My Ugly Duckling?

[pettro]

So, I bought a pet store Leo on impulse at the end of June and i'm thinking she gets uglier with each shed. I still don't care what she looks like but im pretty sure at the start I was going to have some type of snow, then the yellow came....but now its taking over the lavender on the head and tail not just the body. Its not even a pastel or bright yellow but like baby crap yellow. Can I expect the yellow to brighten up or will she just be my ugly duckling? I also have a breeder bought hypo tang which makes her look even more pathetic. Attached is the pics of her. One in June and the other today. I guess I should request that others post pics of their Leo's that fall short in the looks department.



Best pics I can post, I left my camera on top of my truck at the cabin and drove off......FAIL.

 

[im faster]

i think she looks fine.

 

[NinjaDuo]

I think youre being a bit harsh? SHe looks nice to me

 

[4mb3r]

lol def looks fine to me Very pretty gecko!

 

[Adinar]

What are your temps sitting at? And what kind of heating do you use for her? Heating does effect how their color looks. A colder animal will look darker than normal. Not saying this is the issue, but never know.

Also she doesn't look that bad. Macks go thru changes like that. Mine was the same blacl/purple and white when she was little and now that she's older she is yellow. At least from the looks of it you have a healthy animal. And if her colors aren't as bright as you wanted, unfortunetally this is something that you get when you buy from a petstore. Unknown, low quality genetics. You want something really nice looking, be prepared to spend a serious amount of cash.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

The first pic looks like a Mack Snow. You must realize that young geckos go through major physical transformations until they reach adulthood. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[pettro]

@Adinar, I have a UTH, and a heat bulb for at night since my basement is around 65 at night. It ranges from 77-89. During the day I have a light on a timer for 8 hours.

So, what is the possibility of the yellow becoming brighter? She is about 8 months old so I have no clue how much change there is left by her shedding. Ive looked at other posts and many people find it hard to comment on store bought Leo's but is there a rule of thumb?

 

[STUTFL]

By the "range" do you mean from cold side to hot side, or on one side? Either way, a thermostat couldn't hurt, nor could kicking up the temps a little, at least for the low end of the scale. That said, she looks like a lovely girl and still has a lot of potential color/pattern changes to go through. I'm afraid there's not much you can do if you just don't like the way leos look, aside from accepting that that is in fact what she is!

 

[grboxa]

agreed looks nice to me to, by the way very nice gecko stutfl ^ love the pattern.

 

[fl_orchidslave]

Pettro, she might think you look strange too

 

[Adinar]

@Adinar, I have a UTH, and a heat bulb for at night since my basement is around 65 at night. It ranges from 77-89. During the day I have a light on a timer for 8 hours.

So, what is the possibility of the yellow becoming brighter? She is about 8 months old so I have no clue how much change there is left by her shedding. Ive looked at other posts and many people find it hard to comment on store bought Leo's but is there a rule of thumb?

Floor temps should be anywhere between 91-93. We're talking literal floor, not air temp. You may have a UTH that is too small for the tank. Boost the heat a bit and you might see a slight difference. Do you have a thermometer with a prob that touches the floor?

Marcia is right, every animal goes thru some very drastic changes from hatchling to adult.

As for store bought leos, best to stay away and stick with reptutable breeders. That way you know what you are getting and you're not getting muddy genetics. Who knows where they got this one from. The mack I got had been bought from a Petco (last purchase every from a place like that.) and she's got problems. Pretty to look at but tiny as can be. She's a year old and not much bigger than a 6 month old-ish juvie. Eats like a pig, just doesn't grow. Seems healthy in other ways aside from that and her apparent inability to process calcium. Perfect example of not knowing what you're going to get.