Chronicles of a New Breeder: Mating Success and Morph Decisions

Before I get to the exciting news I’ll do a little bookkeeping like I usually do at the beginning of each article. My current money flow is the same which is to be expected. I’m down $618.73 but I haven’t had to buy any feeders at all and have what seems to be a self sufficient mealworm colony. The weights of my breeders are as follows:

My main concern regarding body weight is Dot. She wasn’t really eating for a little while unless I dropped them in front of her and even then would only eat one to three at a time. However, the last two feedings have resulted in almost clean plates when I came back so hopefully we can get her up with the rest of the family. As you’ll learn later she is going to be important to my breeding plan so I need her to be healthy.

Good News

The big news… I have finally had a successful mating and I am so excited about it. Slocum, my Temper Patternless, and The Dude, my Sunglow het Raptor performed the act at 12:15 a.m. on the ninth of May about a half hour before I finished writing this article. Hopefully they produce some really bright and healthy geckos. I can only hope the Shiny follows suit after fighting him off every time.

Morph Plans

While that’s good news and certainly a relief I have also been trying to figure out which morph I want to focus on. I have dubbed it my two year plan. I figure that during my first season I will settle back into a groove and work the kinks out in my current setup and sales plan. Then in my second year I should be producing at least one morph that I consider high end. My choice for my “feature” morph is the Snowglow.

I don’t see them everywhere and they are really beautiful. I will breed my Mack Snow Eclipse to my Sunglow het Raptor and breed back the 50% that are Mack Snow het Tremper Albino to each other for a 25% chance of creating a Snowglow. What also excites me about this combo is the possibility of getting a Sunglow RAPTOR because of the addition of the Eclipse gene in both of the parents. That would be a real treat.

I would also like to expand into Bell Albinos and create some Bell Snowglows in addition the Tremper variety. I still have my gift card to CrestedGecko.com that I won in the KillCrypto.com auction so I am checking what he has there that can expand my line.

I’d just like to thank the Leopard Gecko Wiki (http://www.leopardgeckowiki.com/index.php?title=Snowglow). It has made it much easier to understand all the new morph combinations. I’d also like the thank this Leopard Gecko Morph Calculator (http://www.leopardgeckomorphcalculator.co.uk/MorphCalculator.aspx); it has also been invaluable in learning the genetic combinations that are available. As always please comment, ask questions or even offer advice. I look forward to seeing what you have to say!

Read past articles from this series: Part 1 and Part 2.

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