Getting big!

[Lolo76]

I just went to check on Sunny, my mid-2009 SHTCT girl, and couldn't believe how she's grown recently... so I threw her on the scale, and she's around 42g now. I was actually planning to re-home her or just keep her as a solo lizard, but now I'm getting the itch to breed this pretty girl. How big do they need to be before introducing a male into the cage? I seem to remember 50g, but can't find anything definitive on that.

Also, what would you recommend breeding her with? And should I bump her up to larger prey at this point? She's currently feeding on medium mealworms and (occasionally) med crickets, but I'm guessing she's about ready for something bigger - maybe super worms, or just large mealworms? She appears to be in shed right now, but here are some pics of my big baby:





Here's what she is eating now... and no, I don't usually leave worms on the bedding.

[Lolo76]

Oh, and one picture that shows her beautiful tail - which looks even better when she's not in shed.

[coldblooded]

Hey, she's looking great

Most people advise that female geckos should not be bred until they are around 50g. To me, even that is a little light, since producing eggs is extremely taxing on the body and they tend to lose a bit of weight during the breeding seasons. I would suggest letting your girl reach about a year old in age and seeing where she is at that point. Maturity is mainly determined by size and weight in reptiles but you do want to give her the best start you can.

As far as what to breed her to, SHT (Super Hypo Tangerines) are a line bred trait. As of right now I don't see enough orange on her tail to be considered a carrot tail. You could breed her to another variation of tang (SHT, HT, SHTCT, SHTCTB, etc). You would get a nice variation of tang babies. You could also breed her to a Mack Snow, which is a codominant morph.. or a red stripe, which is recessive/line bred. There are tons of options out there, you just have to do a bit of digging and educate yourself on the morphs (and what you're interested in making).

IF she is het for a form of albinism you would ideally want to breed her to the homozygous form of albinism that she is het for. Unfortunately, many geckos have unknown hets and it would take a bit of test breeding to see if she was indeed het for anything. Mixed het geckos are undesirable (this is why you never want to breed different strains of albinos together... you would get normals het for both strains of albinism. This just muddies up the genetics and does not create anything interesting.)

If you got her from a breeder they should be able to tell you if she is het for anything and what it may be. If you purchased her from a pet store then it is impossible to know without test breeding her.

Anyways, good luck!

[Lolo76]

Thanks! I'll probably wait until summer (around the time she's one), and buy an adult male who's ready to breed - otherwise it will be another year while I raise a hatchling boy. I'm thinking of breeding her with a Tremper Albino, because supposedly TA + SHTCT = Sunglows. Either that or I'll mate her to Mack Snow as you suggested, since I really really like that morph.

Oh, and she is definitely a SHTCT. I bought her from VMSHerp, and as far as I know they're reliable... so if that's what I paid for, I assume that's what I got. Maybe she's still developing the colors? I'll post more photos when she's done shedding (about a week), and see if that makes any difference.

[Lolo76]

Okay... since there was also previous confusion about whether Sunny's a SUPER hypo or regular hypo (I thought the latter), I just looked up her receipt from VMS. According to the email receipt, she is a Tangerine Hypo Carrot-Tail, which is what I said on the other thread. So no super, but definitely a carrot-tail.

[coldblooded]

Okay... since there was also previous confusion about whether Sunny's a SUPER hypo or regular hypo (I thought the latter), I just looked up her receipt from VMS. According to the email receipt, she is a Tangerine Hypo Carrot-Tail, which is what I said on the other thread. So no super, but definitely a carrot-tail.

Well, by the definition that a lot of leopard gecko enthusiasts go by, carrot tail is 15% or more solid orange on the tail that is unbroken by black spots. But she could develop more with age.

She is a super hypo, because from what I see from the pictures, she has no body spots.

Tangerine is obvious.

She is not a Baldy because she has head spots.

Here's a picture of my SHTCTB, Solis:


And my hypo tang, Freya


Anyway, find out if she has any hets from VMS.

tang/HT/SHT/SHTCT/SHTCTB when bred to a Tremper Albino will yield normals/tangs HET for Tremper Albino and when you breed them back to the Tremper Albino then you will get Sunglows.

If she is HET Tremper Albino you will get some sunglows, some tangs, etc.

If you have any other questions let me know.

[coldblooded]

To clarify:

Assuming she is not het Tremper albino, when you cross her with a Tremper you will yield 100% Normal HET Tremper Albino

You breed the females back to dad and you get 50% Tremper Albinos, possibly exhibiting the SHT look (sunglows), and 50% normal het Tremper Albinos. These are the statistics per egg, so it's not like you will get 50/50 with every clutch..

Oh, and one other thing. You can achieve a "Sunglow" (or Tremper Albino SHT/SHTCT/SHTCTB) with ANY of the albino strains. Just make sure you learn her hets if she has any first!!

[Lolo76]

I'm so confused now, LOL... I'll check with VMS, but as far as I know she's just what I listed above (THCT). Weird.

[Lolo76]

Oh, and she did have more visible body-spots as a baby... here's a pic from last year:

Hard to believe that's the same lizard!!

[coldblooded]

Oh, and she did have more visible body-spots as a baby... here's a pic from last year:

Hard to believe that's the same lizard!!

Hon, it's all about how the animal looks presently . Tangerines, in all their forms, are a line bred trait. Meaning, just because the parents may have been a combination of the tangerine varieties does not mean they will throw all of one thing (HT, SHT, etc..etc..they will throw some of everything more often than not.)

She IS a super hypo tangerine. She lacks bodies spots now. That makes her a Super Hypo. By definition, she does not have enough carrot-tail to be considered one.. but that could change. From her size, I do not see that as changing drastically..

Some breeders will slap the CT on them just because they have a little bit of orange on their tail. I am not saying anything against VMS, I am just telling you what the leopard gecko community says about carrot tail.. 15% of solid orange with no black spots.

Hope that helps!

Oh, and by the way, what you need to check for is what she could be HET for. That is what is important if you want to breed her!!