Should I breed her?

[crazytanak]

My gecko Elektra is a cool almost patternless orange color. my husband would love to breed her (when she gets big enough, prob next august or so) The problem is she has an extra toe on each of her back feet. Its a little toe, not full size.

I know with dogs people will say a responsible breeder would not breed a dog with extra toes. Is that the same with geckos? I dont want to breed a gecko that could pass on undesireable traits to her offspring.

Please let me know if breeding her is ok or if i should just keep her as a pet only gecko.

[zuk450]

for me personally, unless the gecko in question was something totally spectacular i would probably keep her as a pet only. ive got a few in my collection that have been moved to the "pet" catagory (slightly, disproportinatly large eyes,  or poor crests / structure). A little nub on her back feet isnt much of a defect either though, so im sure she would make healthy, normal babies. its really your call (really helpfull, right )

Ive seen or heard of no evidence that this trait gets passed along to offspring consistently either though. some peoples geckos hatch out with the extra toes and niether parents have them.

 When I was younger my dad and I bred golden phesants and if the humidity would fluctuate too much durring incubation the babies would hatch with crooked toes. maybe something similar is what causes the extra toes in cresties

[crazytanak]

actually that is helpful. With dogs and other animals like that an etra toe is a big no-no in breeding. its nice to know i wouldnt be producing sick babies if i bred her.

[Heather]

Yes, the 'ol Extra toe debate. I'm of the mind that a little polydactylism never hurt anybody. Anyway I have a female with an extra toe (sort of, it's a nub with a claw...and I say the claw makes it a toe!) and so far in two seasons none of her babies have inherited it. Conversely I produced two hatchlings (clutchmates) with extra toes from parents with no extra toes, but only in that one clutch of the whole season.

[samanthajane13]

I agree.

First of all, there is no AKC for crested geckos, or any other governing body that regulates what is or isn't desirable in these guys, and what the "standard" for the species should be.

It's all a matter of personal taste.

Do you like polys or not.  That's what it comes down to.  Would YOU cull a poly hatchling just because of the extra toe?? 

If you would, I would say you shouldn't be breeding in the first place, but that's just my opinion.

Also, genetically, we still have no idea what passes from generation to generation-morph/color-wise-so it may be that LOTS of cresties have the poly gene...and maybe the majority of the original cresties brought from New Caledonia had the extra digit.  And the ones without the extra are actually the abnormal ones.

They haven't mapped the rhacodactylus ciliatus genome the way they have the human genome.  And they are still studying our genome, and don't have a full understanding of it yet.

If your gecko had an very obvious flaw, or one that could affect the quality of life of the offspring, I would say, "DO NOT breed that gecko".

In this case, though, it's entirely up to you.