Great big HUGE congratulations on two gorgeous babies! I’m sure the rest of the clutch is also gorgeous but healthy twins deserve the extra cheers!
4 Likes
Thanks Caryl! I need to keep 2.2 and there aren’t many girls in the clutch. I love this dark Sunkissed girl. I might keep her. She has that dark ground pigment (Dark Factor) I see in a number of corns in the Bantam family. Based on where it turns up, it can’t be recessive. So maybe incom dom or just polygenetic variation. For comparison, a same-morph clutchmate sister.
6 Likes
Yay hooray for the twofers! Now you’re gonna have to think up an extra name! I’m glad they are healthy! 
4 Likes
It’s always a tough thing to choose holdbacks. Sometimes it’s super tough. But that’s a good problem to have.
5 Likes
It’s especially fascinating to me that both twins were such a good size. I know the 5g one is on the small end, but certainly within the fat part of the bell curve! I’m impressed the one, single egg was able to support two babies. Did the egg look extra big before hatching?
Do we know how fraternal/identical twins happen with reptiles? Is it similar to humans?
4 Likes
I’m pretty sure the twinning works the same. 
This egg did look big when they were pipping from it, but I can’t remember if it looked unusually big before. The whole clutch looked big because I mostly dealt with little Bantam eggs last season.
3 Likes
Yup, basically. Identicals happen when the fertilized cells split early enough in development that they haven’t yet specialized. The two developing babies (possibly zygote or morula stages) continue on and develop into separate individuals. Two babies from the union of a single ovum and a single sperm. Btw, two-headed individuals happen when this process occurs slightly later in development and they separate incompletely.
In a sense, an entire clutch is what we call fraternal twins in humans. Multiple babies, from separate fertilized ova, same gestation event. With reptiles there’s the additional factor of egg formation for each baby. I don’t know what mechanism results in two babies in one shell, but genetically it is the same situation as humans. Two babies from two ova and two sperm cells.
4 Likes
Great explanation. I wondered about them having so many eggs being the equivalent of fraternal twins.
2 Likes
This made me laugh. It’s all relative, right?
4 Likes
Chispa has a ton of Chutzpah! Gorgeous gorgeous lady!
4 Likes
There are a bunch of first shedders in the het Bantam clutch. Here’s one. Peppermint Shatter het Bantam Caramel Lava. Male.
6 Likes
I love the pale pink coloring! So delicate! How’s Moonlight doing?
4 Likes
Great! But he won’t shed until tomorrow.
4 Likes
Peppermint Shatter sounds like it ought to be some type of Christmas confection. 
3 Likes
It does! Put a tin of it out with the peanut brittle.
The 12yo boy in my head thinks Cinder Inferno sounds cooler.
3 Likes
@caron : Now your boy’s had his first shed.
6 Likes
Oh Dean he’s a lovely little boy! 
4 Likes
Now little Moonlight Graham just needs to eat! 
4 Likes
He will. I’m feeling optimistic about this clutch. It’s some of the runts in the tiny Bantam eggs who are likely to make me work hard.
4 Likes