Hopefully Not a Stupid Question - Mack Snow

[hrford]

Ok, so I'm new the the world of geckos and morphs, but I'm not new to the world of animal breeding. I've been a breeding manger for a horse barn for a number of years so I get some of it. I've been reading up on genetics and morphs of leos and I'm really attracted to a few of the morphs, Mack Snow and Super Mack Snow to be specific. Here's where I'm confused. I see the genetics in what causes it and I know what it looks like but what is the "ideal" Mack Snow or Super Mack Snow. When I show a horse in confirmation I have an ideal (the perfect horse) that I'm told the horse should look like. While I see tons of things on the science behind breeding, it doesn't tell me what I'm looking to get as the ideal.

I'm probably making no sense, but I want to know what makes a $45 Mack Snow and what makes a $125 Mack Snow. Is it purely because of the name of the person I'm buying it from, or is it because it's coloring meets a certain ideal?

And I would have searched, if I new what the heck this was called to search for. So if I've committed the faux pas of asking a question that has been answered 1000x please accept my apologies and direct me in the correct direction.

 

[tiedxupxinxknots]

No the name of the person does not change the value much, they might sell them for slightly more, but not 75 dollars more than market price. Now the ideal snow is the whitest in my opinion, or it depends what your looking for some hav lavander some have cool marking, bold spots etc. Now the more expensive snows that I could think up would be line bred snows.

 

[RampantReptiles]

This is actually a good question, I like it. This is not a typical question that someone would ask.

The Mack Super Snows that are more expensive are ones that have been line bred through several generations to create a certain look. So some have been bred to have less spots, or more spots, or a very well defined line of spots, etc.

Some are also more expensive because they contain other genes such as being het eclipse or het for an albino strain. Or they have been out crossed into a sub species to give it a certain look and strengthen the genetics.

 

[OnlineGeckos]

Super snows tend to have higher value when they have less spotting on the body, and more white. Other than that, super snows look very much alike for the most part.

Mack snows get a bit more complicated as people can linebreed for reverse strips, lavender stripes, some go for the hypo mack snow look, some go for the bold look, some linebreed to make them more white with less spotting, etc.. Plus as already mentioned, they can have different hets which could affect their value. So I don't think there's a specific "ideal" mack snow. What's worth more usually has to do with the specifics in their genetics, the linebred traits, and generally what other people are looking for in them.

 

[hrford]

I did notice that many of the Mack Snows had hets for different traits. Once you get into the ones where there are 4 or 5 traits I start getting confused!

So if I was looking to start breeding specific to these morphs I would look for maybe a specific line that I liked and try to get those? Personally I like the really white with well defined numerous black spots so it's just about finding who breeds what I like and going from there?

I"m not ready to breed yet or maybe ever but the science really intrigues me and I'm eager to figure it all out or at the least get my head wrapped around it.

 

[OnlineGeckos]

For linebred traits, yes it's mostly looking for a male & female that exhibit the same linebred traits to further it. You don't have to go to the same breeder for them, it's fine to shop around to find the qualities you are looking for. In fact sometimes it's better to get them from different breeders to avoid genetic defects that occur sometimes when they are linebred too many generations without outcrossing.