Morph Guide -Photos and all

[mlededee]

wat would be considered the "normals" like the ones you would most likely get at a petshop

A normal is a buckskin--a plain, patternless brown colored gecko.

I don't know why but they just draw me more than the dalmations - though red ones with the same pinstripe harly pattern would be da puppys.

Apparently you need to get into cresteds because you have most excellent taste. You might enjoy the photos here: http://www.acreptiles.com/geckos_cre...ion_redhar.htm.

How do you buy the colour morphs if they develop their colour later on and vary so much between fired up and not?

Is it all about a trustworthy breeder or are there signs to look for?

The best bet is to buy an animal that is at least 3-4 months old from a trustworthy breeder. Some geckos will start showing their adult coloration at that age, but some take 8-10 months to really start showing, it really just depending on the color and the morph (for instance creamsicles and red harlies tend to take longer to show their coloration).

You can also look at the parents of the gecko to get an idea of what it might look like, but this is not always a safe bet because the genetics can vary so much. Once you have been dealing with cresteds for a while you will start to get an idea of what a gecko will look like as an adult based on its juvie coloration but that takes a lot of time looking at and raising a lot of geckos in order to be somewhat accurate. Even then you won't guess them all correctly--I have a gecko that is almost a year old that I just KNOW is going to be a red harley but she still isn't really showing her coloration yet (although I know that this particular line of red harlies it does take longer). When she was just a few months old I totally did not see the red harley potential in her and I almost sold her--I'm more than a little glad now that I didn't. Every once in a while they do get one by on me!