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LEOPARD GECKO MORPHS & GENETICS

Home / Leopard Gecko FAQ / Leopard Gecko Morphs & Genetics

! 13 Dec 2019

What is a leopard gecko morph? The short answer is that morphs are a result of genetic breeding, which
produce variations of colors and patterns of a leopard gecko’s skin. (The same techniques are used for
other lizards and snakes as well.)

Essentially, a leopard gecko morph is the same gecko with a different paint job
job, achieved through genetic
combinations. Think of morphs as designer leopard geckos. The higher price of some leopard gecko morphs
represents rarity of the breeds and the genes the gecko is carrying.

Some morphs make take several generations to produce, depending on the gene combinations and whether various
desirable traits are recessive or dominant.

If you’d rather skip the science stuff or just prefer to browse for
leopard gecko morphs, click on over to CB Reptile (affiliate link to
cbreptile.com
cbreptile.com) and you can quickly get a feel for the variety and
differences available.

To learn about what makes a leopard gecko morph, we’ll venture into the topics of genetics and heredity.

Genetics and Traits

The first stop on our journey is some basic genetic terms and vocabulary. This will be helpful not only to understand
how the science works, but also to understand what you are getting when evaluating a leopard gecko morph.
Breeders will often use these terms when describing their latest morph masterpiece.

Trait: Specific genetic characteristic (e.g. eye color)

Gene: A unit of heredity containing information about a specific trait that is passed from parent to child. Each
gene is made up of two alleles, which combine to determine which characteristic is present
Allele: One of two (or more) alternate forms of a gene that occupy the same position on a chromosome. For each
gene, two alleles are present.
Dominant: An allele that gives favor for its trait. A dominant trait can be passed along to an offspring from a
single parent
Recessive: An allele that manifests only in absence of a dominant allele. The same recessive allele must be
passed by both parents in order to express the trait
Co-Dominant: Represents the presence of one or two dominant alleles. Two Dominant alleles will yield a “super”
variety of the trait.
Genotype: Combination of genes contributing to the presence of a trait
Phenotype: Outward appearance resulting from the combination of genes contributing to the presence of a trait
Homozygous: Two alleles of like kind contributing towards a gene
Heterozygous: Two alleles of different kind contributing towards a gene. The dominant will be visually present
while the recessive gene is still carried. This is often shortened to “het” when discussing morphs.

Breeding for Morphs

Breeders will mate leopard geckos with selected traits in hopes of producing offspring of a particular genotype.
Parents have a 50% chance of passing a particular trait along to offspring.

Dominant genes (as their name implies) have a higher chance of contributing to the genotype. Producing offspring
with recessive traits is a numbers game, with a bit of luck and change.

Still, we can predict the probability of the offspring a leopard gecko pair may produce. How? Science!

Fun with Punnett Squares

Named after Reginald C. Punnett, the Punnett Square is a diagram used to predict the probability that an individual
trait will be passed to an offspring, based on the genes carried by both parents. In humans this would be something
like eye color or hair color. An example in leopard gecko morphs, traits would include features like skin pattern and
color.

In a Punnett Square, dominant alleles are shown as uppercase, while recessive are represented as lowercase. Each
square in the grid represents a gene, which is comprised of two alleles; one from each parent.

Let’s look at a simple example of a “Normal” leopard gecko mating with an albino. Normal is a dominant trait, and
would be represented by NN, while albinism is recessive and would be represented by aa.

Punnett Square showing a Normal leopard gecko mating with an albino:

Results in all visibly normal offspring with a het albino gene

This combination would always produce Na, which would be a “normal” gecko that would be heterozygous for
albinism, or het albino. The dominant allele would determine the genotype. This means the offspring would appear
normal, though they still carry the albino gene.

So, to take this a step further, what if two geckos with these genes (Na) mated. Now things get interesting, and this
is where selective breeding becomes a strategic game of chance and probability. The normal geckos with het-albino
combination would look like this:

Punnett Square showing two leopard geckos with a het-albino gene mating

So, the probability of the offspring would be:

50% Normal with het-albino (Na)

25% Normal (NN)
25% Albino (aa)

What types of morphs are there?

