The leopard gecko is the most common type of gecko which is raised in captivity and requires little maintenance. It is a small gecko which originated from Iran, Afghanistan, Western India, Iraq and Pakistan. It was later brought to the United States of America, but stopped when its importation was declared illegal in 1970. Only one species of leopard gecko is known to exist. However, there were five more subspecies when it was first imported. Thus, interbreeding caused the existence of geckos known as morphs. A morph refers to the change of character or from of the leopard gecko. Its scientific nameEublepharus macularius came from the fact that this type of geckos has true eyelids.
- High Yellow. One of the most common types of leopard gecko has yellow coloring in most of its body parts. Instead of a true morph, selective breeding created the High Yellow type. It is considered to be a brightly colored normal type. It is bred from a brightly colored gecko and new high yellow strains that are currently produced up to this day.
- Snow. The snow leopard gecko is created by means of stringent breeding which causes the removal of almost all of the pigmentation of the skin of the gecko. You can see lighter spots on the Snow morph in comparison to the leopard gecko.
- Eclipse. The eclipse leopard gecko can be compared to the raptor. It has narrow, long ruby eyes. The word raptor is an acronym for Ruby-eyed, Albino, Patternless, Tremper, ORange. The only difference between a raptor and an eclipse is that eclipse is not albino. In contrast with the High Yellow Leopard Gecko, the Eclipse gecko was created because of a mutation.
- Enigma. This type of leopard gecko was given the name enigma because the mutation has become a dominant trait. The markings of the Enigma are more calico compared to the leopard. When it hatches out, its spots are more of blotches instead of bands. Its tail is almost all white and its spots increases and turn into speckles sometime when it grows older.
- Blazing Blizzard. The blazing blizzard is one leopard gecko morph that most breeders find difficult to create. It has light skin and red eyes. Mathematically, this type of gecko should be produced about one in 16 times. However, in reality, it is bred once in approximately 200 times.
Although leopard geckos come in various types, they are all still considered as one of the easiest pet to maintain. They also share the same needs such as shelter, diet and water. They also share the same defense mechanism to stay away from predator by means of very keen sense of hearing and smell. Similar to other reptiles, all types of leopard geckos has the ability to voluntarily detach their tails away from their body if it is bitten, attacked, grabbed or nipped, or even used for copulation.
If you are a beginning pet owner, try taking care of any type of leopard gecko. It is easy to maintain and it lives longer for almost 15-20 years.
