Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm wondering; what exactly is the defining difference between albino leos with Tremper genes and those with Bell genes?

I bet somebody's going to walk in with the precise terminology, but it's basically how the albinism occurs. The genes work differently for each strain. There's also a third one: Rainwater (Las Vegas).
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chickabowwow

3.2 leopard geckos (Rosie, Locke, Lisa, Caesar, Tommy)
and 3 eggs a' cookin'

I suppose I should have been more explicit in my questioning... How do these strains differ visually?

Ahh, Some people claim to be able to tell the difference by looking at the colors. This is the possible in a few cases. I have two albinos both are trempers both have "browned out". The albinos that do this are usually Trempers. Rainwaters don't usually brown out. I'm not sure about Bells.

But I have seen some awesome yellow trempers that I could have sworn where rainwaters. It's getting so it's hard to tell the difference. You have to pretty much trust the breeder.

bells are usually easy to tell from trempers and rainwaters, and trempers and rainwaters are usually easy to tell apart too. bells to me seem to have the over all appearance of a red gecko, the markings are bold, and to me, the yellow parts of their skin looks like it's under a clear layer, and the markings are on top. that's kinda an odd observation, i think. trempers and rainwaters i can tell apart, usually, but i can't really explain how. i've never seen an albino that looks brown to me that wasn't a tremper.
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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 chichandoCONrosa

The pathway that makes melanin in albinos is defective. Somewhere in pathway to production, somthing is missing and the production can't finish.
Look at it this way:

In order to get melanin you need to make A Then A is used to make B, then B is used to make C, then C becomes melanin.
A B C= Melanin

In albinos, one of the things is able to be made. When it comes to the different strains of albinos in leopards, the component that is missing is different.

Let's say in Trempers that A is missing. In Bell's B is missing and in Las Vagas (rainwater) that C is what is missing. we can tell that they are different because if you breed a tremper albino to a rainwater albino you get a normal leopard gecko. Same goes if you breed a Bell to either. The reason that this happens is because the gene inherited from the tremper can't make A but can make B and C. The gene inherited from the Bell can't make B but can make A and C. The melanin pathway doesn't care which gene makes the components just that all the components are available. Both genes are still defective but just defective in different places.

It's funny but when I was taking my genetics class, the teacher went over this part. About how the pathway works, and all I could think of was Wow, this is the reason that trempers and rainwaters produce normals. hehehe.

Also Rainwaters have silvery eyes Trempers have pinkish and Bell have alot of red.

My Bell adults have basically white eyes with red highlights.

My hatchling has VERY red eyes.

I find the adult coloration on Bells to be a bit more contrasty than Trempers.
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Steven
Royal Gold Reptiles
Offspring available now from LV Patternless Albino stock for '03 and '04.
Working towards Bell Patternless Albinos for '05.