Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

The leo I just purchased was listed as a blazing blizzard project gecko. Under its specs, it says it is 66% het for blazing blizard (tremper). Being as I am new to leos I have a very small idea of what this means as far as breeding will go. Can a breeder out there thats keen on the lingo,please please tell me what this means? (again, that's "66% het for blazing blizard (tremper)" ). Thanks for your time.

66% hets are the result of breeding two double hets together. It means there is a 66% statistical POSSIBILITY that the animal is het for each trait. In reality, your gecko may be het for blizzard and albino, het for albino and not for blizzard, het for blizzard but not albino, or not het for anything at all.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

So het basically means that he has a dormant gene that could possibly transfer onto offspring? And tremper, what exactly does that term mean?

Het is short for heterozygous is the term used to refer to an animal that carries one gene for a recessive trait. In order for that trait to manifest, it needs to meet up with another of he same gene. An animal that carries both genes for a recessive trait will be homozygous for that trait, and will exhibit it visually.

Tremper is a strain of albino. There are currently three proven types/strains of albinism: Tremper, Rainwater/Vegas, and Bell. If you breed a tremper to a Bell you'll get normal looking geckos, het for both strains. Breed a tremper to another tremper and you'll get albinos every time. Breed a het tremper to a tremper albino and you should get 50% albinos, and 50% hets. If you want to see if your gecko is het for tremper, you will need to breed it to a tremper albinos. If you get some albinos, you'll know for sure it is het for that trait. If you don't, chances are it isn't. But remember that every offspring has a 50% chance of being albino or not, and it is possible to get quite a few hets in a row, or albinos in a row. For example, all the offspring I produced from my second generation hets this year (only 4) turned out albino.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

So if I wanted to breed blizars per se.. (granted my leo is actually het for blizard) I would need him to mate with a blizard female to get blizard offspring? Or would it also work with a female het for blizard?

If your gecko is het for blizzard, you have a 50% chance of a given offspring being blizzard if you mate it with a homozygous Blizzard. If you mate it with a het for blizzard (not a possible het), you have a 25% chance of an offspring being Blizzard. Remember though, that there is a 34% chance that the gecko is NOT het for Blizzard at all, and if that's the case you'll never get a blizzard out of that gecko no matter what you mate it with.

If you want to breed Blizzards your best bet is to buy a pair of Blizzards. They aren't that expensive.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

LoL, thanks for all the info I was just curious. I don't really plan to breed anytime soon, I was just wondering what would happen if I ever decided to breed this guy over the years. Thanks again.

This is a good place for learning more, whether out of curiousity or anything else
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos