calcium sacks and rhacs!

[bleeding_sarcasm]

so. i have failed to get a response to two threads i made in a different forum, and hopefully i can get an answer here.

cresteds. they have sacks. everyone knows that.
chahoua, they have sack, just found that out.
leachies, gargoyles, saras and trachys [oh my?] do they have them also?
or am i dealing with calcium deficent animals?

one of my auriculatus have sacks so big, it looks like a white butt in the back of her throat. the rest, have no visable sacks at all.

now kinky is "special" to say the least. she was born without her backbone fused, [think rubber gecko] and now she looks a bit like a real gargoyle.

pictures:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v142/bleeding_sarcasm/kinky.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v142/bleeding_sarcasm/kinky1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v142/bleeding_sarcasm/sacks004.jpg


now i have another female who has been kept with her for almost a year, and kept the same way. she sometimes drops dud clutches, and kinky has yet to ever drop a clutch [as far as i know] we kept them both in with a breeding group of ciliatus for a while and never had any problems.

all of my fecals on my other aurics came back negative [thanks dr alan] and they are all healthy, eat well, have stong bones and hips. i supplament all of my animals food with tri cal, herptavite, and calcium glubionate and i keep them under UVA/UVB.

so im thinking... is she a hybrid? god knows what people do with geckos these days, and that might explain why she was so messed up in the first place. her skin, and body, and head and teeth are very gargoyle gecko.

but... it seems, no one else on the entire forum has ever looked at a calcium sack on anything other then a crested gecko.

oh, and leachies, my leachies dont have sacks either, 2 of my females were showing sign of zig zag tail a while back, and it turned out they had a mess of pinworms, i have since treated them and they seem fine. if it was something related to how they were taken care of before i got them [seriously neglected and stunted in growth, in a 20 long at a year old]

i dont know. so... if any of you would be brave enough, to open your geckos mouth and very likely get bitten under a light to give me an answer. that would be awesome.

thanks.
-t

[RangerGrrl]

:shock: Whoa, Kinky is crazy! That's a Halloween gecko for sure!
I only have cresteds and have not been brave enough to open their mouths. I have to learn sometime, though, since I don't want to put breeders together without checking their reserves. Maybe someone can teach me how at a show or something..... I don't want to hurt or overly stress my geckos, or cause them to drop their tails. I guess I have to not be a wimp....

Good luck finding out. It is a great question, actually. I want to know too.

[bleeding_sarcasm]

you hold the gecko securely [not by the tail] and tap their mouth on the front and side they should open up. even if they bite you, its really nothing. crested gecko bites are like... cute. leachies and gargoyles draw blood. the more often you check, the better you get at it, and eventually you dont get bitten at all.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a183/ghettogeckos/sacks006.jpg


it seems like all of my breeder females have gone through a crash after this season. ive seperated out the male, and im trying to baby them as much as possible. but im seriously worried.

[BadAssHerps]

My cresteds must all be passifists I cant get a damn one to open there mouth.
-Eli

[Matthew Parks]

Gargoyles do store calcium and they do have endolymphatic sacs but they are not normally any where near as visible as with Cresteds. The picture you show, looks like your female has way to much calcium stored up and it is probably the result of over supplementation. It may require vet attention but I'm not positive if they can do anything or not. Maybe Dr Alan can tell you more, you should PM him and bring this to his attention. :D

[bleeding_sarcasm]

well my gargoyle that is housed with her, along with all of my animals, are supplamented exactly the same way, the female she is house with has dropped numerous dud clutches, and kinky has dropped none. i dont think that im OVER supplamenting her, so much as shes not really using up the calcium she is storing, which i dont really know what to do about that. IF that is the cage, and her storing too much calcium my only option would be to seperate her out and not supplament anything i give her, then again, i would ask the question, that if an animal stores as much as it needs, wouldnt it eventually stop storing calcium? and if it was something that did warrent a 60$ vet visit, what could they possibly do for her? cut them? i wouldnt stop supplamenting that cage, because of the other female, in april, i plan to put my other 1.3 into that cage, and actually see if kinky does ever produce. and i would be hesitant to stop supplamenting her all together, even tho she does have sacks like that. i keep all of my rhacs under 10.0 repti-sun uva/uvb bulbs, and almost all of my geckos are out basking at some point or another during the day, including all of my gargoyles.

oh, i should probably mentian that i supplament with tri-cal and herptavite a 50/50 mixture.

i definitely dont think that i OVER supplament any of my food, because i currently have 1 or 2 animals that appear to have the starting signs of calcium deficency [zig-zag tail, and little to no visable sacs] and when i do a feed, i mix up a GIANT VAT of fruit, supplament it, then dish out an appropriate ammount to each cage. so all of it would be identical. same with crickets. same 50/50 dusting. 2 or 3 bags for all the cages, but the same idea. i also keep flo lights on EVERY SINGLE CAGE. including hatchling boxes.

so if i have a calcium problem, this is really confusing to me. not counting cresteds, kinky is the only one with visable sacks. ill definitely pm dr alan, since he hasnt replyed to this topic in either forum :(