Morphs & Colors

It’s true that crested geckos come in a wide variety of colors and patterns. Most of these, such as pinstripe, dalmatian and harlequin crested geckos, have been developed over time and multiple generations. These are three very different types of crested geckos, and it took experienced breeders to take traits present in the wild populations and refine them in captivity.

The word “morph” comes from the term “polymorphism”, which refers to the presence of multiple visually-distinct forms of a single species of animal. Morphs refer to the phenotypes of a given species; a “phenotype” is any observable characteristic of an organism. A very familiar example would be in Labrador retrievers: there are yellow, black, chocolate and red labs. Each color is a different phenotype, but there is more going on “under the hood” when it comes to breeding.

Do crested geckos have morphs? Yes and no. They have many characteristics that can be inherited, and some types are often called a morph – as with the above dalmatians, harlequins and pinstripes. Let’s discuss the differences between the crested gecko morphs and learn a little bit about genetics 101!

Crested Gecko Morphs and Traits

Here is a quick morph guide to the different types of crested geckos and their associated traits. Because crested geckos are polymorphic, there is no easy Morph Calculator available like with other reptiles.

PATTERNLESS CRESTED GECKOS

A solid body of any color: buckskin, olive, chocolate, near-black, red, orange, yellow and shades between.

Patternless crested geckos are a good resource when breeding color into an already established line. Note that there are currently no fully white or black animals. Light yellow creams or unfired reds may be labeled “moonglows” but are not white. Dark, near-black crested geckos do exist but are usually not patternless or have white heads, tails, fringe, etc.

Bicolor crested geckos are generally patternless but with a slightly darker – sometimes lighter – color on their dorsal (top of head and back). Bi-color is usually seen in red, orange, olives and buckskins. Some bicolors have a hint of a pattern on the dorsal, but lack the cream of flame morphs (see below).

TIGER CRESTED GECKOS

Tigers come in the same colors as above. Red tigers are somewhat rare due to the fact that when they fire up, the red pigment usually overrides the dark pattern tiger stripes. We have yet to see a red tiger beyond the juvenile stage (“hatchling red”) with dark, bold tiger stripes. Yellow tigers are the most striking due to their high contrast.

Moon Valley Reptiles formerly bred yellow tiger crested geckos.

Extremely patterned tigers are also called “brindled”, “super tigers” and even “super brindles”. We love them all.

FLAME CRESTED GECKOS

Flames can be any color, but their dorsal is usually patterned with cream. Whiter creams are considered more desirable. The rest of the body is usually solid color but there can be minimal patterning, unlike harlequins (see below). The term “fire” is also valid for this morph.

Chevron crested geckos are flames that have step-stone like “v” shaped patterns on their backs. This terminology is less used today but is still a valid description of this dorsal pattern.

Tiger flames are possible, but generally rare. Often tiger stripes on juvenile flames disappear when they get older.

HARLEQUIN CRESTED GECKOS

Harlequins are highly-patterned flame crested geckos. A harlequin has a base color (usually red or near-black) with orange, yellow, or the highly fashionable cream. See color patterns, below, for popular color combinations on harleys.

Harlequins should have patterning along the limbs; if there is minimal patterning on the body it is technically considered a flame (see above).

Crested geckos with a lot of white or cream pattern, especially where the body pattern breaks into the creamy dorsal area, are called extreme harlequins. The dividing line is generally when the gecko has much more pattern than base color (at least 60%) or if the pattern breaks into the dorsum. This extreme harlequin patterning can be mistaken for a tiger in a young gecko. Even adults can be confusing, as it is hard to tell if it is a light-based gecko with tiger patterning or a dark-based gecko with extreme harley patterning!

PINSTRIPE CRESTED GECKOS

Pinstripes are considered a single, independent trait whereas a morph is generally a group of traits or specific look like flame, tiger or harlequin, but they can be easily treated as a morph. People seek out pinstripes!

The classic pinstripe consists of raised, cream-colored scales along the outside of the dorsal. The rest of the back can have flame patterning, or it can be solid cream to match the pinstriping. A full pinstripe is more desirable than a partial pinstripe. If the pinstripe is broken and doesn’t form more than 80% of a full, it would be considered to have pin dashing and would not be termed pinstripe.

Most pinstripe crested geckos are flames or harlequin, but there are rare tiger pinstripes.

Variations on the classic pinstripe are reverse pinstripe and phantom pinstripe. A reverse pinstripe is a dark line underneath the dorsal scales where a classic pinstripe would be. This can be combined with a full classic pinstripe for a striking effect.

