I have a baby leopard gecko now with *severe* Enigma syndrome. Because he's so young and gets stressed so easily, he is SPASTIC! He does the alligator death roll and can't walk straight or move forward. Poor thing.
Enigma syndrome is a neurological disorder caused by sloppy breeding practices. It's a genetic defect that can't be fixed or changed. The best we can do for him is get him into a stable environment where he feels secure and to limit his stress. He'll be going to my favorite leopard gecko foster home this week. She took my other Enigma leopard and has done great work with her.
Between baby leopard geckos struggling from stick tail disease, failure to thrive, and Enigma syndrome, it's becoming VERY hard to buy one from a national pet store chain that will actually survive to adulthood. :(
Click HERE to read a previous post about Enigma Syndrome.
I'm super lame. I can't even think of names for these two. But I want to count them and make a blog record of them. :)
The female hasn't been doing that great. She did shed, but it ripped off all the scabs off her feet and made them bleed again. Plus, she stopped eating on her own. She has a very severe case of Enigma syndrome which is a neurological disorder that gives her a head tilt, makes her alligator death roll when she's stressed, and prevents her from tracking her food well.
The male is doing great. He needed some help shedding last week, but is great now. Very active and loves to eat.
These guys were a mated pair that attacked each other one day. They were covered with bite marks and blood when their owner dumped them off at the pet store where my rescue sister works.
It's good to have friends who are more specialized in other reptiles because then I can ask them for information. I sent pics & the videos of the female leopard gecko to my friend Chris who sent it to his friend who is an expert on Leos. She wrote back and said that the female definitely has Enigma syndrome and, on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being mild and 5 being severe), my girl has a level 4.
It's a neurological disorder caused by genetic abnormalities that show up in specialty morphs called the "Enigma" morph. So remember how I said that the specialty breeding to get Flame's colors and translucence caused his neurological disorder? Like a form of Inbreeding? Same exact thing with Enigma syndrome.
Enigma Syndrome (ES) is a neurological disorder that affects the balance and cognition of leopard geckos. The severity of this genetic mutation varies from relatively mild symptoms, such as: ‘star gazing’, head tilting, and occasional circling to debilitating effects such as: seizures, ‘death rolls’, and incessant circling in place (similar to diagnostic symptoms in autistic individuals). Affected individuals with the same mutation will manifest different degrees of severity of this disorder, because of environmental factors and their individual genotype.
Environmental stressors such as bunking with an aggressive cage-mate, being vacuumed up by a distracted breeder, or just the normal rigors of shipping can be enough trauma to activate this syndrome. Enigma Syndrome is a misnomer, as all morphs are susceptible to this disorder; however, it is more prevalent in the Enigma morph. Balance disorders seen in non-enigma morphs may, in fact, be one and the same disorder.
Stress activates the neurological disorder which is why the female is worse when I'm cleaning her wounds and such. It can't be fixed. She'll always have it and we can only lessen it by keeping her in a calm, stress-free environment.
UGH. It reminds me of something I've said many times-- just because you CAN breed certain morphs doesn't mean you SHOULD!
I have a "Fancy" bearded dragon morph that has constant tremors. I have a "Specialty" morph leopard gecko that has serious balance disorders. I have a purebred Maltese dog that has terrible hips and knees because of her specific genes. Genetic specificity (I made that up just now and don't know if it's an actual thing) can create a whole host of problems. It's like diving in the shallow end of the gene pool. :(
