#homozygous

[felinefractious]

Curly Uniqum Baby Brilliant Spark

🐱 Selkirk Rex [Homozygous]

📸 Elena Nikonova [Brilliant Spark]

🎨 Blue Tortoiseshell Bicolor

[deathpov]

these bitches seeds gay. good for them.

[tser]

Is it possible for an albino leopard gecko to have black spots? It was listed as an albino, not pos or percentage but i thought albinos have no black

The answer is complicated! 

It’s true that an albino leopard gecko should not have black markings. There are three different albino strains of leos -- Tremper, Bell, and Rainwater, and they look slightly different from each other. Their spots may be lighter or darker brown.

But a gecko of any morph may have what is called paradox markings (or a “paradox spot”). These are random markings that basically don’t belong. An albino with a patch of black spots is one example, or a super snow with a yellow patch. Paradox markings are not inheritable. 

Here are some examples of paradox markings in leopard geckos. As you can see, they are not all over, but limited to patches on the body.

In addition, a gecko that is “het albino” is not albino, and would look like a normal wild leopard gecko (or like other morphs if they are included in the description) and thus have black spots.

Het is short for “heterozygous”. This means that it carries one gene for a simple recessive trait. “Homozygous” means the gecko carries two copies. For a recessive trait to show, the animal must be homozygous (carry two copies).

Albino in leopard geckos is a recessive gene. That means that the gecko will not be albino unless they have two copies of the albino gene; i.e. they are homozygous.

A leopard gecko that is “het albino” means that it carries only one albino gene and so will not express it. A gecko that is only listed as “het Tremper albino” (or some other kind of albino) likely means it will look like a normal or wild type gecko, since they don’t list other genes involved.

However, a het gecko bred with another gecko carrying the right genes will produce babies that express the genes. For example, het albino x het albino pairings can produce some het albino and some albino and some normals (not het albino). That is why the het is listed even when the gecko doesn’t express the gene, it is important to know for breeding.

When you see “poss het albino” that means that the breeder doesn’t know if the gecko inherited the genes. That is because if you breed two geckos that each are het for that trait, then some of the babies may inherit both, some will only inherit one, and some will not inherit either. That means there can be a mix of het and normal geckos in the clutch. The only way to test this is to breed it out and see what happens. (Some hets may produce visual markers but they’re subtle or impossible to see for the vast majority of hets. Certainly beyond me, I’m not a breeder.)

This is vastly simplified! But I hope it helps.

If this is in regards to albinos and using a light, it is fine to use a light on a gecko that is het albino and does not exhibit any albino traits! A “normal het albino” gecko does not lack any pigment, it has all the normal coloration of a wild gecko. However, it depends on what other genes the gecko expresses, as albinos are not the only morph that has reduced pigment.

I’m sure if you wanted to upload a picture of your leopard gecko someone would be able to tell you what morph it is. 

[kittykatrattie]

Me, who's mom has all recessive traits and dad has all dominate traits: No homo.

[felinefractious]

🐱 Selkirk Rex [Homozygous]

📸 Christine Webber [Quizzicurl]

🎨 Lilac

[felinefractious]

UTA of Santa Calista

🐱 Selkirk Rex [Homozygous]

📸 Aida Rassulova [of Santa Calista]

🎨 Black Tabby Harlequin

[felinefractious]

🐱 Selkirk Rex [Homozygous]

📸 Leo Li

🎨 Fawn Tortoiseshell Bicolor

[felinefractious]

🐱 Selkirk Rex [Homozygous]

📸 Kami Neko Cattery

🎨 Blue