The Different Strains Of The Albino Leopard Gecko

Albino leopard geckos were first bred in 1991. Most of the excitement came from the awesome colors and pattern mutations that could be created.

There are three different strains of these albino geckos, including Bell, Rainwater and Tremper. These traits are all recessive, meaning that breeding two of them together would result in a normal leopard gecko.

Recessive traits are normally discovered randomly by mutating genes that control development of the animal. There is no way to determine the probability of finding some new recessive trait. It is based upon luck.

It is extremely hard to determine the different strains of albino leopard geckos. Sometimes you just have to make a guess as to which gecko you are looking at. Although it is hard to find out which strain is which, the Tremper strain is the most common of the three. The Tremper strain was the first of the three strains to be found, and because of the brownish color that some of these geckos have, they are sometimes called the "Mocha Strain". Usually, however, they are pink or white in color.

The eyes of these geckos can be very unique, having a pink or even dark red coloring. You cannot depend on eye color to tell the difference however, because some of them have completely normal eyes. The different temperatures at which these geckos are incubated at are what determine the color of their skin and eyes. If the temperature of incubation is higher, the gecko will normally turn out darker.

The Rainwater albino is the second in rareness. Many think this gecko has a pinkish color, however this is normally untrue. The Bell strain is the gecko that has the pinkest coloring. It is the rarest of the strains and is normally a lot darker than the two other strains. Knowing this is another factor that helps us determine the difference between the strains.

Not only does the Bell albino normally have the darkest pink coloring, it also has the reddest eyes. This red coloring usually changes in other animals as they become adults, but it does not change for the Bell albino. Its eyes do, however, remain sensitive to light its entire life, so they prefer to eat during the nighttime.

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