# Trick or treat!



## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

...I'd say it's a treat.









Came home to one of my cresties hatching tonight:


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## Plowboy (Apr 9, 2008)

AWH!!!!! It looks like a scene from Jurassic Park. but much cuter. Do you have to help them things out a bit or are they pretty quick to get out and moving?


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Awesome pic

POTM!


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## Plowboy (Apr 9, 2008)

^^^^Agreed


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

I don't help. If they can't make it out of the egg tough luck. My view is if they're too weak to make it out then they won't make healthy animals, or at the very least, there's a greater percentage that they will have issues and difficulties. It's nature's way of selecting the fittest from the get-go. Cruel but that's the way it goes in the wild.

Hatching can take hours for these guys. It's a lot of work to make their way out of the egg I'm guessing.


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## Plowboy (Apr 9, 2008)

Its probably best that way. Just one egg? Sry i dont know crap about these things.


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

They lay them generally in pairs. Sometimes a female will lay only one but that's a lot more rare.

The other one from this clutch hatched out a couple nights ago. Here's a pic of it I took today:


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## Pit_man (Sep 13, 2008)

cool pics! congrats on your little ones!







That first pic was awsome timing!


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## Plowboy (Apr 9, 2008)

Sweet! I wonder whats with the big timing difference. Very cool pix non-the-less!

Sweet! I wonder whats with the big timing difference. Very cool pix non-the-less!


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Well, they're independent little bodies, right? So they develop at different speeds. It's not like with mammals where everyone gets pushed out at once.


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## Plowboy (Apr 9, 2008)

Makes sense. Hows the cute lil guy doing?


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

As far as I know alright. I won't be bothering to look in on it til tomorrow when I try and snap a pic or two of it. (Which I will of course post.) I try and let them be for about 24 hours at least.


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## ICEE (Feb 3, 2007)

gratz mettle. nice pics


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Updated pics.

This is the gecko shown above hatching all dried off and lookin' good.


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## Plowboy (Apr 9, 2008)

little guy looks good


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

I'm hoping it continues to develop more spots.







It's a trait we call 'dalmatian morph' and some people like it. The mother had none but the father had a few. This baby hatched out with over a dozen spots. So we'll see if more develop over time.


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## Plowboy (Apr 9, 2008)

Does that make them more valuable, or do you just like the look?


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Dalmatian spotting, when plentiful and depending on the size of the spots, can definitely cause one to demand more for the animal in question. But like everything else there's people who like it and people who don't.

With crested geckos the thing right now that commands a lot of money is what's called "pinstriping" (raised, white/cream scales along either side of the back), lateral lining (raised white/cream scales along the side), and certain colour morphs. I have three main projects I want to work on next year. One is dalmation spotting, another is form-over-colour (ie: large cresties, with prominent/well shaped crests), and an orange project that has two niches to it. One if going to be orange cream aka creamsicles (can be worth a bit), and the second is peppered pinstriped oranges (which will likely be worth the most outta anything I'm working on).

I'm not in this for the money. But I would like to make some money so that I can put it back into the animal's care. Or simply do some baby trades for other bloodlines and such. It's a hobby for me, not a business.


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## notaverage (Sep 10, 2005)

cool pics!!!


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## psychofish (Jun 5, 2004)

congrats looks great


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