What does it mean??

[Ed O]

Being new to the gecko world, I am at a bit off a loss here. I am confused about what makes a gecko a specific morph. Some of the names are obvious, like snow, albino, and tangerine. But what about raptors, hets, and the like?
How can you look at a gecko and know, with a good amount of certainty, which is which?
Also, what's the deal with 1.2, 2.1, etc..?
Is there a link someone can share with me that will point me in the right direction?

 

[Vamp523]

for the 1.2 question, the first number refer to the male and 2nd number refer to the female and the third would be unsexed.

 

[Ed O]

What does the number stand for?

 

[Leopardbreeder]

The number stands for how many of that you have so me I have 2.3 Leopard Geckos. That means I have 2 males and 3 females. The last 2 numbers which aren't as common are unsexed and incubating. So its: Males.Females.Unsexed.Eggs incubating.

To the morph question: Morphs are an outcome of successfully inbreeding. Then after a new trait is found. It is line bred to be intensified. HERE is a great place to learn about genetics.

 

[LeopardLunatic]

The number of that particular sex, like 2.1 would be 2 males 1 female. as for Raptors and hets, Hets are percentages of another type of morph in the gecko i believe so like a normal 50% het for Blizzard has a 50% chance of having Blizzard offspring. Raptors are again i believe a mix of a bunch of co-dominant morphs. Im not much better at this stuff but this is what i think ive picked up so far so if anyone has corrections to what i said hopefully they will fill u in better.

 

[Ipsl]

It took me two weeks to fidure out the 1.2 thing. And you v=come along and ask the stuff I wanted to know!! Thanks seriously.

 

[rhino43grr]

going off of what i learned in science class as well as on this site, het means it carries the genetic code (genotype) for a recessive trait (albino, patternless, etc) without actually displaying the physical characteristics (phenotype)... like blue eyes in people, if your mom and dad both have brown eyes and you have blue eyes, it means that your parents had 1 gene for brown and 1 gene for blue and each passed the blue gene (blue gene/jean get it haha, sorry that was a bad play on words) so...

a normal looking gecko being, say, 50% het for bell albino would mean that both parents were het for bell, leaving open the (50%) possibility that whichever parent didn't pass on the dominant genes did pass on their bell genes.
100% het would require that one parent actually be a bell albino (thus only able to pass on bell genes to its offspring)

as far as i know, the reason that raptors are more expensive is because they're a combination of several recessive traits (red-eyes, paternless, albino)

 

[Ed O]

Yikes!! Gets confusing:main_huh:
Thanks to all who've posted so far.
I'm getting the gist of it, but definitely need more time.
The links were good reads, as well.
-Ed

 

[Stitch]

For the number it goes like this: 2.3.5 would mean 2 males, 3 females and 5 unsexed.

There actually is no 4th number as some have mentioned for incubation. Has anyone ever heard of don't count your chickens until the eggs have hatched?

As for names matching the morphs, it's kinda like if you find it you get to name it yourself. There are actually 3 different types of albinos avaialable. These 3 "strains" do not mix together. There is the Tremper albino a.k.a. Texas strain (the first albino found by Ron Tremper), next I believe came the Rainwater or Las Vegas albino (I don't know who found that one) and last but certainly not least the Bell Albino (found by Mark Bell). Some geckos like the RAPTOR's are a mix of different morphs that make something new, just to clarify, from my knowledge there are no co-dom traits in a RAPTOR.

As for determining what morph a gecko is, it's more or less knowing the morphs and experience.

Leopardbreeder sent you a great link to help you learn about some morphs and gemetic traits. There are a lot more morphs out there then what's on the list, but it's a start.

 

[rhino43grr]

las vegas albino was discovered by tim rainwater. celebritygeckos has a morph guide on their site that has pictures of most of them and paul sage's site has one as well.

 

[okapi]

Het = carrying a gene in the heterozygous state. At each section on the DNA strand there is a spot for a specific gene (the "spot" is called a loci). There are two genes at each loci, one from each parent. A het has two different types of that one gene at that location. One of those genes is dominant over the other gene, so the gecko expresses the dominant trait, but is carrying the recessive trait on the genetic level.

