in 2002 we had our first pairing of Pastel Jungles. It was a very exciting time waiting for our female to lay eggs and once they arrived the real waiting game had begun.

54 days later the first to pip was a Super Pastel that literally blew my mind. She was very clean and I nicknamed her the Super Duper. What most people don’t know is that there was a second Super as well. A day later all the hatchlings had come out of their shells with one exception…the second super.

The day after it still had not emerged. Something was wrong. I could still see the yolk and it wasn't being absorbed. I suspected a twisted umbilical cord. I slowly lifted her from the egg and discovered that she had a major deformity. As you can see by the pics her belly was stuck together leaving an opening around one inch long. I could see her tiny heart beating through the opening and she weighed only 42 grams!

She also had her yolk sack still attached and not an ounce of it was absorbed. It was beginning to rot and harden so I made some calls to get some advice. I decided to cut her cord after tying a thread around it just below the opening. She was very weak and I knew she needed some protein quickly. I went to the kitchen and put some chicken yolk in a syringe, put a tube down her throat and filled her belly. The next day I half expected to find her dead but to my surprise she was not. She survived the week. Then another week. Things looked very good.

To make a long story short, Genie, the second Super Duper, is thriving along with her great personality. She was and still is a fighter that lived to tell the tale. Foir her current status see 'Morph Stats' above.

So when some told me to just throw her in the freezer and others told me she would never survive, I couldn't loose faith in the greatest thing of all…nature. Sometimes if we just let it do its thing, it has a way of correcting itself.

Keep the faith.

Markus