so i was at a pet store and i saw this weird leo...help

[sweetlizard]

i couldnt tell what morph it was. First off, it was very skinny and young maybe 4.5"inches long. It looked like it hadnt been eating, all the other leos in the tank where healthy and nice.

The workers didnt know what morph it was and said it was sent to them like that a couple days ago with the others. I almost bought it, but wasnt sure if it was male or female, or if it would even live long... they gave me a discounted price which was like $30... super cheap...but the traits where really weird maybe someone can tell me what this is...

what it looked like...

it looked like a blizzard except instead of pink its body was like translucent orange with a small gradient of pink. it had the blizzard blue spotting over the eyes, it was patternless and had two completely black eyes... any ideas???

should i go "rescue" this leo for $30?

 

[sweetlizard]

wish i took a pic...

 

[Poppy243]

It can be almost impossible to tell what the morph is with absolute certainty, or what hets it may have, without knowing the genetics. Unless the shop breeds them themselves, or specialize in reptiles, most won't know the morph, and definitely not the genetics. They're not usually well educated on specifics of different reptiles. To me it sort of sounds like a leucistic (aka murphy patternless)... Would need pics and genetics to be sure. If you think you can save it, go for it. It may just need a bit of TLC that a pet shop can't provide. If you have other geckos though, make sure you keep it quarantined and wash hands after handling it and before handling your others. It could have an illness that you do not want to spread to your other geckos.

 

[sweetlizard]

It can be almost impossible to tell what the morph is with absolute certainty, or what hets it may have, without knowing the genetics. Unless the shop breeds them themselves, or specialize in reptiles, most won't know the morph, and definitely not the genetics. They're not usually well educated on specifics of different reptiles. To me it sort of sounds like a leucistic (aka murphy patternless)... Would need pics and genetics to be sure. If you think you can save it, go for it. It may just need a bit of TLC that a pet shop can't provide. If you have other geckos though, make sure you keep it quarantined and wash hands after handling it and before handling your others. It could have an illness that you do not want to spread to your other geckos.

Yah i am somewhat new to leos and just learning as much as i can. I am going to check on the leo tomorrow and see how its doing and snap some pics. It was shipped with another small leo that was for sure a blizzard, the worker said he was told they were both blizzard... but didnt know and said the sick one had enigma genes.... and honestly, i dont even know if it was sick, it was definitely skinny, but this leo was pretty tiny to begin with...

 

[sweetlizard]

oh yah and i recall them saying it was labeled, albino


looking at some pics online, I think it most resembles "blazing blizzard" with very bright, almost tang-like orange...

 

[Poppy243]

Blazing blizzards can sometimes show a little bit of yellow/orange coloration, from everything I've seen. If you do decide to purchase the gecko, there are plenty of resources out there to help you try to help the gecko get better. It may just be a younger gecko than the other. You can tell by the tail if it's healthy. It's a little harder to tell at a young age, but if the tail is extremely skinny with no curves at all, then it's probably underweight. My leos both had "skinny" looking tails, but there was always a little bit of a curve. A slightly wider part that tapered to the tip.
If it does have the enigma gene present, it's possible it may be affected by Enigma Syndrome, a neurological problem associated with geckos that have the enigma gene. Most enigma geckos now can function quite normally, with minimal problems, but occasionally one can come up. There's no real understanding of the enigma gene yet. It's still quite an... enigma... ;D Hahaha but all puns aside, if it does have the enigma gene, it could have issues feeding. It's manageable for an owner most of the time. If it has troubles eating it will often show circling and other severe enigma symptoms, which can be found online. I have a girl with enigma that was sold to me as showing no ES but sometimes I see things that sort of seem like ES symptoms. But as she is able to feed without assistance and shed fine I'm not worried about her too much. But you'd have to find out if it has enigma for sure first... One way to tell that they have enigma is the classic pure white tail. But that sounds like a bad way to tell in this case. The next is brightening of all pigment colors. Eyes and body. Those are just physical though. It's possible that it's something like a blazing blizzard with enigma gene, causing the brighter orange color. If it doesn't have red eyes (it can brighten red eyes), it could have sort of a golden brown around the pupil and silver around the golden brown. That's what my enigma has.

 

[LepoInc]

It's most likely an eclipse. Look at young eclipse pictures. It explains the two completely black eyes and blue spotting on his head

 

[Moon Light]

umm, I think we need a pic to help identify it for you, don't we folks?

 

[Poppy243]

I missed the mention of the black eyes, that'd be an eclipse alright. Eclipses can have reduced spotting on the back sometimes, from all the ones I've seen.

 

[Gary Orner]

Blizzards can have black eyes. It is unrelated to the eclipse gene.

It also could be dull because of it being unhealthy Most petstore geckos are mixed milkshake of genetics