Improving strain

[stinky]

Just got my 1st leo 3 days ago. It's a SHTCT.

This forum is GREAT!! After doing a little reading, I understand that it is line bred.

My goal now is to :
a. Improve the color
b. "Remove" the spots on the head and make it a baldy

I'm happy with the tail as it is.

I'm thinking of going out and getting another leo for breeding purposes.

What should I get??

a. Another SHTCT with the BEST color regardless of other features? Improve one feature at a time??
b. Another morph to out cross?
c. What's this about getting a wild "natural" leo to improve the strain? I really don't understand.:main_huh:

Please advice.

 

[Tony C]

There are so many high quality SHTCBs out there that there is no sense in trying to improve the line by breeding mediocre animals, you're better off buying the absolute best ones you can afford and using them for your program.

Outcrossing to wild type animals is primarily used to add genetic diversity to recessive morphs, breeding them into a line bred morph could be a huge setback in the quality of that line because the babies will be intermediate between the wild type and the morph, you would basically be starting over with lower quality individuals and have to line breed for many generations to get good looking morphs.

 

[acpart]

Welcome to GF and congratulations on your first thoughts about "genetic engineering". The best thing might be to get a SHTCTB (baldy) of a really good color. Failing that, in general I think it's more important to get as good a color as possible.

as far as your "b" and "c" questions, you'd probably want to improve the color before outcrossing. Outcrossing is useful if you've been breeding related geckos to improve color and want to add in another bloodline. What some people would do, for example, would be to get a really nice tang and in the next generation to breed the best looking siblings together. After you've done that, it may make sense to breed one of those siblings to an unrelated gecko, take the best of that pairing and breed it back into your line. Some people who have been doing a lot of related breeding would like to include a gecko that's more definitely not related to any domestic geckos (since this huge number of geckos in the pet trade most likely came from a relatively small number of original geckos). That's the situation when people want "wild caught" leopard geckos because they are likely either not related or more distantly related to the gecko in the pet trade and the different genes will make the line stronger. If that doesn't make sense, just ask and I'll try to clarify.

Here's something else to think about as well. It's a good idea to have a bit more experience before breeding and also to consider the following things:

--are you prepared to spend money on an incubator, proportional thermometer etc.
--do you have the space and resources to house and feed all the potential babies (a gecko could produce just 1 offspring but could also produce 20)
--do you have the funds to take sick geckos to the vet
--are you prepared to deal with geckos who may have deformities or may need to be euthanized
--are you in a stable enough phase in your life (i.e. not planning to have a baby or go to college in the next year or so) to commit to breeding and not have to sell everything off when your life changes.

I'm not saying you shouldn't breed, just make sure you consider those factors as you make your decision.

Aliza

 

[stinky]

Thanks guys for the fast reply. I get what you mean.

Thanks Aliza for the heads up. I used to breed fancy guppies and propergate corals, and faced the same issues as with any breeding program. For me, I love the sense of achievement and joy of propergation.

I agree with you. Get the best stock that I can afford, or find. It is much cheaper and faster that way.

So, my plan should now be:

a. Get the BEST male SHTCTB for my current female.
b. Breed brother to sister till I get improved features.
c. Get another nice SHTCTB to out cross.
d. Breed the babies back to my line.

Did I miss out anything?

 

[Taquiq]

You could get another SHTCTB to outcross but you would already have plenty of SHTCTB's. You could breed in an Albino Strain and get some Sunglows in 2 generations, and then you could breed as Mack or Super Snow for some Snowglow's.