Dwarf African Fat Tail???

[aftgurl]

This is my AFT that I bought from HQ Reptiles. I bought it about a year ago and it's about one year and a half now. (Born May 27th). I bought it with the stubby tail, because I thought it looked cute, and I still do! It has grown a tiny bit since I got it, but not much...

So, I was wondering if this could maybe be a dwarf AFT? Or just a mutation?

Thanks!

[Tim and Julie B]

There aren't dwarf aft's just genetic mishaps that make some smaller Same goes for every living thing. Often the shorter, fatter tails are due to an embryotic change during incubation. Usually caused by a change in the temp or egg positioning.

Julie

[mathaldo]

Just a few questions,
Would she be breedable? And if she would, would the babies be smaller too? If she was bred with another "dwarf" would there be a better chance to getting a smaller one? And if she was bred and the eggs were to big, would she die?

[aftgurl]

But it's not only her tail that is small, the whole thing is small. She is only 2 times the size of a crayola marker lid and she is almost 2 years old. I feed her about 15 mealworms every other day and she hasn't grown much. Another question, should I have a humid hide for my fattail?

[Zoe]

Yep, you definitely need a humid hide! Fat-tails come from les arid places than do leos and so definitely need access to a nice humid hide. Also, she doesn't seem terribly small. Fat-tailed geckos are a few inches smaller than Leos and I had some females could sit on my hand with their nose touching the end of my fingers and tail, touching my wrist.

Zoe

[Tim and Julie B]

Zoe's right, they are considerably smaller than leos. As for breeding for smaller aft's it wouldn't be a good idea imo. Yes, I know, people breed for larger sizes, but smaller is just asking for internal problems. AFT's need a large humid hide, and should be sprayed lightly every other day. It's best to keep them on a natural substrate, I prefer expandable coconut. It retains humidity very well. I did a little research here and there, and the short fat tail can also be an effect of in-breeding. It takes many generations for some signs to show up. You never know though, and your aft looks healthy enough. And also, everything but her tail is well proportioned, which is a good sign

Julie
ps. What are the cage temps?

[Linds]

Originally posted by mathaldo
Would she be breedable? And if she would, would the babies be smaller too? If she was bred with another "dwarf" would there be a better chance to getting a smaller one? And if she was bred and the eggs were to big, would she die?

Being that she was born slightly imperfect, IMHO it would be unethical to consider breeding her. I don't doubt that she is probably just as capable of reproducing as others, she looks otherwise to be in good form, but only genetically strong animals should be considered for this. Although it could be due to something happening during incubation, you cannot be 100%. Animals with defects only contaminate the gene pool. She would make a perfect pet though

[Stockwell]

There is nothing very unusual about that gecko.
It looks about normal size to me, for it's age.
Pack some pinkies into it for a year and I bet it puts on some size. A solid diet of mealworms isn't very good.
The tail tip might have been bit off by a sibling,as that happens now and then, or possibly it was lost some other way at a very early age.

While I don't breed any animals with definite defects, I wouldn't preclude breeding a gecko for a minor defect which could have actually been the result of normal autotomy at a very young age( a dry shed for example)

[HQReptiles]

WOW such controversy over that little fat tail...... Nothing happened to her tail, she was born that way. We sold her as a pet at a reduced price because she was a runt. Plain and simple, just like in every other animal out there, some are born smaller. Could something have happened in the egg? Sure, but with only one gecko being born that way at a time of the year when we have literally hundreds of gecko eggs in the incubator, I don't think so.

As for her size at that age, we keep our Fat Tails two full years before breeding. There is nothing small about our Fat Tails! Most of our breeding females are in the 70 - 90g range, and our male is on the high side of that scale. Just take a look at a shipment of wild caught Fat Tails and I'm sure you will see that they are HUGE! Often much larger then average leopards!

As for keeping them on a natural substrate, we only keep ours on paper towel. That being said we do mist them down at each feeding (during breeding season every other day, every third day in the off season), we also keep a large humid hide box in with them all year round. This box is allowed to dry out somewhat in the winter, but still gets misted twice a week


Matt.

[aftgurl]

ok! thanks for all the help!