Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I asked Garrick about his opinion of breeding geckos with kinked tails, the response was kind of vague about personal opinions but he did say that of the 16 Tremper PA's he has produced to date the one we discussed was the only one hatched out with a kinked tail. He also said that with other morphs he's had geckos that had tails become kinked after birth so these were almost definetely not genetic. He also said that all of new morphs he acquires are outcrossed. Lastly he said that he did not believe this particular gecko had a genetically kinked tail because he thought he would have produced more. This I am a little unsure of because many genetic raits are not passed consistently but I've tried to keep his information as unbiased as possible. I just thought some people might be interested.

Here is my take on geckos with kinked tails:

While the trait may not be genetic in the way we think of albinism, etc... I do think that a gecko that is born with a kinked tail is more likely to produce geckos with kinked tails.

While having a kinked tail is not detrimental to the health of the gecko it IS an undesirable trait, which is why many choose to cull such animals from the gene pool. Some offspring from the kinked parent will probably look 100% normal, but what happens when I buy these offspring and breed them myself? What if I start hatching out high percentages of kinked babies? Kinda sounds like I would have gotten screwed in this deal.

I do not think Garrick is a bad guy for selling a gecko with a kinked tail, as the buyer knew what he/she was getting when they saw the pictures. But I do think that Alpha should tell his/her potential customers (if he breeds his PA) that the offspring came from an animal with a kinked tail.

Just my thoughts.
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-Ross Payan - www.LeosAnonymous.com

Leos Anonymous

Ball Pythons, Red Striped Leos, and Screaming Fat-Tails

First of all both the rainwater and the patternless lines are notorious for kinked tails. Both lines are in particularly bad need of outcrossing(along with trempers,blizzards). The thing is with all of these traits they are highly desirable and many lack the serious dedication it would take to do the job correctly. We are not just talking one generation of outcrossing. Would take many batches of possible hets to clean them up in my opinion. Once accomplished however a animal that was produced from a "clean up" effort would be highly desirable. That being said breeders who truly love the animals they work with owe it first to the animals and secondly to their customers to provide the nicest animals possible! Even if that means ending up with pet quality animals that live out their lives as VIRGINS!

outcrossing? can you explain that process?

Thanks

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

was a tremper PA.
Just noting that since you brought up the Rainwater albinos.
But I do agree with you on the need to outcross. Heck...I was looking into getting some F1 leos from a wildcaught pair myself =3