A phantom pinstripe is a gecko with generally muted colors in the dorsal area – the typical “flame” back is more like the rest of the body. Often the rest of the gecko is rather muted in terms of colors as well, they are typically not high-contrast, although this is not a defining feature. The most desirable combination is a muted dorsal area that retains white pinstriping. The effect is a generally understated gecko except for a very striking, bright white pinstripe outline. This can also combine with a reverse pinstripe.

At times you will have a gecko that displays the opposite of a reverse pin: inside the dorsum, there is a dark line that runs throughout the area. Some have called this an “inverse” pinstripe but this is not a common term and eventually someone who works with this trait will probably come up with something more fancy and catchy. So then you would be able to have a gecko display inverse and reverse on either a classic or phantom pinstripe! Combined with the lateral striping below, you’ll have a multi-lined crested gecko with alternating colors.

Lateral stripes refer to stripes along the sides of the gecko and is usually seen on a classic pinstripe. These four stripe or “quad” stripe geckos are becoming more popular, and range from faint dashes that resemble portholes all the way to a full stripe across the body. Some also call this trait a “super stripe”; but others consider a “super” to have a black stripe down the middle of the dorsum, creating five stripes along the entire body of the gecko; even more if you’ve got reverse and inverse pinning. Crazy!

The ultimate pinstripe for many is a full pinner with a solid cream back. These “creamback” crested geckos are stunning, presenting thick cream on the dorsal area, unbroken by typical chevron or other markings. It’s like they’ve been frosted. Yummy!

Check out the Moon Valley Reptiles Dark Pinstripe project!

DALMATIAN SPOTS

Crested gecko dalmatian spots are also considered an independent trait. Spots can vary in size and color, with black spots being the most common and red, green and even white spots appearing in certain individuals. An abundance of spots or exceptionally large spots can be described as a “super dalmatian” trait. Generally they need 100+ spots to qualify, but we do not have time to count spots!

Dalmatian spots can appear on any color or morph, but many keepers prefer dalmatians to be otherwise patternless and let the spots speak for themselves. A gecko without spots is considered “clean”.

WHITE SPOTS

Portholes are tiny white spots that have been common in crested geckos since captive breeding began. Tiny bits of white spotting seen on an animals toes, chest, belly or nose may not be a genetic trait for whiteness, but just a result of unfinished pigmentation during incubation. This could be a reason white portholes are the only spots of white on some geckos.

One of the newer traits in crested geckos are larger white spots, usually clustered around the dorsal area, so that it appears that the dorsum is “dripping” white spots down the body of the gecko. It is hoped that white spots and drippy dorsal areas are further developed as a trait or morph. See White Pattern below for more information.

Crested Gecko Colors

Crested geckos have pigments that can range from very pale cream to very dark near-black; from buckskin and olive to reds and yellows. Vibrant colors are very desirable, as are high contrasts. The extremes of light and dark are also popular. Note that pure white “moonglows” as touted in some out of date books and magazines are as mythical as purple unicorns. What is often described as a moonglow is a fired down version of a red or yellow cream. Camera flashes can further wipe out the color.

Crested geckos probably lack the pigments to produce blue colors, unlike the more flashy Day Geckos (Phelsuma spp.) or the Electric Blue Gecko (Lygodactylus williamsi). So it is very unlikely to have blue, green or purple crested geckos, or any Rhacodactylus species. The closest we have are olive, which is really a combination of brown and yellow in the color spectrum, and so-called lavender, which is more of a slate grey.

FIRING UP

Also note that a crested gecko can change color depending on mood or environment. This is described generally at the “fired up” stage – usually indicating a state of alertness or reaction to the environment. Usually a sleeping gecko is “fired down”, and will change color to a darker tone at night. Don’t worry if a gecko never fires or is always fired, neither state necessarily indicates that something is wrong. It’s just part of their unique natures as individuals!

Firing has many factors behind it, so it doesn’t necessarily mean the gecko is upset, stressed, or uncomfortable. It could aid camouflage, communicate with other geckos, indicate behavioral state, or simply be a response to specific stimuli like humidity, smells, light, etc. Fired up colors are more intense in brightness for red, orange and yellow cresties or deep black/brown in dark base geckos. Fired down colors are usually paler; reds for example are a very light grey bordering on white. Dark based geckos are usually a range between brown, tan, and grey. These are sometimes labeled as “moonglow” or “lavender”, respectively, and are considered controversial due to the fired down state vs. their true colors when fired up.

