Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Say you wanted to turn your gecko red. Could you put red food coloring in all of its diet so it would turn red? Would the food coloring hurt the gecko? If so could I put water conditioner in the food color to make it ok? For water, depending on how much there is you would just put a couple drops in it. I don't mean "just" food coloring.

Could this crazy idea work?

thats not possible

...ok maybe not possible, but will the food coloring hurt the gecko?

that I don't know but why would you want to do that?

It would be cool to have a blue gecko or a red gecko or a green one. I was just curious as to if it would work or not. If you were to do it for maybe a year or two and then breed it then it might affect the babies if both parents had been being fed with food coloring in their food for a year or 2.

It might be cool, but anyone with any sense wouldnt try to color their geckos. It is misrepresenting what yours geckos really are, and basically just skipping all of the hard work other breeders have put in to achieve the colors we have now.
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Josh
My Email

The only animal group that I know of that is affected by the pigment in its food is birds. If you don't feed your flamingo the right food it will not be pink!

Anyway, don't do it. Tremper is close to having a red albino gecko and is working on a light blue one. Don't cheat and try to take the short way. Just be patient and you will get all of the colors you are looking for (although they might run you a $1000 or so ).

Anything you do to the gecko e.g. food coloring would not change the genetics. Don't mess with your gecko.

I agree with everybody else even if your gecko is just a hi-yellow and not any other morph doesn't mean you should try to change it to be another morph. Accept their colors the way they are and luv them for that. I have a hi-yellow and and wouldn't trade him for any other leo. I hope you feel the same. Katie
Unless you just have leos for there colors...
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Owner of 3 Leopard Geckos, 3 Fire Belly Toads, 3 Treefrogs,
2 Bahaman Anoles 1 Japanese Fire Belly Newt and 1 Turtle "GOT-A-LUV-UM"

Actually most animals pigmentation is affected by what they eat (including people). It would take years to cause only the slightest color change. It would have absoloutely no affect on offspring as it is not a genetic trait or mutation simply an artificial coloring. If you stopped the colors would return to normal to. Finally what is wrong with high yellows? I agree with everyone else DON'T DO IT.

I was just wondering. Gosh, you guys don't have to get so wild up about it. There is no way I would have the time to do it. How am I supposed to turn mealworms and crickets a different color?

Anyways, who did you say was making a red albino leo?

You don't need to turn crix or mealies a different color. You need to forget this ridiculous idea. I don't know if food coloring would be harmful or not, food coloring is tested for safety in humans, not reptiles. Many substances which are safe for humans are very unsafe for reptiles. Don't turn your pets into guinea pigs to experiment on. High yellows are beautiful. Appreciate your leos for what they are. If you are bored with them, give them up for adoption to a good home. If you want to experiment on something, ask you parents for a chemistry set. Just don't feed the poptions to your leos!

Ron Tremper. he has a lot of neat things planned. i really hope he succeeds in the blue geckos, that would just be amazing. i just hope he sells them for relativly cheap ($1000 maybe).
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your head will collapse, but there's nothing in it, and you'll ask yourself, "where is my mind"

if you have AIM, IM me at iluvblackfrancis

Really? Blue geckos? That would be awsome. How do people go about getting blue geckos? You'd think that would take alot of years and selected breeding to produce.
Mac

his explaination of it is, since he has a gecko with purple eyes, and a gecko with red eyes, he can get a blue bodied gecko. i don't see how, i can see maybe a blue eyed gecko, but how it gets to the body is beyond me. im saving my money though, either for that or a blazing blizzard.
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your head will collapse, but there's nothing in it, and you'll ask yourself, "where is my mind"

if you have AIM, IM me at iluvblackfrancis

I dont know if would affect it's colors but why would you want to do it anyways?? It would just be misrepresenting your leo's colors.
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Josh
My Email

It would be cool. I wouldn't buy some fancy gecko. I have a pair of regular old hi yellow leopard geckos. I could get a couple babies that they produce on the color food and water from the start. They would be my babies not some I would buy from other people.

I would just like to say....

You're an idiot...

Where do you live? I'd like to call the SPCA on animal abuse charges on you...

What? You're being sarcastic right?

