Color changing leopard gecko

[Mel&Keith]

Why do some geckos turn really dark? We have 2 super hypos that were really pretty when they were little but almost look black now. They photograph a lot lighter than they look in person but this is one of them -

They are a really dark, almost olive color now all of the time, it's pretty strange!

 

[gothra]

I have a super hypo that turned brown too. I suspect it's the dark colored substrate that I used, plus the unnecessary overhead light that caused the color change. Now that I've switched to a white colored substrate and ditched the overhead light, she seemed to have lighten up a little. Although not nearly as bright as when I bought her, but definately not brown anymore.

Here is a picture of Bambi when I got her:

And one year later, she developed many spots and the carrot tail is gone too:

A more recent pic of Bambi (more than 2.5 years after the above pic), the spots are fading, but the color on her tail never came back. Anyway, she looked much better than before:

 

[leopardgecko95]

Bambi is a beautiful gecko!

 

[Jeanne]

It could also be your heat, what is the temps in the cage?

 

[Stitch]

A hot spot of 90-92 degrees should help keep the geckos colors bright. I have also read that if you keep multiple geckos together they tend to have duller colors when compared to geckos that are housed individually.

 

[GeckoMandi]

The same thing happend to me just this week, at the show he was bright as can be and now it seems like when he is eating or out in the tank he turns really dark. My temps stay at 90-91.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Sometimes geckos just get darker with age and breeding. I agree that temps around 92-93 on the warm side and lighter colored substrates make a lot of difference.

 

[Franks_Geckos]

Sometimes geckos just get darker with age and breeding. I agree that temps around 92-93 on the warm side and lighter colored substrates make a lot of difference.

I have seen this happen during breeding season with a couple of my females, almost always when they were paired up with the males. After they were done laying and getting fat again, their colors came back quite a bit.

 

[Mel&Keith]

She's in a tub in our rack by herself on paper. We keep the back at 92 and the front is room temp. around 76. She hasn't been bred or around males yet but she did live with a few other females her size a while back so maybe that's why. Thanks for the pics Bonnie! Maybe there's still hope for her color to come back.

 

[acpart]

My SHTCT female is kind of a mood gecko. Her color ranges from a light yellow/orange to a dusky gray and varies from day to day.

Aliza