Morphs started coming into vogue in the mid 1990’s as breeders experimented with these concepts in captive
selective breeding.

In the decades since, leopard gecko breeders have developed all kinds of combinations to bring out different colors,
stripes, spots, eye color, and size.

Below is a list of just some of the breeds and terms you may come across when browsing or discussing leopard
gecko morphs:

Albino
Leopard gecko albinos have a lack of black pigment, as opposed to white skin and pink eyes normally associate
albinism in other species.
There are 3 distinct types of albino leopard geckos: Tremper, Bell
Bell, and Rainwater (also referred to as “Las
Las
Vegas
Vegas“)
Bandit & Halloween Mask
Bandit leopard geckos have distinct bold band between their nose and eyes, resembling a bandit’s mask
Bandit morphs usually have less spots on their heads in favor a a few bold stripes or markings
Blizzard
Blizzard leopard geckos lack spots, banding, and patterns and usually range from white to gray in color
Eclipse
Eclipse geckos are notable in that their eyes are solid black
When crossed with the Tremper Albino, there is a chance of producing a leopard gecko with solid red eyes
Giant & Super Giant
Larger than your average leopard gecko, with males up to 110 grams and females up to 90 grams
Godzilla
The largest leopard geckos available
High Yellow
A fairly common morph with fewer back spots and a deeper yellow color
Mack Snow
Mack Snow leopard geckos have little or no yellow/orange coloring
Patternless
As the name implies, geckos with this trait lack the typical spotting and patterns usually associated with leopard
geckos
Different from Blizzards, Patternless leopard geckos often have orange coloring at the base of the tail, often
referred to as “carrot tail”
R.A.P.T.O.R & A.P.T.O.R
R ed-Eye A lbino P atternless T angerine O range
An APTOR is a RAPTOR without red eyes
Bred through a combination of the Eclipse, Patternless, and Tremper Albino
Stripes & Reverse Stripe
Have stripes rather than spots
Tangerine
High concentration of orange coloring
Also referred to as “Carrot Head” or “Carrot Tail”, depending on where the orange color is concentrated.

For more on leopard gecko morphs, check out our related post, What kind of leopard gecko morph breeds are
there?

Leopard Gecko Alleles

There are a number of traits that can be passed on and manipulated through selective breeding. Here are a few
examples of dominant and recessive alleles. Remember, for a recessive allele to be visually present, it must be
passed on from both parents.

Recessive Traits
Albino (Tremper, Bell, Rainwater)
Patternless
Blizzard
Eclipse (solid eye color)

Dominant Traits
Normal
Giant

Co-Dominant Trait
Snow

Many of these traits are recessive, and have a lower chance of visually manifesting. As we saw in our Punnett square
example above, two het-albinos had only a 25% chance of producing albino offspring. This is why some particular
combinations can command the high prices

Where can I find leopard gecko morphs?

The leopard geckos you’ll find at most pet stores will be mainly ‘normals,’ meaning the traditional yellow coloring with
black spots. To find the more exotic colors and patterned morphs, you’ll need to find a breeder. You may be fortunate
enough to have one local, or may be able to visit a reptile expo or show where there are usually breeders.

You can find them online as well. Leopard Gecko Habitat is affiliated with CBReptiles.com
CBReptiles.com, where you can find all
kinds of leopard gecko morphs (and other reptiles as well!) You can find what they have available here
here..

Further Reading
For a more comprehensive look at morphs, it’s worth checking out Leopard Geckos: the
Next Generations by Ron Tremper. The Tremper Albino leopard gecko morph bears
the author’s name. The book features over 200 photos and offers a great perspective on
what some of the genetic combinations will yield, and what you can expect the various
morphs to look like.

About the Author

Author: H. Evan Miller is the founder of the Leopard
Gecko Habitat. Like many young boys, he developed an early
fascination with dinosaurs, and by extension, reptiles. He’s been
keeping reptiles as pets since he was a kid (we won’t count the decades) and enjoys sharing
his enthusiasm, experience, and knowledge on the topic.