Reptile & Amphibian Forums

just tought I'd say so.... I've heard a lot of people murmer about "normals" and how "boring" they are. Just because it's a dominant trait to look "normal" doesn't mean that they're "uncool" pets. The best lizard I own is a normal, he's my favorite to watch eat. He's just awesome!! just felt like expressing my POV.... and sorry about the excessive use of "quotations"....

Kev
WE now have running as Gov. of the state of California, a Pornstar (porn for guns progran is actually a plan, if elected), a Porn King (larry Flint), Gary Coleman (just wants to see how many votes he can get), an actor/son of a member of the Nazi SS deathsquad (AAAH-nold), and a normal republican & democrat in there somwhere. What a great state......
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Kev
1.1.0 Tang Leopard Geckos: Marley, Mary
1.0.0 Normal Leopard Gecko: Toad
0.1.0 Colombian Rainbow Boa: Rambo
1 Beta: Malificent
0.1.0 Tri Australian Shepard: Nelly

I have to agree. I dont know why some of the other morphs are so prized by people. Some are pretty cool looking, but others just look strange to me. Its kind of the same thing with corn snakes. There are all these different colors and morphs of corns, but the normal/Okeetee will always be the best looking IMHO. I just think that healthy, "normal" leopard geckos are the best looking.
Please dont hate me...LOL.
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1.0 leopard gecko- adult
1.0 bubblegum snow corn snake- adult
0.1 creamsicle corn snake- adult

You're definetely right on corn snakes Okeetee's and normals are the best I only have one corn but at the time I had the money to afford most of the morphs but I love the bright orange coloration and was wondering why people tried to breed that out. I really don't care for the looks of most scorns as there is way to much dull coloration like brown white and black. Just wondering though if normals and okeetees are your favorites why don't you have any? Out of my geckos my normal is my favorite too but I must admit I love jungle tang albinos. As far as tangs the only geckos I really like are the super hypo tang carrot tails, and they must be baldy and have a large portion of carrot tail for me to feel they are worth the high price. In fact out of all of Albeys currently available leos the $500 near the bottmom is the only one I would cosider buying. On a final not I will say something that will likely offend some people. I think all leos are beautiful but I notice a lot of people seem to be looking for patternless albinos and I really don't see anough difference in them from regular patternless to make them worth that much and I have never care for the monotonous color of patternless. Also people are willing to pay more for Tremper PA's even though I see very little difference between them and rainwaters. The last morph I will talk about is the blazing blizzard I have heard rumors about them being sold for $2500-$3500 dollars. VMS herp even has a priced marked even though they only have one. Sure they don't get any dark coloration but you could get a high quality blizzard for like a hundred or so and people are willing to pay $3400 more for red eyes? My point is that I feel in todays leopard gecko market too much stock is put into rarity and not enough into beauty.

I have been looking for a nice Okeetee for about 3 years now. I am very picky, and I would rather not buy one sight unseen. I'm sure I will find one in the future.
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1.0 leopard gecko- adult
1.0 bubblegum snow corn snake- adult
0.1 creamsicle corn snake- adult

i agree with the fact that people are willing to pay an outragious amount for a gecko that 3or4 years will end up like the blizzard where you pay a ton and then its worth only a fraction of what you payied for it and also i would pay alot more for a nice colored gecko then i would for a red eyed blizzard!

I agree but you have to also take the basic principles of supply and demand into consideration. A regular blizzard is easy to find on the internet at least, but when there is only a handful of blazing blizzards in the world, the price goes way way up.
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~Andrea

