Incubating for color?

[Samantha12]

So I read that after about 25 days of incubation the gender of the gecko inside the egg is set and from there the egg should be moved into a hotter (89/90 degrees F) incubator to give them more vibrant colors.
My diablo blanco will be laying her first clutch of Blazing Blizzards in the next week and I'm just wondering if moving the eggs into an 89/90 degF incubator after three/four weeks will be promising in getting really purely white hatchlings with minimal yellow, or if color incubating is really only significant for bright colored geckos like Sunglows and RADARs etc. and color incubating BBs will actually bring out their yellow. Anyone have any experience with this or just color incubating in general?

 

[bfb345]

Yes I agree. I beleive sasobek reptiles does This

 

[LepoInc]

Yeah, Matt Baronak does this. Just a gradual increase works

 

[OnlineGeckos]

Just a quick word, while incubating for color works. If you do this and intend on selling the offspring, you'll want to disclose it. The "enhanced color" is not genetic, therefore if people purchase these animals for their color thinking their genes would pass down such coloration, then it's dishonest. If you do disclose it, cool. Or if you're doing this for your own pet, then by all means, carry on

 

[Samantha12]

Just a quick word, while incubating for color works. If you do this and intend on selling the offspring, you'll want to disclose it. The "enhanced color" is not genetic, therefore if people purchase these animals for their color thinking their genes would pass down such coloration, then it's dishonest. If you do disclose it, cool. Or if you're doing this for your own pet, then by all means, carry on

Gotcha. I'm not sure I will this season since all I have coming are Blazing Blizzards and I don't think it would make much of a difference...
Thanks!

 

[DrCarrotTail]

I would agree that incubation methods should be disclosed regardless of the purpose but don't think incubating for color is dishonest. The genetic potential has to be there to express bright colors whether enhanced by incubation temperature or not. The bright parents will pass down their genetics and bright color to the offspring but the offspring may not be as bright if they are not incubated in the same manner as the parents were. Males incubated about 88 should be just as bright as the parents as they are incubated at that warmer color enhancing range anyhow.

 

[OnlineGeckos]

I would agree that incubation methods should be disclosed regardless of the purpose but don't think incubating for color is dishonest.

Oh no no, I never said incubating for color is dishonest. I said it would be dishonest if you incubate for color, without disclosing it to people you're selling the geckos to. Big difference

Christina (LZRDGRL) was very open about how she hatched out those neon bells. She was upfront about raising temperature for color, and therefore there's nothing wrong with doing so.

 

[DrCarrotTail]

Cool -I hope you didn't take it as I was accusing you, I was mostly clarifying I've toyed with the idea of raising the temp on a few of mine to see what the effect is - possibly doing an experiment of sorts with some high school bio classes if we can find a good way to quantify "brightness". I'm curious to know how much the first few weeks of life effect color as well as incubation temp. I have a suspicion that hatchlings kept about 93-95 may be brighter than those kept about 90 without any difference in incubation. Anyway I find it a super interesting topic!

 

[LepoInc]

Lisa, my SHTCT and Mack Snow can greatly be influenced in color by their habitat and eating habits. When I got my SHTCT, he was kind of a muddy orange, but now he is starting to become a yellow orange and has only shed once with me.

 

[LepoInc]

You could add that this method basically gets the best colors that its genetics will allow. So I am sure if you were to do this with a few generations of new geckos that had been intensified, I'm sure the color would "stick" no matter what the incubation temperature was

 

[SaSobek]

IMO the only geckos that this has an effect on is albinos. The only reason I do it for all of them is just to keep things the same with all the eggs. There are times of the year when the geckos never get to the "hotter" incubators. This causes no difference in color from ones that are hatched in the cooler incubator to ones hatched in a warmer one. The ones that it effects the most are the tremper albinos. Tremper albinos hatched in anything lower then I would say 85 degrees are "browner" then if hatched at higher temps. I believe the was a study done years ago that lower temp geckos would have more black spots on them. But as far as color like orange it has no effect. I have even heard of people using the method in reverse. Incubating hot and then cooling off. I like longer incubation periods because I feel they are more well developed. sometimes with a higher temp incubation the whole time I see more premature babies. That is the main reason I do incubation the way I do.

I do believe that color is developed in the last week or two of incubation.

The best way to get nice looking geckos is good old fashion line breeding. You don't need different incubation methods or color enhancing foods.

 

[Enigmatic_Reptiles]

We have been discussing this same topic on Gecko Breeders Corner on FB.

I personally am against the practice of using any method which enhances/increases the look of my geckos that is NOT genetic. No matter how long you have been breeding or how extensive your collection...we are all consumers. Looking at this purely from a consumer stand point I see it as manipulative and borderline unethical. I am buying a gecko at a premium price due to a representation of a morph that is NOT genetic. I have been told many times that temp bumping doesn't affect non albinos but I don't believe it because it makes no logical sense for it not to. What about an albinos pigment development makes it able to be affected, but not Effect anything else? For breeders who do temp bump I think they should disclose it on animals they produced using that method, especially if its at a premium price. I know we all have our secrets and techniques that we do to ideally make our animals stand out (supplement mixes, feeding regime, inc. temps, etc.), and no I don't think they all need to be public knowledge...but when you create a non inheritable phenotype (knowingly) and sell it at top market value that is unethical in my opinion.

I will say that Matt has some very nice animals and has breeding programs implemented that are well developed...so my opinion is not an attack at him or anyone else who does this. If someone did a small scale test breeding (as well as picture diaries of growth) to see the affect on a few albinos and non albinos and then their reproductability the following year (fully disclosing all findings) then that may shut people up like me or similar views as well as shed some light on the pros and cons of doing it.

 

[Samantha12]

What about an albinos pigment development makes it able to be affected, but not Effect anything else?

Obviously I have very little knowledge on this subject, hence the original post, but I'm just spitballing that maybe it could be something genetic that would cause Trempers to be sensitive to color incubation and not other morphs in a similar way as Mack Snows cannot be reliably incubated for sex?

 

[geckokid]

does this incubation method speed up hatch time

 

[LepoInc]

Mike, it does only because you're raising the temps, so the fetus would develop quicker