Is LLLReptile Accurate with Morphs?

[Neon Aurora]

Well you see, several years ago I bought a leo from LLLReptile as a Mack Snow Rainwater Albino Patternless. I would love to have faith in his genetics and use him in my breeding projects, but I'm having a lot of trouble telling if he is mack snow or not. He's definitely albino patternless, but the snow part is much harder to tell.

Does anyone know if LLLReptile always sells their morphs accurately? I'm not trying to insult them or anything, I got a very healthy animal from them so I have no complaints, I'm just not sure of his genetics.

I can't post pictures, I don't own a camera.

 

[Kristi23]

I'm pretty sure they don't breed, so they just sell them as whatever they got them as. I personally wouldn't be sure on the genetics of something bought there. They're a retail store (I buy a lot of supplies from them), but not a breeder. It's also sometimes hard to tell if an albino is mack or not. Especially a patternless. You could always test breed to something with rainwater patty in the genetics. If you breed to something like a het rainwater/patty, you may hatch some visual mack snows, but you may not. It might take a few seasons to know for sure.

 

[Neon Aurora]

Yeah, someone bought him for me as a gift. Normally I like to buy from actual breeders. I did test breed him this season to my female(possible mack snow het typhoon), but so far she's laid two infertile clutches and I'm not sure if she's going to lay anymore(she's a first timer). I don't want to re-pair her because she wouldn't eat between her first and second clutch and lost a good amount of weight. The problem with this pairing is that both are possible mack snows. If I get any visual snows, I wouldn't be sure which parent it came from. The only way I would know is if I got super snows and both parents were snows.

You see, I wanted to avoid test breeding(I know I already bred him, but I thought about it afterwards when I started to think I wouldn't get any babies this season) because I want to keep my lines clean and be able to be confident in what I'm producing. I'm tempted to just not use him and buy another male like him from a breeder, but I'm hesitant because if he is what he was sold to me as, I wouldn't have to spend more money on another male and he's a healthy animal and would make a good breeder.

 

[Kristi23]

Yeah, someone bought him for me as a gift. Normally I like to buy from actual breeders. I did test breed him this season to my female(possible mack snow het typhoon), but so far she's laid two infertile clutches and I'm not sure if she's going to lay anymore(she's a first timer). I don't want to re-pair her because she wouldn't eat between her first and second clutch and lost a good amount of weight. The problem with this pairing is that both are possible mack snows. If I get any visual snows, I wouldn't be sure which parent it came from. The only way I would know is if I got super snows and both parents were snows.

You see, I wanted to avoid test breeding(I know I already bred him, but I thought about it afterwards when I started to think I wouldn't get any babies this season) because I want to keep my lines clean and be able to be confident in what I'm producing. I'm tempted to just not use him and buy another male like him from a breeder, but I'm hesitant because if he is what he was sold to me as, I wouldn't have to spend more money on another male and he's a healthy animal and would make a good breeder.

If it was me, I'd probably buy another male to use. But since you know the albino part, test breeding isn't a bad thing. If you want to be confident in what you're producing, buy another male from a good breeder instead.

 

[Neon Aurora]

You're probably right. I should probably get another male. It'll also give me the opportunity to lose the patternless gene because I don't really need it and it would just end up being a random het.

I was speculating on what kind of male I would get if I didn't want to use him(I'd like to get another female for next season too), and I started to think I might want to work with one of the line-bred traits. What I'm wanting to produce are Typhoons(specifically snow and super snow typhoons) and combo morphs of them. Do you think it would be worth introducing some tangerine or a stripe gene or a jungle? No matter how much I read, I can't grasp exactly how these genes work so I always stayed away from them.

Edit: I also thought it was worth mentioning, I test bred him this season with the intention of giving the offspring to a few of my friends who became interested in leos after seeing my project. They would have been pets only, so if he ended up being a different strain of albino or something, the offspring would be removed from the gene pool. I figured I wouldn't produce many babies with just one first time female.

 

[Kristi23]

If you want to produce typhoons, make sure both animals are eclipse and rainwater or hets. For the line bred type stuff, it's really up to you with how you want them to look. I try to add orange to my eclipse/raptor/radar stuff plus CT. But that's just the look I prefer.

 

[Neon Aurora]

Yup, my only female now is Possible mack snow het rainwater albino and eclipse. My next female and my male are up for debate right now. So far a tangerine with rainwater and eclipse genes is difficult to find. I'm sure I'll find something good before next season, though.

As for the patterning, if I wanted to introduce jungle patterning into my project(sometime in the future, I've got enough on my plate for next season), would the babies of a jungle crossed with a non-jungle still be jungle, or would they lose quality?

 

[DrCarrotTail]

Jungle and stripe work together in a strange way. They're not separate morphs but rather descriptive terms used for the pattern of a leo. You won't weaken jungles by crossing them to other patterns. Even if you breed two jungles together you may get a few babies with normal patterns and a few with stripes. I personally love working with jungles as I like variety and surprises and you just never know the patter that will hatch out! Eclipse tends to wash out a bit of color so finding a bright orange one might be a bit tough. They tend to be orange but a more muted color than non-eclipses. I'm working on a striped typhoon project at the moment. Hoping a bit of the pattern stays with them as they grow

 

[Neon Aurora]

I see, interesting. Well I've got some time to think about, so I'll keep an eye out for some geckos that will fit my breeding project. Thanks for the help. =)

 

[Kristi23]

Good luck! I've never really worked with jungles much, but I do know you can get a variety. I hope you find exactly what you're looking for.