New pickup! Help ID morph?

The problem with Crestie Morphs is that everybody identifies them differently. Some people combine traits in describing them, but most I've met will identify a single prominant aspect of the morph and use that as the describing term for their animal.

Unlike BPs, what traits a Crestie shows does not always transfer to their offspring. It's more of a 'mixed bag' when it comes to genetics. You could get ones that always look like Mom or Dad, or babies that look like neither. Very different from Ball Python genetics.

I would call your girl a Cream Tiger.

The striping on your girl is very consistant over her entire body. Most harliquinns I've seen have their dominant 'lighter' pattern along their sides. They are usually significantly lighter in this area, with a darker dorsal, and a lighter stripe down the back. When I see your girl, I'm not thinking Harley. I'm thinking Tiger. And a very very very nice Tiger at that.

Female creams are very hard to come by and highly prized, obviously.

I have a Buckskin Tiger at home with Dalmation spots. I identify him as a Tiger right now, because that is his most prominant characteristic. Dalmation spots are usually a secondary characteristic for describing an animal. The only time that changes is when the amount of spots reaches about 200+. Then the animal's description usually switches over to 'Super Dalmation'. So: Buckskin Super Dalmation. But since my guy doesn't have that amount of spots yet, he is defined as a: Buckskin Tiger with Dalmation Spots.

So for your girl, I would describe her as a very heavy Cream Tiger, which is a wonderful morph.

I do not see any Pinstriping. At least, not enough to define her as a description for her morph. She does look to possibly be a Harley instead of a Tiger, but her light body type makes that very difficult to tell. Since it's not screaming Harley at me, I'd go with Tiger.

It's been a week and a half since I brought this girl home and this morning there was evidence that she had been digging around her lay box!

No eggs yet. If she just started poking around her lay box when can I be expecting her to lay?

Also, what is your preferred substrate for incubating crestie eggs?


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Your female is an extreme harlequin. For her to be a tiger, the patterning would need to be basically the same as her base color but slightly darker and her dorsal color would not vary much, if any, from her base color. Because her dorsal color and patterning are the same and are completely different than her base color, she is a harlequin. She just has a lot of harlequin patterning, giving the tiger-like appearance. The male is a flame with a small amount of partial pinstriping.

If she is digging, you can expect eggs at any time. Could be tonight, could be several days--just check her lay box each day until you find eggs. :) Some will dig just to dig, but generally gravid females dig the most when they are very close to laying. I use 100% perlite (no additives) or Hatchrite to incubate crested gecko eggs in Rubbermaid containers.