The number thing has already been explained: 1.2.3 means 1 male, 2 females, 3 unsexed.

For traits there are several types:
Recessive - a gene that is blocked if another more dominant gene shares the loci on the DNA strand.
Dominant - a gene that blocks any gene other than itself on a loci from being expressed. The "wild" form of a gecko expresses the dominant form.
Co-Dominant - a gene that is not fully dominant over other the other gene at its loci. There is a "visible het" form that is expressing both the normal and the mutant gene at the same time. Then there is a "super" form, in which both the genes at that loci are both the same co-dom gene and it is fully expressed.
Polygenetic - a trait that is controlled by many different genes at several different loci. This explains why no two animals are 100% identical (except for twins and clones of coarse)
Line bred traits- a trait that is polygenetic and is improved upon through selective breeding for a desired look.

There are various morphs that are caused by a single gene mutation, then some caused by a combination of single mutant genes, and then there are morphs that are the result of selective linebreeding.

-----------------------------------------
R.A.P.T.OR.'s are: Red eyed Albino Tremper line ORange.
They are the result of combining several existing morphs.
Recessive: albino, eclipse
Polygenetic: tangerine, carrot head, carrot tail, patternless stripe
R = Red eyed. the result of the eclipse (solid black eye gene) + albino (to make eyes solid red instead of black)
A = Albino. Tremper albino to make colors brighter.
P = Patternless. A selectively bred trait from Ron Tremper's colonies that removes all body patterning. Also called "patternless stripe"
T = Tremper. The breeder who developed the morph, and the strain of albino used in its creation.
OR = Orange. From the carrot head, carrot tail, and tangerine traits to make the raptors orange from head to tail.
-----------------------------

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Morphs are an outcome of successfully inbreeding.Then after a new trait is found. It is line bred to be intensified.

This is not entirely correct. Breeders have worked many years to develop leopard gecko morphs by selective breeding, and not always inbreeding or line-breeding.

 

[Leopardbreeder]

Ok, i was kinda trying to get at that with the line breeding. Wrong word usage I guess. Thanks

 

[okapi]

a normal looking gecko being, say, 50% het for bell albino would mean that both parents were het for bell, leaving open the (50%) possibility that whichever parent didn't pass on the dominant genes did pass on their bell genes.

Het bell X het Bell = 66% het bell.
Because breeding a het to a het:
(Bb) X (Bb) = BB, Bb, Bb, bb

25% of offspring will be completely normal
50% of offspring will be het bell (but will look normal)
25% of offspring will be bells.

So we know that 3 out of 4 hatchlings look normal, and we know that 2 of those three are carrying the gene, and one is not. so we divide 2/3 to get 66%, meaning that there is a 66% chance that each of the three non-bells is het for bell. those possible hets will have to be proven out to know if they are hets or not.

50% hets are the product of a normal X a het. Since the het has a 50% chance of passing on its bell gene, and a 50% chance of passing on its non-bell gene, we call normal looking geckos with only one het parent 50% hets.

 

[okapi]

Wrong word usage I guess. Thanks

What she means is that to improve upon a line, it is not always straitforward linebreeding. To produce the first diablo blancos, RT had to outbreed, by crossing raptors with blazing blizzards, but he was still being selective with his breedings to produce the desired outcome. And since he used several blazing blizzard females to produce his hets, the next generation was not as closely related when he narrowed back down the gene pool by breeding albino het DB to albino het DB.

 

[Ed O]

Who's on first....?
j/k.
After reading this thread over and over again I think it's starting to sink in. Thanks all.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

What she means is that to improve upon a line, it is not always straitforward linebreeding. To produce the first diablo blancos, RT had to outbreed, by crossing raptors with blazing blizzards, but he was still being selective with his breedings to produce the desired outcome. And since he used several blazing blizzard females to produce his hets, the next generation was not as closely related when he narrowed back down the gene pool by breeding albino het DB to albino het DB.

Thank you, Daniel! That's what I meant!

 

[Leopardbreeder]

So who's on third? lol

Ok, I understand now.