Leopard Gecko - Leopard Geckos As Pets

Leopard Geckos As Pets

Leopard geckos are one of the most popular reptile pets. Their small size, robustness, and relatively easy care makes them a good "beginner" reptile pet. They breed easily in captivity, so most sold today are captive-bred rather than wild-caught. Many morphs—color or pattern variations, and occasionally size variations—have been bred. Some of the morphs include 3 different strains of albino, patternless, blizard, jungle, hypomelanistic, tangerine, giant, and snow. Since many of the morphs are unrelated gene sequences, various combinations, such as patternless albino and mack snow albino, have also been bred.

Albino, patternless, hypomelanistic, and blizard morphs primarily involve the reduction or loss of dark spots. Giant is a size morph, giants are considerably larger than normal leopard geckos. Jungle morphs involve a change in the arrangement or pattern of dark areas. Snow morphs typically have normal dark spots, but little or no yellow pigment. And, tangerine morphs have an orange pigment on part of their body, typically the head and/or tail.