thanks Shan, reading now. I will try to get a weight and measurment, and photo of my freinds big male, out of interest. As far as I know, its a stock standard 'normal' leo, so I assume its weight/size reflects its captive enviroment/genetic potential. *shrugs*

Thanks for the link

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

Ron Tremper is the guys name.

I have raised babies together that were from Giant x Normals. The difference in growth is obvious. The Giant of the two is at least three times bigger at the same age eating the same food. Well the larger one is eating larger crickets now. They were started the same.

 

[jojackson]

Thanks for that Ryan. I didnt see my mates leo during initial growth, he aquired it as an adult so unfortunately that data is lost.
This ones eats large crickets and roaches aswell, though its previous owner was feeding it pinkies, dont know how often or why, but with that in mind, in this case I tend to think the captivity (related diet/husbandry) factor is probly behind its growth.
It certainly dosent seem fat, it has no 'pockets', its tail is broad and general appearance
and activity suggest robust health. (internally it may well have fat deposits though).
cheers

 

[jojackson]

male, just on 100grams

 

[Pure]

If the the environment conditions of being in captivity was the trigger for this larger size, then we would have seen these big guys years ago. It truly is a genetic mutation. Your guy you are showing pics of very well could be this same mutation showing it's head over in Aussy.Giants/Super giants take up to 2-3 years to reach adult size. So your guy may still be growing, depending on how old he is now..of course.

When you breed him, you will find out. If he has the giant gene, a fraction of his offspring should get much larger than the rest of the neonates.

 

[Olimpia]

I had a giant female for a short while before we had to sell her. I aquired two geckos at about the same time, except the giant was 2 months old and the other was 3 months old, and the giant was twice as big as the older one. And the proportion remained like that for all the months I owned her, even though they were on the exact same diet.

Ron Tremper is seemingly always at the forefront of gecko morphs. It's what happens when you have thousands of animals and can breed mutations to mutations, or even just have a random mutation occur out of the blue. I think it's all super interesting.

 

[hallenhe]

Ryan, any shots of the supergiant (or giant) with "regular" geckos for comparison?

 

[jojackson]

When you breed him, you will find out. If he has the giant gene, a fraction of his offspring should get much larger than the rest of the neonates.

He has been mated to 2 different females (3/4 eggs surviving) the forth was a runt that died soon after hatching, the other three all seem robust (2 weeks old lol) but with no experience of leo neo's I cant say if they are larger than average. I expect my mate will hold them for some time, So I will watch their progress with intrest.

p.s. by 'runt' I mean it was significantly smaller than the others, though laid/hatched at the same time.

 

[Olimpia]

Jojackson, if you're curious you can ask other breeder friends what weights their hatchlings were at a certain age (maybe at one month, or even right out of the egg) and compare. I haven't had really young babies in a while, but I remember that I got a 3-4 month old who weighed in at 17 grams, and my giant was just under 2 months and weighed in at exactly the same number. And soon after she passed my average sized one and was gaining several more grams a week.

I haven't hatched any giants, nor will I get the chance to at this time unfortunately, but I hear that they are born already way ahead of "average" hatchlings. So if you're curious to compare I'd ask around one of the gecko forums or something

 

[jojackson]

Olimpia, havent weighed his babys , no idea how they compare really, leo's arnt mainstream here. Be interested to see some hatchling weights if anyone weighs them that young. I dont have an accurate enough scale with microgram measurement though.

 

[Olimpia]

I googled it and hatchlings tend to average at around 3 grams, if that helps So if yours hatched out weighing in at 8 grams, you know they're going to be big!