In the late 1970s when leopard geckos that were caught in the wild were being imported into the United States into the pet trade, very little was known about the species. In fact, leopard geckos in the wild can be grouped into several different species and subspecies.
Without this knowledge, the imports that were meant for the pet trade were bred together without reguard to these different species resulting in a lot of genetic variability in future leopard gecko generations.
“Morph’s” in the leopard gecko world refers to a difference in color, size, and/or genetics as compared to “normal” leopard geckos. The differences in color, pattern, etc. are often genetically based which means that these traits can be passed to future generations through selective breeding.
Most of the morphs started out as a genetic fault or a mistake that made them different from the other leopard geckos. In the wild these geckos would stand out and they were easy targets for predators. Today, there is a huge variety of leopard gecko morphs available.
Some of these morphs include dominate morphs like Enigma, Blizzards and the recessive morphs like Murphy Patternless. There are also complete dominant like Macksnow, co-dominant like the Giants, combo morphs like R.A.P.T.O.Rs and poly genetic morphs like S.H.T.C.T.
The carrot tail is a trait that has been appearing in many different morphs. It is most often seen in Albey’s Tangerine line and also in the R.A.P.T.O.Rs. It is also seen in Murphy Patternless leopard geckos but most of all in the Tangerine and the Hypo morphs, in all three of the albino strains (Tremper, Rainwater, and Bell) and can be seen a little bit in the Blizzards.
Carrot tail leopard geckos are leopard geckos that have a more than ordinary amount of orange pigment in their tail. The orange pigment is usually at the base of the tail but some geckos may have up to 90 percent of the tail covered with orange pigment. In ordered to be classified as a carrot tail the leopard gecko has to have a minimum of 15 percent or one fourth of the tail colored in orange.
The amount of orange coloring varies from just a small band at the base of the tail to a solid orange tail seen on some extreme cases. The carrot tail trait is line bred. This means that when two geckos that both have the carrot tail trait are bred together, their offspring will most likely have carrot tails as well.
In order to have geckos with more orange pigmentation or coloring then the previous generations, the geckos with the highest amount of carroting should be bred together. The carrot head is another line bred trait. The carrot head trait is characterized by orangey spots on the top of the leopard gecko’s head and is usually exclusive to Tremper Albinos.
It is possible to breed your own carrot tail leopard geckos but before you attempt breeding keep in mind the amount of time, space and resources needed to maintain the breeders and their babies.
You might want to consider different questions like, what will you do with the additional baby geckos if the don’t sell as expected ? Is it fesable for you to keep and care for all of them? These are just a few of the questions you might wish to consider before attempting breeding leopard geckos.
Debbie Miller is a pet lover and Leopard Gecko Expert. For more Great information on The Carrot tail Leopard Gecko and Expert Advice on buying, keeping and breeding beautiful, healthy Leopard Geckos visit her website and get your Free 10 part Mini-Course at http://www.leopardgeckoscenter.com
