Birth Defect :(

[Chiichan]

My second clutch (of 53 ) started hatching last weekend.

As I was watching the newborns crawl around I noticed one missing the toes on the back leg, originally i thought it was just missing them on one leg but later checked and found it was both.

He or She (not sure how I'll be able to tell) is able to move around just fine. I'm so heartbroken that one of my babies came out this way, but it only makes me adore him (or her) even more. I work as a nurse for a pediatric patient with a disability so this one really hits home.

Has anyone else had any similar birth defects in their hatchlings? or have one with a defect?

I will continue to monitor this one of course. It doesn't appear to even notice his disability, still scurries away from me just like all the other ones.

 

[Sire Pascal]

awe :/ well he/she looks adorable! i hope all goes good with him/her!!

 

[kinyonga]

Hard to see it on my playbook...can you post another picture please. The chameleon will likely be fine. I have raised a chameleon that was given to me because it had one of its feet amputated by a cage door and it did fine.

Only birth defects I've had is a bend in the spine of the very first chameleon I hatched and a cleft palates in a green water dragon.

 

[CarlC]

Here is a photo of a Trioceros werneri born with no eye's.

Carl

 

[Chiichan]

awe :/ well he/she looks adorable! i hope all goes good with him/her!!

Thank you! I hope so too

Hard to see it on my playbook...can you post another picture please. The chameleon will likely be fine. I have raised a chameleon that was given to me because it had one of its feet amputated by a cage door and it did fine.

Only birth defects I've had is a bend in the spine of the very first chameleon I hatched and a cleft palates in a green water dragon.

It's night time now and they are currently sleeping. Sorry the picture quality isn't great. The only camera I have is on my i4. I'll try taking better pictures tomorrow.

Here is a photo of a Trioceros werneri born with no eye's.

Carl

Omgosh! Poor thing... How did it do?? I would imagine the survivability being slim to none considering they depend on sight to feed.

 

[CarlC]

Omgosh! Poor thing... How did it do?? I would imagine the survivability being slim to none considering they depend on sight to feed.

9 out of 17 babies from that clutch had some type of defect. Some had no eye's, some had one eye and one baby had a deformed jaw. The babies with no eye's were put down. The two babies with one eye are still alive and thriving. The baby with the deformed jaw died early on.

Here is a good thread with more photo's of birth defects.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/birth-defects-graphic-images-70495/


Carl

 

[Chiichan]

9 out of 17 babies from that clutch had some type of defect. Some had no eye's, some had one eye and one baby had a deformed jaw. The babies with no eye's were put down. The two babies with one eye are still alive and thriving. The baby with the deformed jaw died early on.

Here is a good thread with more photo's of birth defects.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/birth-defects-graphic-images-70495/


Carl

That's rough.. sorry you had to go through that. Thankfully only one baby has a deformity, that I know of. Two eggs left to hatch out of the 53, everyone else seems fine.

 

[Oliviabryant]

It sounds like the male and female may have been closely related. It's very easy to do since people breed veileds like crazy.
I would keep him and call him Peggy, because of his peg legs

 

[Chiichan]

It sounds like the male and female may have been closely related. It's very easy to do since people breed veileds like crazy.
I would keep him and call him Peggy, because of his peg legs

Wouldn't that be a huge assumption though? It would be like saying that CarlC's triceros parent's may also have been closely related due to their deformities.

Also the fact that this is just one with a deformity out of the entire clutch of 53.

I do plan to keep him/her and have been trying to think of some kind of name that would go with the deformity.

 

[BackwaterReptiles]

Here is a photo of a Trioceros werneri born with no eye's.

Carl

It looks so large for a baby werneri--I'm baffled.

 

[CarlC]

Although there is an outside chance the deformities in the werneri clutch could have been from inbreeding I think the chances are really slim. This was a wild female and she was gravid when she arrived. I think she was collected at just the wrong point in time.

Sam the baby does look big but it was the same size as its healthy clutch mates and the same size as the babies from a unrelated clutch. The head did appear to be slightly bigger but I think that was caused by the eye's being missing.

Carl

 

[Chiichan]

Although there is an outside chance the deformities in the werneri clutch could have been from inbreeding I think the chances are really slim. This was a wild female and she was gravid when she arrived. I think she was collected at just the wrong point in time.

Sam the baby does look big but it was the same size as its healthy clutch mates and the same size as the babies from a unrelated clutch. The head did appear to be slightly bigger but I think that was caused by the eye's being missing.

Carl

What was your method of putting them down.

I do not intend to do so to this cham as it is not a defect that is life-threatening. But in cases that are, I'm wondering what the options are.

 

[CarlC]

I used nail polish remover on a cotton ball in a small glass jar with a tight fitting lid. Probably not the best way but once in the jar each baby only moved for about 20-30 seconds.

I figured this was better then slowly starving to death.

Carl

 

[Chiichan]

I used nail polish remover on a cotton ball in a small glass jar with a tight fitting lid. Probably not the best way but once in the jar each baby only moved for about 20-30 seconds.

I figured this was better then slowly starving to death.

Carl

I read on another thread that they smashed the head, I'm guessing with a heavy brick or rock of some sort. "Quick and painless"

I discovered yet another abnormality in one of my babies where the eye lid is sealed shut. It cannot open either eye. It seems like you can even see the actual eye underneath the lid as though it were slightly transparent. The eye underneath only stays in one spot and does not move around so it looks like it may be "fused" to the eyelid?

I've tried massaging and rubbing it with a qtip to see if maybe it was just stuck from some substance, but it did nothing.

The pictures are the best I can take with my phone... It's the only "camera" I have.

I can't bear the thought of having to put one down, but if it ends their suffering then I understand. It's just hard...

 

[kinyonga]

I would try hand feeding and watering it for a while to see if the eyes eventually open.

 

[CarlC]

Yes smashing their head would be the fastest. I wanted to preserve them so I needed the bodies intact.

Poor little one. Give it another day and see what happens.

Carl

 

[Chiichan]

I would try hand feeding and watering it for a while to see if the eyes eventually open.

Yes smashing their head would be the fastest. I wanted to preserve them so I needed the bodies intact.

Poor little one. Give it another day and see what happens.

Carl

Yea.. It's heartbreaking. I will definitely try nourishing it. Thanks guys.

 

[Oliviabryant]

A

Wouldn't that be a huge assumption though? It would be like saying that CarlC's triceros parent's may also have been closely related due to their deformities.

Also the fact that this is just one with a deformity out of the entire clutch of 53.

I do plan to keep him/her and have been trying to think of some kind of name that would go with the deformity.

Actually I was not assuming at all, I stated it as a possibility. Considering how many veileds there are, and the fact that no one cares to follow their lineage- the probability of inbreeding is very high. Inbreeding can also cause various issues besides physical deformities, so you may not actually ever know how many of a clutch have issues. It may even be higher with werners due to the fact that their is such a small captive population in the us. Of course many of the population in the us are "wild caught" however unless you import th yourself you have no actual guarantee that something is wild, you just have to trust your importers word.