Snow phenotype versus light wild types

[indyana]

As someone recently bitten by the leopard gecko bug, I've been trying to familiarize myself with the various morphs by visiting breeder sites. I have a question regarding some wild type geckos that look very much like snows. For example, most of the the E. m. montanus available here appear extremely light colored, with very little yellow.

At first glance, those look like excellent candidates for snow-line outcrossings, but how would you be able to determine whether the offspring were carrying snow genes or not...?

 

[LepoInc]

Montanus is a subspecies, and so they're genetics are different

Sent via Tapatalk whilst caring for Eublepharis macularis'

 

[acpart]

Actually, as a subspecies, their genetics probably work the same way, though the look may be different. To know for sure whether or not it is a snow, the most simple thing would be to breed it to a non snow and see if you get snows or not. However, you may possibly get offspring with very light yellow coloring at hatching and it may be hard to tell whether or not you have a snow (I had this happen with a snow blizzard I crossed with a Tremper. The babies were so pale yellow it was very hard to tell whether there was any yellow there or not and I had to sell some as "possible snows"). A better thing to do may be to breed the gecko to a snow and see if you get any super snows.

ALiza

 

[indyana]

Thanks for confirming. In general, it seems that one would have to be careful when breeding snow lines, as the coloration can be subtle under certain circumstances.

 

[B&B Geckos]

There are 4 lines of snow, Mack, Tug, Gem and Line bred snows. The first 3 are believed to be determined by co-dominant alleles. As with albinos, they should not be crossed. Some question whether the line breds should be crossed into one of the codominant lines. IMO this would also create confusion, how will one know whether the snow color in a hatchling is then influenced by the polygenic LB or the co-Dom. How would someone market these babies? It could work, but only if creating super forms...and this would require test breeding in all but the Mack snow.
Based on the Montanus crossings I've seen from geckoboa, who bred them to tangerines, and sasobek, who used them to create his Mint line, it seems that the snow is also polygenic. If this is case, I see no issue with breeding them to Line bred snows. John and Matt would be the best people to contact with this question however.