2.8.1 Leopard geckos
0.0.1 Bearded dragon
0.0.2 Viper geckos
0.1.0 Rescued anole
2 dogs
hamsters

Check out my new website: DreamGecko.com

That was actually my point why do people care that much about rarity? Sure they are rare now but like the post above me said once they hit the market thay will be breed cosistently until there is no longer any reason to breed double hets and the price will drop severely putting lots of breeders who have been hoping to get them from double hets in the hole financially. For red eyes at most I would pay $50 or $100 bucks more adn that doesn't change at all just because there are only around 75 or so. This really is not the breeders fault they are only trying to either make a few bucks or at least not go severely in debt and new projects are always exciting. The heart of the problem is the consumer I think there were like three or four posts a couple pages into this forum asking for the prices and where they could get a blazing blizzard. People asking these kind of questions are obviously new and seem to just be looking for something rare that they can brag about. One of the posts even said I hope not more than $200 or something and when the person found out the price they were amazed. This person obviously had not really looked into this as compared to some snakes like Angolan pythons and black headed pythons the prices I cited were not unusual. At one show my mom found a pair of snakes she thought were cool looking, they were $12,500 for the pair (piebald ball python proven breeders). I also remembering a website claiming it had for sale the only Tyrosinase positive or negative (I can't remember which) albino ball python pair in the world for $20,000. I am skeptical about this claim (If they're that rare why sell them?) but didn't check on it because I wasn't interested anyway. In truth Tyrosinase positive albinos look only slightly different from Tyrosinase negative albinos so if anyone responded to that website end it were legit (which I doubt) they were paying several thousand dollars extra for a relatively normal looking pair of albinos.

I too love normals, but I like the wild-looking normals WAY more then the more domesticated normals (the reduced pattern ones). The ones that are tan or brown with lots of spots are the best!!! Here is a pic of my extra spotted girl...

Sure the yellow, red, and orange colours are cool, but if I wanted that then I'd just buy a bag of skittles

Adam
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My pic gallery

i have 27 leos, and my favorite one is a normal. she is the nicest and doesnt mind being held and played with. whenever i am doing work with any cages she is always staring at me and then starts climbing on the side wanting to come out and just sits on my hand or shoulder.

1.3 blizzards (bell)
1.2 patternless (carrottails)
1.0 superhypotang carrottail (baldy genes)
0.7 hypotangs
1.3.7 normals
0.0.1 tremper albino

Normals are ok I suppose, nothing wrong with them as long as you love them. Some are quite spectactular in their antics and personality compared to morphs. Well thats California for ya. LOL
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Even if your on the right track you will get run over if you just sit there
20 leos,1.1 redtail boas,1.1 rainbow boas,1.1 cornsnakes, 1.0 tokay gecko,1.0 veiled cham, 5 dogs and a cat. Oh, can't forget Tater my parrolet.

I know that some of the corn snake morphs can be "snappy" or mean compared to others, and some have odd behaviors breed into them (like the fact that blood-reds wont feed easily). Is this true for leopard gecko morphs as well? Are some morphs harder to keep than others? Or is it a matter of different "personalities" in each of the geckos?
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1.0 leopard gecko- adult
1.0 bubblegum snow corn snake- adult
0.1 creamsicle corn snake- adult

I really don't think morphs have all that much to do with behavior some people say blizzards are not as friendly but I have seen and held some very friendly geckos (granted I have never owned this particular morph. I really think it has more to do with the individual animal. Although since most morphs all stem from the same original hets with the possible exception of trempers as far as I know, but morphs generally are all related to some degree so it is possible the original geckos were not very friendly and so many of there offspring inherited that tendency as something completely unconnected to the morph. I have never heard of difficulty with breeding of morphs and even with corn snakes I think a lot of the differences are in the owners head. For instance at the last show I was at I had a discussion with one particular breeder and a fellow enthusiast. The other guy was looking to buy some snakes and was interested in butter corns but had mentioned how all of the butters he had dealt with were overly agressive. The breeder on the other hand said they were his calmest but he was having trouble with another morph (I don't remember which one). It seems to me that such diversity indicates behavior has little to do with morphs. I have read though that bloodreds have weakened immune systems also and have a shorter average lifespan. There is also something called a lethal allele which can be carried in a heterozygous animal but quickly kills the homozygous, This could be very depressing for any breeder. Well thanks to anyone who actually bothers to read my posts anymore because I can't keep them short.