We have noticed that shipped geckos are generally the most fired up when you open up their container and look at them for the first time! A common trick for photographing a gecko’s true fired up colors is to put them in a deli cup, sprayed lightly, and placed in a dark place for about 15 minutes. Interestingly, exposure to UVB rays from a special bulb or direct sunlight (unfiltered through glass) can cause them to fire up as well, making their colors more intense..

Many factors influence color expression, such as the environment, temperature and humidity, hormonal states, aggression and fear can produce different color shades within the same animal. Read below for more information on possible mutations such as albino, co-dominant white patterning, axanthic, and piebald.

Color Patterns

Some combination of colors on harlequins and flames have specific names. These are not considered true “morphs” but people will refer to them as such.

CREAMSICLE

Creamsicle crested geckos are typically orange flames. Orange harlequins with cream pattern also qualify. This term is sometimes applied to red and cream geckos, but this technically does not match the ice cream pop for which the combination is named.

BLONDE

Blonde crested geckos are typically dark flames with or without pinstripes. The dark base color contrasts quite nicely with the creamy dorsal. Dark harlequins with cream pattern also qualify.

HALLOWEEN

Halloween crested geckos are harlequins with dark near-black and orange markings. The darker and more vibrant, the better! Neither black and gold nor black and creams qualify.

TRICOLOR

Tricolor crested geckos are harlequins with three colors. Generally an off-shoot of Halloween geckos with added cream, Tricolors are also available in red and yellow.

Moon Valley Reptiles really, really REALLY likes tricolor crested geckos!

MOCHA AND CREAM

Mocha crested geckos are generally brownish to tan with cream markings. Not quite orange and not quite blonde! Very striking as tigers or reverse pinstripe flames.

CREAM ON CREAM

The most holy of holies! Creamy goodness at its finest, a very rare color combination of a light-colored gecko with a cream dorsal. Sometimes seen as tiger flames.

WILD TYPE CRESTED GECKOS

Most reptiles displaying “wild type” color and pattern are called “normals”. With Crested Geckos, there is no “normal” phenotype. In the wild, there are varying degrees of color and pattern. Even if we consider buckskins, brown or olive geckos normal, there is still a high degree of variability between them. Full pinstripes and extreme harlequins are perfect examples of improving upon the wild type via selective breeding in captivity.

Structure

There’s more to a high quality crested gecko than just color. We favor big, wide heads with bold crests on a solid body. Often these guys with their wide heads are called “crowned” but we don’t measure, we just pat their enormous noggins.

The latest theory on good structure comes from a long, cool incubation period. Genetics probably also plays a role but breeders have consistently found a correlation with their “winter babies” and good head structure.

For a very in-depth morph guide and lots of pictures, check out the Pangea Forum crested gecko morph guide!

Morphs vs Lines

Morphs are general descriptions on the physical characteristics of an animal, while the term “line” refers to a specific breeder’s offspring from selective breeding. This can still be important information when a breeder is well known for specific colors, traits, or other characteristics. However, it does become confusing when a line is used interchangeably with morph. AC Reptiles has very well known lines, such as “Marble” (Tiger, Flame, Dalmatian combo), “Harry” (furry scale trait) and “C2″ (cream base color with cream flame). Other breeders can produce these lines only if the pair both came from this stock. If you produce offspring from only one parent of this lineage, you should refer to them as “from XYZ lines”. If you produce similar looking but unrelated animals, you should NOT use the line name for ethical reasons.

Lines are sometimes referred to as designer morphs but this gets tricky when someone else also breeds similar animals, such as “cream on creams”, “citrus”, “neon”, etc. Many crested gecko breeders refrain from naming their lines in this manner to avoid confusing newcomers to the hobby.

Basic Genetics

The genetics behind these phenotypes can be masked by a normal appearance. A familiar example of a recessive trait are albinos – the typical albino lab rat. If you breed an albino to another albino – all of the offspring will be albinos. If you breed an albino to the “normal” phenotype, the offspring will all LOOK like the normal parent. However, they will carry the gene for albino within them, within their “genotype”. We call them “hets” from heterozygous, meaning two different genes (to be technical, different alleles of the same genes). Bred to another het, they have a one in four chance of producing an albino, one in four of producing a genotypic AND phenotypic “normal”, and two in four of producing more hets. The albino and the genotypic normal are both homozygous compared to their heterozygous (“het”) siblings.

