I want to breed

[LeoGirl575]

Okay, I'm going to be breeding within the next year. I'm going to get a few geckos likely from a breeder over the course of the next few months.
But I have a few questions, since I don't want to make some really big genetics and breeding mistakes:

1. If I don't know the complete history of the gecko, can I still breed it? Because it's really hard to find breeders where I live, even at expos, and I highly doubt I'll be able to get all of my geckos from a breeder.

2. Is it bad to mix albino and non-albino morphs? If so, how come?

3. If a gecko has a tail kink (I've read debates about this), WHY is it bad for the gecko, and how bad does the kink have to be to not breed the geckos? I have a fat tail with a tiny, tiny kink at the tip of her tail, and although I'm not going to breed her, I'm wondering if a kink as small as hers would be acceptable?

Please no rude comments, I just want to breed once as an experience. I have lots of room, and separate bins and everything for hatchlings.

Thanks,
Steph

 

[acpart]

I will give you my opinion and you may hear different opinions from other people:

1. As long as you are clear about what you do and don't know about the gecko's history, I feel it's OK to breed them and to give as much info as you can to people who buy the offspring. Two things that could be helpful: if the gecko is a possible or suspected het for something, it is useful to breed that gecko to a gecko possessing the trait it may be het for in order to "prove it out"; it would be a good idea to hold on to contact information from the people you sell the offspring to so if anything unusual pops out (for example if you breed the gecko in question to a tremper the next year and you get albino babies indicating that the gecko is het for tremper) you can contact them; if there is any suspicion that a gecko you want to use as a breeder is het for more than one strain of albino, I would recommend not using that gecko as a breeder so as not to further muddy the albino waters.

2. It is not bad to mix albino and non-albino morphs (I assume you mean breeding an albino to a non-albino) as long as you understand, can properly label and explain to others the following terms: het for albino, x% possibility of being het for albino. What is a problem, not for any health reason, but for the sake of genetic confusion, is to interbreed different strains of albino (say, a tremper albino to a bell albino) because it becomes very difficult to tell which het characteristic is being expressed with future generations of albinos

3. Sorry, I'm not even going to touch this one except to say that if you know the gecko wasn't born with the tail kink and got it later in an injury it's fine to breed it.

Good luck with your plans.

Aliza

 

[Jordan]

1. Its okay to breed it. as long as your okay not knowing then thats fine (as you could get anything out of it). but if your aiming for a speicific morph then obviously it would help a hell of a lot lol.

2. yup its fine. Breeding an albino to a normal, would produce normals het for albino. im assuming you know what this means by now? but if you breed an albino to a non-albino, you wont get albino's hatching.

3. this is very debateable. but as previously mentioned, if the tail kink has stemmed from an injury or accident then yes its fine because then you KNOW its not genetic. If your uncertain how it got the kink then i'd personally avoid breeding it incase it got passed on to the young.

good luck

 

[T-ReXx]

Everything's been answered except the tail kink issue so I'll touch on that.

The main reason genetic tail kinks are frowned upon is that the genetics behind them can be linked to more serious spinal deformities. Geckos with tail kinks could produce offspring that have serious spinal issues, and what's going on under the skin is not something most owners have the equipment to be aware of. So, by breeding animals with tail kinks that are genetically linked (not animals with kinks due to known injuries, these are obviously not genetic and won't affect an animal's breeding potential) you potentially create offspring that could either have serious health problems themselves, or produce offspring of their own that have them.

One other thing to mention, don't cross albino strains, i.e. Tremper X Bell, Bell X Rainwater, etc. This is just creating a genetic mess that is nigh impossible to clean up. This also goes for crossing non-visual albino animals that are heterozygous for different albino strains. Keep your lines clean, and keep VERY good records.

 

[LeoGirl575]

Geckos with tail kinks could produce offspring that have serious spinal issues,

That was exactly what I thought. Thank you for clearing this up.

One other thing to mention, don't cross albino strains, i.e. Tremper X Bell, Bell X Rainwater, etc. This is just creating a genetic mess that is nigh impossible to clean up. This also goes for crossing non-visual albino animals that are heterozygous for different albino strains. Keep your lines clean, and keep VERY good records.

Okay, that was what it was! For some reason I thought it was albino x normal, but I knew those would only make het for albino. lol

Is a blazing blizzard considered an albino??

Sounds good to me, thanks a lot guys.

Steph

 

[T-ReXx]

Blazing Blizzard is an abino blizzard, there are versions of tremper blazings, rainwater blazings, and (the least common) bell blazings.

 

[Jordan]

yes a blazing blizzard is a gecko homozygous for albino and blizzard. they are very nice. got one on order atm actual lol

 

[LeoGirl575]

Okay, so it wouldn't be wise to cross a blazing blizzard with other albinos? Then how come there are different strains of blazing blizzard? (ie. tremper blazing blizzard)

 

[T-ReXx]

It depends on the strain of albino involved. There are three albino strains in leopard geckos. A Blazing Blizzard is a gecko that is both Albino and Blizzard. So, crossing a tremper blazing blizzard with a rainwater blazing blizzard creates the same problems as crossing a regular tremper with a regular rainwater, it's the same cross, just with the blizzard gene added.

That being said, crossing two tremper blazing blizzards, or two rainwater blazing blizzards is perfectly acceptable.

 

[Jordan]

or a tremper blazing blizzard with a tremper albino. or a rainwater blazing blizzard with a rainwater albino. as long as the same albino sxtrain is being used it doesnt matter what other genes are involved, in this case blizzard.

 

[LeoGirl575]

Okay, thanks a lot.

 

[JordanAng420]

More about tail kinks:

http://geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=66079

I want to specifically point out post #53, and what Seamus (M_Surinamensis) has to say in his posts throughout the thread.

 

[LeoGirl575]

Thanks, I've read that thread.