Poor little guy!

[nimrodfiftyfour]

Had a new hatchling today born with a very strange defect. Her clutch mate had hatched about three days ago, and I was starting to get worried when she finally hatched out. In the egg I found an undeveloped fetus, which I thought was strange, but it was formed enough to have visible limbs. The gecko was what really surprised me, and two things stuck out. First of all its head is abnormally large, as well as an abnormally thick neck. Second, and even more peculiar, it has no eyelids! Has anyone ever heard of this?

[Manitoban Herps]

One o my geckos i have are missing parts of its eyelids due to it bwing a late clutch in the year.

[Tim and Julie B]

I've heard of that, and have a young female who hatched with partial eye lids. She hasn't had any problems at all, but she can't blink like leos should. The only difference is that she licks her eyes more often Chances are it just couldn't develop in time.

-Manitoban Herps-
What do you mean by the deformity being due to a late clutch? That shouldn't affect the embryo's developement.

Julie

[clint545]

I have a leo with one eye like that. So far , she is like any other baby, eats like a pig!!

[Painted Desert]

I'm not certain i understand,nimrodfiftyfour. Are you saying that the undeveloped fetus was in the egg with the gecko that hatched out without the eyelids? And the clutchmate is normal, correct?

[nimrodfiftyfour]

Ya, I have also determined that the one that lived is completley blind. She doesn't react to you at all until she is touched, then she flips.

[Painted Desert]

Poor soul. What will you do with her? I have heard of leo's being taught where the food dish is....
Perhaps she didn't quite get the nutrition she needed due to the other fetus....

[DragnDrop]

If I understood this right, the gecko was only partially developed, had limbs, a bigger than normal head and neck? Sounds like it might have died early on, when the body parts were forming but still out of proportion. If you've ever seen pictures of human embryos, you'll notice their heads and necks are way out of line with what they're like when born full term. Eyelids might not have formed on the gecko yet, or possibly they are there but retracted to show an open eye.
If the lids really were missing, and it was more developed then I understood it, then there's a good chance it might have been a vitamin A deficiency in the mother.
Vitamin A is necessary for growth of bone, testicular function, ovarian function, embryonic development, regulation of growth, differentiation of tissues. Lack of Vitamin A in the mother's diet can result in not enough making it into the egg. These eggs hatch out tiny geckos, with short tails, missing or deformed eyelids, a pouch-like flap of skin under the chin, weak, poor vision or even blind. Quite often there's enough Vitamin A in the diet, but it's not being absorbed due to a deficiency of Vitamin D (yup... Vitamin D affects absorption of Vit A as well as calcium). There are several other 'helpers' for Vitamin A but this is apparently the most common in captive reptiles.

I'm not saying that's the reason for the malformed gecko you found in the egg, but it's a possible reason.

[peterm15]

so the leo had a "twin" in the same egg?? wow.. poor little guy..

[nimrodfiftyfour]

Ya, the one with out the lids is still alive. The one that died was still mostly just a blob, although I could begin to make out the beginning stages of limbs.

[DragnDrop]

I didn't catch the 'twin' part, sorry.
A few months ago I had twin crested geckos hatch, but neither of them made it.

[TLH_Wär§cöötmän]

Wow. I guess hand feeding is going to be your option. Hope that the hatchling makes it..

[peterm15]

i hupe so to..

[nimrodfiftyfour]

He isn't looking great. Seems to be severly disoriented and spends a lot of time "chasing his tail". Its such a bummer when they hatch like that and there is nothing you can do to make it better.

[malaysianbloods]

I personally think that if the leo is like that, I think that it shouold be euthanized because if it is just chasing it's tail all the time and when you touch it it freaks out then it will most likely die of stress. It might be different if the leo went blind at an older age when tame and established. But that ius just my opinoin.