reptiles - History and Technique of Leopard Gecko Patterns

Ever heard of leopard gecko patterns like the Ruby-Eyed Tremper Albino morph? What about the Patternless Mack Super Snow? Or the Tangerine Super Hypo Carrot-Tail? You might not have heard of any of these, but they’re out there and available for you to purchase. Even as you read this, professional leopard gecko breeders are hard at work producing ever more amazing morphs (that is, visually distinct leopard geckos) for people to fall in love with and buy.

But where did this all begin? How is it done? And was there a time when this little leo actually looked kind of like a leopard making it the only option for the wannabe reptile owner? Read on to find out more…

Calcium

Leopard geckos in the wild eat a varied diet of insects and rodents, and those insects and rodents will themselves have eaten a varied diet up until they are caught and eaten. That adds up to a pretty nutritious diet for the wild leo, and one of its key features is a good ratio of calcium to phosphorus. That’s very important, as a diet with a ratio of calcium to phosphorus that is weighted in favor of phosphorus will result in not enough calcium being absorbed. This puts them at risk of metabolic bone disease. Unfortunately, most common feeder insects fed to captive leos have a bad ratio of calcium to phosphorus, and that’s why a supplement is required.

The best way to feed your leopard a calcium supplement is to gut load its feeder insects with a high-calcium diet. Blend together a sauce made from any of: dandelion greens; watercress; collard greens; mustard greens, and/or endive. Be sure to include both the juice and the pulp. Feed this to the feeder insects during the period 24-48 hours prior to feeding them to your leopard.

Vitamin D3

Leopard geckos in the wild, for obvious reasons, get all the sun (and hence all the vitamin D3) they need. Kept indoors as a pet however, they don’t get any sun at all, and that’s why a vitamin D3 supplement is needed. A vitamin D3 supplement can be given as part of a multivitamin supplement (see below for how to administer this).

Techniques

These morphs are brought about by selective breeding in captivity. This is a time-consuming process, as the traits that the breeders want to bring out are frequently the results of random genetic mutations and are recessive, meaning that they will be expressed in only 25% of the offspring of two parents who both carry a single copy of the trait. Breeders play the numbers game by breeding hundreds of leos at once.

Today

With all the leopard gecko patterns currently available, what’s left to do - are there still any ‘holy grail’ morphs that no one has been able to breed yet? The answer (at the time of writing in 2010) is yes, absolutely. Chief among the morphs that everyone wants to develop are an all-black morph and a true all-blue morph. There’s probably no doubt that these morphs will be achieved soon…so start saving your pennies!

Verónica Carrillo V.

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