Is Toothless a Rankins?

So, after several discussions about Toothless with my Local Herp Expert at the Pet Store. (Trust that This Guy knows his stuff) I brought Toothless to him and he looked him over. After telling him that Toothless was over a year old he told me their was no way. I told him that he was definitely at least 13 months because my buddy gave him to his wife last year as an anniversary gift and that their anniversary was last month. So, now we are at least 1 year & 1 month, not including how old he was when they bought him.

Now keep in mind this guy knows of the conditions Toothless was in when I got him, and he said that given the description of where I got him from you can expect him to be a bit smaller, But you would also expect other things. like deformity, MBD, and other signs of bad husbandry and Toothless has none. He suggests that Toothless won't get much bigger because he's either a Runt, or a Rankins. But he'd bet his paycheck that Toothless is a Rankins.

Anyway to confirm this?

Mike

 

[AtlasStrike]

When I got Charlie in October he was "over a year," but only 12 inches long. He was not severely underweight, had no signs of MBD and other than some common parasites, was perfectly healthy, just stunted. He is now 17+ inches and 380 grams, so it can certainly happen.

 

[Mavrick813]

When I got Charlie in October he was "over a year," but only 12 inches long. He was not severely underweight, had no signs of MBD and other than some common parasites, was perfectly healthy, just stunted. He is now 17+ inches and 380 grams, so it can certainly happen.

Excellent! Gives me something to look forward to.

Mike

 

[Bluebeardie]

If you would like you could post some pics. I believe we could get it straightened out if you already haven't. Or at the very least we could compare him with my rankins.

 

[Gail]

He would loose his paycheck then. I just looked at pics of toothless and he definitely is not a rankins. He has been stunted due to bad care, things like deformities or MBD don't always show up in a neglected animal. He looks a little thin yet and something about his legs is weird, was he kept on colored sand?
A few days ago I seen a sibling to my old dragon pig, I recently rehomed her, she is close to 10 months old now and without a nipped tail would be close to 16". The sibling I saw was only maybe 8"-9" and wasn't deformed or obviously mistreated, just really small.
People just don't realize had much of a impact bad feeding has on growth. Since toothless is still young, a good diet will get him growing again but he may remain a bit small.

 

[Bluebeardie]

Gail's right, from the visual signs toothless doesn't have the bow-tie pattern down the spine. And the heads not more rounded out like a rankins. And rankins dont really have much of a beard.

 

[Mavrick813]

Thanks for the info. Lots of pics can be found in this thread.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=165338

Mike

 

[Gail]

Rankins looks very different from a regular dragon, since your reptile guy couldn't tell the difference, I would double check everything he tells you. Many people who claim to be experts really don't have a clue what they are talking about.

This is a good pic to show the difference.

 

[dangit12]

woo thats little.

 

[Mavrick813]

I honestly wouldn't mind if he stays the size he is as long as he is happy and healthy.

Mike

 

[AtlasStrike]

He will almost certainly get bigger. It is one of those things where you wake up one day and your little tiny dragon has tripled in size and quadrupled in weight, all the while you were worried about if he was eating enough. Haha.

I don't know if you addressed this, but internal parasites can cause severely stunted growth, even under optimal husbandry conditions. Charlie gained 50 grams a week for three weeks after he was dewormed, even though he was eating less than half of what he has been eating previously. Those little buggers are a BIG drain on nutrient absorption.

 

[Mavrick813]

I don't know if you addressed this, but internal parasites can cause severely stunted growth, even under optimal husbandry conditions. Charlie gained 50 grams a week for three weeks after he was dewormed, even though he was eating less than half of what he has been eating previously. Those little buggers are a BIG drain on nutrient absorption.

I was concerned about this and ha an appointment for Toothless to go to the vet but an emergency with one of my ferrets bumped Toothless to a lower priority. My concern is that rough estimates put him at least 13-14 months old and he's only 11". That being said his husbandry since I've had him is spot on the recommendations from this site excepting he won't touch any veg. One big positive is he started shedding his head yesterday.

Mike