No, I'm really not. It can be seen as a form of animal abuse doing something stupid like that. It's cruel and VERY unusual. You'd be no different then the silly kids dyeing there normal ball pythons with gatorade to scam buyers. and they always get caught. I'm sure many members on here are going to look out for you, and if you ever do want to breed and sell, they're going to steer away from you because you have a desire to dye your animals.

Hey, it was just a simple question, he was JUST WONDERING OK? I think you should give him a break, i mean, it is a stupid idea, it would unnatural, wouldnt be genetic ect, but you dont have to threaten. You took it way out of line. I think you need to calm down. Maybe your very opinionated about what you said with ball pythons or whatever, but that doesnt mean you have the right to run around threatening to charge people with something they didnt even do, I doubt hed actually do somethng that. And hes not dyeing his animals, jeez, he was wondering if the color of food leos eat affect their color. I dont care what you say back, I'm just informing you that your getting a little over worked up aboutt a curious question. I dont see anyone else threatening to charge, acusing him of animal abuse, im sure he wouldnt do it if it wasnt safe for the animal. SETTLE DOWN. PERIOD.
Mac

you don't care what I say back...

and I don't care what you say at all...

we have an understanding then...

Hey, it was just a simple question, he was JUST WONDERING OK? I think you should give him a break, i mean, it is a stupid idea, it would unnatural, wouldnt be genetic ect, but you dont have to threaten. You took it way out of line. I think you need to calm down. Maybe your very opinionated about what you said with ball pythons or whatever, but that doesnt mean you have the right to run around threatening to charge people with something they didnt even do, I doubt hed actually do somethng that. And hes not dyeing his animals, jeez, he was wondering if the color of food leos eat affect their color. I dont care what you say back, I'm just informing you that your getting a little over worked up aboutt a curious question. I dont see anyone else threatening to charge, acusing him of animal abuse, im sure he wouldnt do it if it wasnt safe for the animal. SETTLE DOWN. PERIOD.
Mac

It is considered animal cruelety to dye an animal. If the ASPCA catches you with a dog or a cat with dyed fur you get a pretty heafty fine if I remember correctly. So the same could most likely hold true with reptiles.

Hey Blckkat! Did I EVER say I was going to do It!?! I was just asking a question!

"...ok maybe not possible, but will the food coloring hurt the gecko?"

When someone told you no the 1st time...this statement implies that you would do it anyway as long as it doesn't hurt the gecko (supposively)...

and yes it is animal abuse...

an exmp.

ever watch the beast master movies? the 1st one or two featured a black tiger...a DYED black tiger...the last few (I don't recall how many there were) they had a NORMAL tiger because their black tigers were dieing from the dyeing...and they got into some big trouble for it...

another exmp.

back when my mum was a kid (some of you in your 30's - 40's might remember this) they used to dye baby chicks and sell them at Easter. guess what? the chicks would die from the dyeing within a few weeks, and they stopped doing this too...because it's abuse...and they got into trouble over it...

I have no clue how old you are, I have no clue how experienced you are. but you must understand how wrong that is. I really believe anyone with common sense would realise that confinscation of the animal(s) and fines would be the only thing resulting from the idea.

*shrugs* do what you must I guess. learn from trial and error I guess. just know the consequences if you get caught. and learn from what others are saying, you will not be producing any new morphs or color phases by trying to cheat.

zdfh

ahh, so you are very young...

just absorb whatever you can from this and the other threads...it'll do you some good...

>>Say you wanted to turn your gecko red. Could you put red food coloring in all of its diet so it would turn red? Would the food coloring hurt the gecko? If so could I put water conditioner in the food color to make it ok? For water, depending on how much there is you would just put a couple drops in it. I don't mean "just" food coloring.
>>
>> Could this crazy idea work?
>>

food coloring no, but i know in my alans tincs if i dust the crix or whatever with peperica their yellows and oranges get brighter, so its all in the food. beta carotine (spelling?) makes reds yellows oranges brighter, while other things m,ake others bighter. but i dont know how dusting with peperika will affect the gex. anyways dont use the food coloring on the gex, too much of that stuff isnt good for humans think what it would do to the gex.

just a thought

ashley

Dude, it's a living animal, not a stick of celery... let it go.... now if you want your lizard's SH!T to turn blue or green or purple.. have at it....

kev