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Extreme Tangerines – NEW

Introduction
While we couldn’t do
without a variety of leopard gecko morphs, Gary and I have found a definite
favorite. We’re working with a few small groups of leopard geckos that display a
rich reddish orange color. This rich color is the result of two things; genetics
and decades of selective breeding.

History &
Selective Breeding
While the Tangerine
trait has become fairly common in the nearly 20 years that it’s been around,
there are a few select lines that have been developed that really stand out. 
These pedigrees are the result of a few breeders who acquired the nicest
specimens available at the time and then held back the best offspring to further
refine and intensify the trait with each successive breeding season.

What is an
Extreme Tangerine?
While I’m sure we’ll eventually have a
name for our own bloodline, the word ‘extreme’ isn’t any sort of trade-name.  It’s just an
adjective to describe this project..  The big three today are the Tangerine
Tornado, Hot Geckos’ Tangerine and Hiss’ Electric lines.  Below, I’ll try
to give you my take on these three lines.

Tangerine Tornado
This line, developed in Canada by The Urban Gecko, exhibits large amounts of
red pigment on the head and bands, which also creeps into the lighter colored
bands.  In our experience, this coloration is inherited very consistently
by their offspring.

Hot Geckos
Tangerine
This particular line was developed over the past 12 years by Dan Lubinsky of
Hot Geckos.  This line is very different from other lines, in that they
display an almost glowing, neon orange coloration. We’ve begun to combine this
line with the Tangerine Tornado line and the results are almost too good to be
true!

Hiss Electric
The Electric line was developed by Kelli Hammack of HISS.  This bloodline
is similar to the Tangerine Tornado line, but they tend to have a more aberrant
reddish orange pattern with a higher percentage of the lighter orange color on
the body.

Is there really
that much of a difference?
Yes…in fact, seeing
photos can only tell half the story, but I’ll try to explain the difference as
best I can.  The gecko pictured below is a VERY nice Super Hypo Tangerine,
but while it’s perfectly clean and as bright as they get, it doesn’t have the
reddish orange color that you’ll see in an Extreme Tangerine.

Standard Super Hypo Tangerine Carrot-Tail

 

2008 Results
Gary and I have worked
hard (and spent a small fortune!) to acquire some very intense Tangerines. 
Now that we’ve begun breeding them together, I think you’ll agree this project
is something to be excited about.

These
geckos are going to be available on a sporadic basis throughout the year. 
To see what’s available now, just click the link below to view them in my online
store.

2008 Extreme
Tangerines
 

The
following are some of the first offspring from our Extreme Tangerine project. 
They are pictured at around 6-8 weeks old and they are NOT specially chosen
holdbacks.  This consistent quality is everything we could have hoped for
with this group.

Tangerine
Tornado x Hot Geckos Group

Tangerine
Tornado x Hiss Electric Group

 

These next three are slightly
older (around 12 weeks old) hence the carrot-tail starting to come in a little
stronger.  The one on the left is one of the least intense that this group
has produced this year and she’s still a knockout by all standards.  The
two on the right are holdback males that we’ll be breeding next year.

Albino Extreme Tangerine – Coming in 2009
 

When we started working on this
project, we didn’t expect to have visible albinos this year, but Rocket turned
out to be het for tremper albino, so we’re a year ahead!  These geckos are
absolutely outrageous and are getting better with each shed.  This project
is in the early stages of development, but we will have a handful of hets
available this year and will have a limited number of offspring available next
year.

For comparison purposes,
the following is actually a very promising juvenile Sunglow (Tremper Albino
SHTCTB) of the same age.  This photo was taken with the exact same camera
settings on the same day.  Note the drastic difference in hue and overall
color intensity.

 

Tangerine Tornado x ACR Raptors

The Raptors above were
chosen for their nearly full carrot-tails and not necessarily for the Eclipse
gene…the eyes are the last thing you’ll notice with geckos like these! 
Because they’re completely unrelated, we will breed their offspring to one
another next season.  Although it’s not our main priority with this group,
they will produce a small percentage of Extreme Tangerine Raptors.