Still a Rainwater?

[perfectsoldier23]

My male is about 8-9 months in these photos. Bought him about a month and a half ago and he was sold to me as a Rainwater albino.
He had a perfect shed a few days ago and I noticed he's super BRIGHT! A lot more vibrant orange than he was when I got him.

The pictures are posted in the best amount of natural light I can get.
Is he still considered a Rainwater albino?

 

[Gary Orner]

Rainwater is just a line of albino. There is Bell, Rainwater and Tremper. SO if he was sold to you as a rainwater that is all you can go on unless you test breed him.

He is nice looking. Rainwaters are very underrated IMO

 

[perfectsoldier23]

I thought Rainwaters, Tremper and Bells all looked slightly different? From what I've seen, the Bells tend to have a little lavender or "chocolate" [for lack of a better term] in their coloring. Whereas Tremper and Rainwater were determined by their eye colors?

This is the description I am going off of:
Guide to Leopard Gecko Morphs an

 

[Gary Orner]

Line breeding has taken over. You can get an idea with eye color but it is still just a guide. I have Trempers here that look Bell until you look at the eyes. But again these are all just signs. Nothing is 100% That is why buying from trusted sources is a must

 

[LepoInc]

The chocolate look is from lower incubation/husbandry temperatures.
For bright color'd leopard geckos, the key is heat. So you're doing something right ;D

 

[DrCarrotTail]

I agree with what was said. In theory the three strains do look different but in practice they can look almost identical. For example, Trempers that are incubated cold can have really dark eyes and that look like rainwaters and have really dark markings and look like Bells. Line breeding has complicated things further by moving the appearance away from the original identifiers and making it harder to tell. To complicate things further, your gecko could express two (or even three! but that's highly unlikely) types of albino at the same time and have characteristics of both or only one. Like Gary said, finding out from the breeder you got him from what his parentage is or test breeding are the only ways to know for sure.

 

[perfectsoldier23]

Oh wow.
I purchased him from a store [jeez] and the sales associate I purchased him from seemed to know exactly what was done with him, his exact strain and where he came from.
He's intended to meet my female once she ovulates and she is a guaranteed Raining RedStripe from a reputable breeder. I know I would never know until I tried to cross him with the different strains of albino but...would it be smart to place him with my female without knowing for sure he was Rainwater? Or should I get a guaranteed Rainwater male?

 

[LepoInc]

Well you COULD test it but what would you do with the babies if they ended up being "mutts"? If you're unsure, your safest bet is to grab a known rainwater

Sent via Tapatalk whilst caring for Eublepharis macularis'

 

[perfectsoldier23]

Well you COULD test it but what would you do with the babies if they ended up being "mutts"? If you're unsure, your safest bet is to grab a known rainwater

Sent via Tapatalk whilst caring for Eublepharis macularis'

Yeah...this is exactly what I don't want is normals! I do have friends who come over and say they "want" a leopard gecko but I wouldn't nail that down as a for-sure purchase...
Definitely a difficult decision to make.

 

[DrCarrotTail]

Glad you're putting in the time to thank about it! The associate at the store where you got him from could have known what she was she was talking about or she could have thought she knew what she was talking about. The two are often delivered with the same level of confidence and believability. I've learned to ask for references, like where they got the breeders they produced the gecko from and if I don't know their names and can't find websites or anything then where they got theirs from until it traced back to someone with a reputation. Rainwaters are the most uncommon of the three albinos and if they couldn't answer where they got their breeders from I would question them being a pure strain. Even if your gecko proves to be a Rainwater, without knowing it's lineage or without a guarantee from a breeders with a known reputation to keep up, it could be a double het and you'd need to prove him by producing about 20 babies from a known Bell, Tremper and RW to know for sure. IMO its less costly and time consuming to just go get a pure male, however, only you can really answer if its worth it to you to breed him

 

[LepoInc]

Did you get it from a chain store or a local petshop?

 

[perfectsoldier23]

Glad you're putting in the time to thank about it! The associate at the store where you got him from could have known what she was she was talking about or she could have thought she knew what she was talking about. The two are often delivered with the same level of confidence and believability. I've learned to ask for references, like where they got the breeders they produced the gecko from and if I don't know their names and can't find websites or anything then where they got theirs from until it traced back to someone with a reputation. Rainwaters are the most uncommon of the three albinos and if they couldn't answer where they got their breeders from I would question them being a pure strain. Even if your gecko proves to be a Rainwater, without knowing it's lineage or without a guarantee from a breeders with a known reputation to keep up, it could be a double het and you'd need to prove him by producing about 20 babies from a known Bell, Tremper and RW to know for sure. IMO its less costly and time consuming to just go get a pure male, however, only you can really answer if its worth it to you to breed him

GREAT response!
Basically, when I decided to get my first leo [this guy pictured here], I just wandered into my local pet store and saw that an old high school friend of mine worked there. I talked to him for about an hour about what I wanted to do and that I had cared for leos in the past but was looking at breeding them this time around due to my extreme interest in genetics and the leopard gecko species as a whole. He showed me this guy and said, with all confidence, that he was a Rainwater albino and that he would be a great addition to any breeding program. So I bought him.
He had his first shed with me about a week ago and he turned from the lighter "traditional albino" coloration to this BRIGHT orange and yellow. It was shortly after that that I questioned his strain and posted this thread here. I also managed to get the facebook of my friend who sold me him at the pet store. He told me that the pet store purchased all their reptiles from California Zoological Supply, whether that is a reputable place or not, I am unsure.

 

[perfectsoldier23]

Did you get it from a chain store or a local petshop?

It's a chain store.