2010 hatchling sizes?

[zuk450]

hey everyone, i was looking at my 2 holdbacks from last season (they are the first cresties ive raised from hatchlings) I realized that they are 8 and 9 months old and only 4 grams! at this rate it will take them years to mature lol. is this normal?

I figured they would be around 13 or 14 grams  this age. is this a normal growth rate for hatchlings or are my guys lagging a bit (feeding only CGD, temps in the upper 60s-low 70s). all my other cresties were bought at 7-8 grams or bigger and i assumed they were only a few months old.what sizes are your holdbacks from last season?

[amcclain1092]

It sounds a little slow, but it really could depend on a lot such as: how long they were in the egg, what season did they hatch, how often are you feeding them fresh CGD, do they get crickets, etc.

I hatched two babies back in the late winter and one of them is barely 1 gram while the other is nearing 3 or 4 grams.
Some times none of my geckos seem to be growing, at times even losing weight, other times they seem to grow exponentially.
My eggs took 120 days to hatch so they couldve had a better head start from all the yolk they got to consume.
But they also hatched out in the winter and the colder months seem to make all my geckos grow a little slower.
I used to only change the CGD every 3 days or so until it was dry, but now I'm trying to change there food every other day to see if it makes a difference.
Sometimes also they can weigh a lot more if you catch them on a very full tummy, the new babies I got from AC all weighed 2g on arrival, all 22 of them,
Now some weight up to 4 grams and some are still 2 (this is only one week later)
So maybe try weighing them the morning after they get fresh food and see if there's a difference.

And by the way, I just switched to peach flavored food (sometimes half original half peach) and the food response seems higher in all my geckos.

[amcclain1092]

And here's another random PS note,

I'm starting logs for every gecko I have that will tell: when I got them, from whom, how much they weighed on arrival, and then they will be weighed hopefully every 2-4 weeks which will be recorded, then who they breed with, how often they lay eggs, were those eggs fertile, infertile, how long was incubation time, if they go bad how many days did they last, then once the babies hatch start keeping records on them.

This way I can see growth patterns of different geckos, and how many different factors affect this growth, and possibly even make a growth type chart under certain conditions.

I wonder if lets day geckos from AC grow faster than my geckos from Crown Jewel or things like that.

It should be cool to collect all this data and hopefully someday release it so it can help others learn more about these little guys 

[zuk450]

that would be pretty interesting once you get some data compiled.  ill have to try changing their diet more often and see if that helps. I tried feeding them crickets the other day but they didnt even try to eat them, they totally ignored them haha

[amcclain1092]

My babies ignore crickets too lol 

[inkling13]

I weigh my geckos once a month and have their weights recorded in an excel spreadsheet, its easy enough to make a graph in excel too.  My roommates think I'm a big nerd for that  .  I like the idea of recording where they are from, when and who they are paired with, when they lay, etc.  I think I'm going to be expanding my charts now lol thanks!

[Heather]

I weigh my geckos once a month and have their weights recorded in an excel spreadsheet, its easy enough to make a graph in excel too.  My roommates think I'm a big nerd for that  .  I like the idea of recording where they are from, when and who they are paired with, when they lay, etc.  I think I'm going to be expanding my charts now lol thanks!

I do that too. It's fascinating. A while back I tried to get other forum people to send me gram weight and SVL so that I could graph it, but I never got enough data. I was thinking it might show an average weight range for different lengths of gecko. It would have been cool, but I would need hundreds of statistics, and I guess there aren't enough people taking measurements.
Also a bunch of people on another forum got really bent out of shape about it. I guess they thought I was going to start labeling their geckos obese or something.

[inkling13]

I remember that, I thought it would have been really interesting.  I've never done the svl which is why I never submitted anything.  I dunno, I don't have a ruler and it seems like it would be tricky to get them to hold still.  Its probably not that hard though. 

[crazytanak]

um what is SVL?

i just started recording the weights once a week. Im also including the eating habits before the weigh in and if a uv light has been used. I like the idea of weight when purchased and age and who you got them from (only one of mine is from an actual breeder)

[zuk450]

im pretty sure SVL stands for "Snout to Vent Length" (basically the geckos length minus the tail if they have one still). at least that how ive always understood it haha

[Heather]

That's it exactly. Snout to Vent Length. It's tricky to measure them, but not that tricky.
It isn't really so important that that number be bang on accurate anyway. it's just so that it can be compared to other geckos in the same size group.

The other thing that nobody seemed to get was that you could submit info on the same geckos every month. Let's say you had a hatchling and you took an SVL and gram weight every month until it was 5 inches and 65g (lets say that took 2 years, so 24 data points). The graph would have each of those measurements as a point with one axis being SVL and the other Gram weight.

Those are the only factors so it doesn't matter when you took the measurement, because there's no time scale. The idea is to see if there's some kind of "normal range" for geckos of each increment of SVL.

 blech. I'm reading over this and it's really confusing. Point is it would have been cool and probably useful but it would need maybe 200 points of data or more, and it seems like there just aren't that many people weighing their geckos.

[samanthajane13]

Actually, it would be better if all measurement were taken at specific times...first of the month, for example, rather than at random times.

It would show more accuracy for length and weight spurts.

So it's better to have one day every month to do everyone's lengths and weights.

It also makes it easier to chart weight drops, etc, when can clue you into possible problems with certain geckos, and get a jump on treatment.

Other than that, you're right on the mark, Heather.

[Heather]

I totally agree that it's best to keep a time scale for your own records, but the idea with the graph I was trying to do was address the "is this gecko to fat?/is this gecko too skinny?" question.  it's probably more useful to have a timescale on hundreds of geckos, but I'm not sure how you'd plot it, never mind convincing that many people to submit you consistant information.

[crazytanak]

It sounds like a good idea to me. especially in determining if a gecko is under weight, which seems like a more common issue i think.

If you ever try to get the data again let me know and Ill help you out

[Heather]

it's been an ongoing project, so if you have the data,  Please send it to me and I'll add it to my graph.