Reptile & Amphibian Forums

(Question),I have been collecting albino crickets and freezing them for one day i am going to feed them to my female ackies in hopes of reproducing an albino ackie,(what do you think?)can this happen,is it possable this could work.

Is this a joke?

Your crickets are white/offwhite immediately after molting (shedding) and then darken back up in a day or two. With that being said, feeding them, even if they were 'albino', will not make your lizard become albino. Albinism is a genetic mistake and has nothing to do with diet.

I know the difference between white crickets that just molted and albinos. I have the albino ones with the red eyes. I know my ackie is not just going to turn albino (thats a funny one but possably produce albino ackie off spring by mixing the contents of the albino cricket into the digestive system of the ackie while pregnant. just an idea you never know.

Sounds like a great plan. Should be a slam dunk.

I have some albino roaches that I can sell to you. They do sell for a significant premium but you'll more than cover your investment with those albino ackies.

However, I'd be concerned with freezing the albino crickets. It's possible that the freezing process will kill off the albino gene which will prevent the albinism from being absorbed by the eggs. Justin, is this a valid concern in your opinion?

Also, will green grasshoppers make green ackies? The possibilities are limitless. From now on, I'm only feeding my crocs albino rodents.

John - did your leucistic King's parents eat leucy insects? I was meaning to ask you about this.

Seriously - Grogansilver, if you really have white crickets with red eyes then place just the white ones in a bucket with some food and water for a few days and see what you have there. They molt and become white and soft but quickly turn back to brown. I've never actually heard of albino crickets, not that it isn't possible.

Feeding them off will have zero impact on your animals though. Albinism or any genetic mistake is a freak occurance that some reptile breeders will then breed back to make a "line" - it's usually recessive to the normal coloration and siblings who are either 'aa' (white animals, where a= white, A= normal color) or 'aA' (show color but carry white gene mistake) can be bred together to get a % of white animals. But it's a simple genetic mistake and not altered by diet. You'll see for every 10,000 farmed alligators that one will be white. Those are kept for zoos and expensive pets instead of slaughtered for meat and skins. I have yet to see the albino Ackie, although I'm sure it'll come some day like any other "morph" gimmick.

your right, thanks for the advise it was just me having high hopes.