Alot of times I have heard that some blizz can be agressive. I guess that some of the female blizz I have this year are they canot be housed with hets they fight bad. I believe the snappiness in the butter corns comes from the fact that to make them they are interbred with a rat snake which has quite a bit more temper than the corn.
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Even if your on the right track you will get run over if you just sit there
20 leos,1.1 redtail boas,1.1 rainbow boas,1.1 cornsnakes, 1.0 tokay gecko,1.0 veiled cham, 5 dogs and a cat. Oh, can't forget Tater my parrolet.

That's very interesting, I had heard that one of the corn snake morphs was a hybrid but I wasn't sure which. I don't think they should be allowed to sell them as corns because many beggners buy corns looking for a nice calm snake, but then again that's probably why they sell them as corns. Do you know what type of ratsnake? I have heard yellow rat snakes are the meanest but Whe have some black rat snakes on my property that are very difficult to catch because they are quick to strike then quick to flee. In fact the last time I caught one my dog actually helped me by trying to get close to the snake and the snake was distracted with trying to bite him. I have also noticed that the Elaphe Obseleta Obseleta seem to get larger than corn snakes is this true or is it just that is the size of the ones I've been catching? Thanks for your help I've really only had my cornsnake for two years now three in september and there are so many morphs it is difficult to keep track of.

As you know, I have just about every color morph... but personally, I like Leopard Geckos with spots, markings, and cool patterns. Right now, it seems like everybody only wants "hypos"... everywhere you look the classifieds are full of them! Hypo-this, hypo-that, they are a dime-a-dozen now. There can never be one as unique as each individual "normal".
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Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com

Chi-ca-ca
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Kev
1.1.0 Tang Leopard Geckos: Marley, Mary
1.0.0 Normal Leopard Gecko: Toad
0.1.0 Colombian Rainbow Boa: Rambo
1 Beta: Malificent
0.1.0 Tri Australian Shepard: Nelly

and thats a fact
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0.1.0 Leo (Aeris)

AIM: bigdog18msu

After reading your post i realized that my post about Boo (my normal) was rather rude. I think i said something to the effect of "he's just a normal" or close to that. I didn't mean in any way that he's not a total joy. I really do like him, he's so funny and getting more and more friendly everyday. I do have a soft spot for blizzards (don't know why, i just like them) but i didn't mean to come across as one who doesn't like normals.

Red
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1.0 crested gecko
1.0 leopard gecko
(hoping to get 1.0 blizzard, 0.2 patternless)
1.0 papillion (small dog)
2.0 bettas
and 2 very annoying younger brothers LOL

np
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Jeannie

0.0.1 California King Snake (Rex)
1.0 Mexican Rosy Boa (Lucas)
0.1 Baja de L.A. Rosy Boa (Bella)
0.1 Okeetee Corn Snake (Bess)
1.1 Rubber Boas (Isaiah & Esther)
0.0.1 Hermann's Tortoise (Moxie)
2.0 DSH Cats (Amos & Silas)
1.0 English Springer Spaniel (Jimmy)
and...
2.0 Kids
1.0 Husband

Though they are not always listed a lot of breeders have surplus hets and double hets they can't afford to keep in an already established breeding project I know Blazing Blizzard and PA double hets are becoming widely available for slightly more than a normal. You can also get normals from Geckoville whom I have never purchased from but did e-mail once and were very prompt and friendly in responding to it. This forum also holds it share of supporters of golden gates geckos. Unless you are looking for an older animal you can almost definetly find one at a local show from a reputable breeder and not have to pay shipping although if you don't have regular shows in the area waiting for an annual one is hard to do.

np
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Jeannie

0.0.1 California King Snake (Rex)
1.0 Mexican Rosy Boa (Lucas)
0.1 Baja de L.A. Rosy Boa (Bella)
0.1 Okeetee Corn Snake (Bess)
1.1 Rubber Boas (Isaiah & Esther)
0.0.1 Hermann's Tortoise (Moxie)
2.0 DSH Cats (Amos & Silas)
1.0 English Springer Spaniel (Jimmy)
and...
2.0 Kids
1.0 Husband