This is important to know, simply because these genetic rules do not seem to apply to crested geckos!

Crested Gecko Genetics

It’s hard to compare crested gecko genetics to other, more documented reptiles like leopard geckos and ball pythons because most of those morphs work on dominant and recessive genetics. Most of their designer morphs are homozygous and recessive, where the genes are carried in heterozygous forms. Crested geckos are “polygenic” (multiple genes controlling their phenotype) and less predictable because they aren’t considered het for any specific morph. It’s very “what you see is what you get”.

Simply put, you can get cool things to pop out randomly, but then you need to selectively breed that through multiple generations. More information on crested gecko genetics.

Think of crested gecko morphs as dog breeds – when you breed dogs from two different breeds together, you do not have a 25% chance of getting a full Labrador or Pug and 50% chance of getting Labs that carry Pug genetics. You get a litter of pups that take some characteristics from both parents and they can all look very different from each other!

The best advice is to pair pinstripes to pinstripes, dalmatians to dalmatians if you are looking to develop the morph or trait. If you feel you have a truly unique specimen or want to try an oddball pairing, know that you may not get what you are looking for. It may take several generations to refine a trait, and you’ll have lots and lots and lots of baby geckos along the way! Be prepared to house them yourself or re-home them. Many prefer to buy geckos with a traceable lineage for their morphs.

COLOR CELLS

Crested geckos have color cells, called “chromatophores” that produce the colors (pigments) that we see. There are different types of chromatophores; they are named based on what color pigments they produce. Melanophores contain mostly melanin: eumelanin (brown/black) and pheomelanin (orange/rust red). Xanthophores produce yellows and reds. Another type of chromatophore is “iridophore” that produces a blue color not by pigmentation, but by the refraction of light off of compounds within the iridophore. Additionally, iridophores that reflect white are dubbed “leucophores”; if crested geckos do not have iridophores they likely do not have leucophores to produce the same white color found in some fish (guppies, for example).

Note that this is a very simplistic rundown on chromatophores and color pigment. Further, neither the color genes or the pigment composition of crested geckos, or the other New Caledonian Geckos like Rhacodactylus have been studied and published. It is up to hobbyists to experiment and find the specific expressions of the color genes. We cannot “create” new color genes but we can alter the expression of pre-existing pigments.

As of this writing, there are no living representations of an albino crested gecko. There was speculation of a hatchling albino, however it passed away a few days after hatching, so its status is undetermined.

What would one look like? For starters, we would have to drop the term “albino” because that refers to the color “white” and works well for mammals but not other vertebrates. Albinism is due to faulty melanin production and can vary in degree. Since crested geckos also produce red and yellow pigments (xanthin), a better term would be “amelanistic” for the lack of the black pigment melanin. There is also the term “hypomelanistic” which refers to a reduced amount of melanin, without an explanation as to why, such as a problem with the pigment cells as in albinism. Leucistic animals are those that lack ALL pigment in the body but retain color in the eyes, because early in development these structures diverge, allowing color development in the eyes.

To further add to the albino discussion, there are different types of albinos: T- and T+.

T- albinos don’t even make melanin or its precursors (the tyrosinase enzyme) and are generally very light. Either the gene is missing or switched off.

T+ albinism means the gene to make melanin (dark pigment) is present but there is a malfunction in the gene so the melanin is not fully expressed. This can result in brown shades and can contribute to hypomelanism.

This is a very simplistic explanation, as tyrosinase issues can come about as a result of mutations, deletions and polymorphic forms of the T producing gene. That’s why there are several “lines” of albino leopard geckos: different genes or different versions of the same genes can produce an albino.

So we have to look very closely at “odd” looking hypomelanistic geckos (lacking black/brown) to be be able to determine the first “albino” crested gecko. There is some debate whether this is even a possibility, as the odds are that an albino should have been expressed by now. Since most albinos are produced by recessive genes, it’s likely that we don’t have it in our captive bred cresteds or other New Caledonian Geckos. It would possibly be a new mutation entirely.

New Morphs???

Everyone is interested in the latest and greatest looks in their chosen reptiles. New morphs don’t come around very often in crested geckos, though. There have been some oddities and notable differences in the past few years. Many are in disagreement over whether the newest looks are actual morphs vs lines. Since the term morph is used loosely in crested geckos, one could say that many of the following are, or will be, morphs.

