Changing incubation temps for colour

[Terrain_pull up]

I was reading in "Herpetoculture of Leopard Geckos" that incubation temps can affect the brightness of colours in the babies. One technique that is mentioned for example is incubating at female temps for 2-3 weeks to set the sex of the eggs and then raising the temps up in order to brighten colours. I was thinking about experimenting with this idea this year. I have a male and female incubator set up, one at 90 and the other at 80 respectfully. My plan is to transfer the eggs from the female incubator to the male incubator after a few weeks.

Has anyone tried this? I was thinking that maybe a 10 degree temp swing might not be a good thing in a relatively short period of time for the eggs? It doesn't really say in the book the exact method Tremper uses for this but maybe he's implying a gradual temp change over a couple days by just increasing the temps in the initial incubator?

Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[shiftygecko]

Well I will let you know... Me an the wife are trying this out as we speak. We have had 4 eggs in at 80-82 deg. for 30 days and now have moved them lower to get more heat and they are at 88... We also have had 3 more eggs since the first were laid. I have them in another container sitting on top of the 4 eggs container. Its holding a constant temp of 81.
We are expecting hatchlings in the next week or two! So I will post pics when they do hatch!

 

[Retribution Reptiles]

The temp change will only effect the color of Trempers. All other morphs will NOT be effected by temp change. You do run a risk of having deformities if not properly controlled as well.

BUT IMO a temp change isn't needed pending you have good stock to begin with.

 

[TokayKeeper]

I would advise slowly raising the temps versus a sudden 10 degree temp spike. As Ryan also stated, be prepared for possible deformities. A few larger breeders on here tried it and got a fair amount of deformities.

Ryan...it's not so much that it affects just Trempers, rather the study that was done (I think it was Brian Viets, DVM) was conducted on normals and the expression of melanin pigment. With that in mind, temps can potentially affect all morphs with regards to their melanin production.

On a more sided note, what piques my interest is how similar the Tremper albino trait mimics that of the Siamese cat which has what's called Temperature-Sensitive albinism. In the cat, cooler areas sequesture melanin pigment (the browning up, aka Tremper's "chocolate" albinos) due to tyrosinase being active at below average body temps. The result in siamese is their trademark seal points. I feel something similar goes on with the Tremper albino gene, which explains the variation of coloration of hatchlings even from non-browned parents. It's only a hypothesis though....

I'm hi-jacking the thread, but...

I found this link cool as can be when I googled "Temperature Sensitive Albinism"

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1200472-overview