WHITE PATTERNING

The selective breeding of crested geckos to increase the amount of white or cream on the body has been one of the main goals of breeders since the Harlequin morph was coined. By breeding the most highly patterned animals together, extreme harlequins have become much more common yet at the same time increasingly sought after.

There are two lines of white patterned geckos: AC Reptile’s Whiteout and Pangea’s (Matt Parks’) White-walled, although the latter term has become more generic and geckos outside his line are termed “white walled” if they display a large swath of solid white on the sides. Lateral stripes may be present and often define the upper reach of the white walls. Belly color may not be affected by this pattern. It is believed that a gecko must be a harlequin to show this pattern, but it may be possible for flames to have an accumulation of white on the body but not the limbs. There may be many ways, genetically, to produce white pattern!

Lilly Exotics has announced a line of crested geckos with high white patterning that they believe is inherited in a similar manner as allelomorphic animals such as horses, dogs, ball pythons and leopard geckos. These Lilly White crested geckos display seemingly co-dominant white pattern that produces visual hets. However, het to het pairings of Lilly Whites have produced a non-viable “super” that contains no pigment even late in development. These geckos appear as dark eyed albinos or hypos. A head tilt has also been reported in at least 2 offspring out of the line that indicate possible neurological issues. Lilly Exotics believes this may have something to do with incubation temperatures for these particular offspring. As this line is now hitting the market, more crossings may reveal whether this is a true allelomorphic mutation, as well as whether or not there are associated neurological issues as with Enigma leopard geckos and ball python spider morphs.

PIEBALD CRESTED GECKO?

One of the most bizarre looking crested geckos is one called Patient Zero, and is tentatively being called a Piebald. He is owned by Matt Parks at Pangea Reptile, LLC. Patient Zero lacks pigment on parts of his body. It is unknown if this is a passable trait, and the hope is to create a pied version of crested gecko similar to the ball python pied morph (see discussion of white patterning expression on the genetics page).

The last update was in June 2015 with no visible expression in direct offspring or possible hets. It’s quite possible this is a paradox – a morph that doesn’t breed true – or a development error during incubation. This would mean Mr. Zero would not pass on his legacy of missing scale pigment.

SOFT SCALE

The latest structural trait that could be defined as a morph is the Soft Scale project developed by AC Reptiles. This line is interesting, as it’s directly related to the Whiteout line, with the female producing the first Whiteouts also producing Soft Scale geckos. Pictures of these geckos are hard to pin down the physical feature of the soft scale: it’s by touch that most people tell the difference. They do tend to look like velvet or velour and feel like silk. As we don’t have one in our collection, we can’t give a complete description here.

These geckos were released to the public in 2016, so they are rare. Beware anyone other than ACR selling with this label, as it’s not likely there are many actively breeding.

AXANTHIC OR ANERYTHRISTIC MUTATIONS?

Another somewhat controversial phenomena is the existence of possibly axanthic crested geckos. Axanthic means “lacking yellow”, and animals such as this display only blacks, blues, whites, greys and silver – depending on other color or scale traits. Another way of obtaining grey from a recessive mutation, as with other reptiles such as snakes, is with the anerythristic (anery for short) mutation that eliminates the expression of red pigment. You would need to know the natural coloration of a species to accurately tell the two apart, and you would need to experiment to prove out the mutation. Generally, if a species expresses both red and yellow pigment, an axanthic may be grey/silver or “cool” in color tone, where an anery is cream/white with a “warm” tone. Browns are not likely in an axanthic. This mutation could produce a solid black crested gecko!

To prove out axanthic in crested geckos, you could pair the grey gecko to a yellow. In theory, the offspring of these pairings may look normal (yellow or any other color, including grey as this is possible due to selective breeding) but be het for axanthic. In future breedings, you would stop getting yellow but may produce reds as well as visual greys. Browns would be unlikely due to the strong presence of yellow in the warm browns. By pairing the grey gecko to a red, you could prove out or rule out anery, as 2nd generation offspring would retain yellow and no red pigment along with grey and brown.

On the other hand, grey geckos could be an accumulation of unintended selection that just happened to hit the right combination with the parents, meaning it could be all up to future selective breeding to bring out the greys, and not have as big of an impact on the other colors. But who knows! Perhaps we’ll end up with grey & white geckos or even a grey tricolor version, if the traits or mutations don’t restrict the expression of pattern.

Because the axanthic crested gecko is believed to be a recessive condition, it will take longer to prove out than a co-dom condition which may be responsible for Lilly Whites, described above.