When it comes to selecting the leopard gecko you want to take home with you, you are going to be amazed at the wide variety of leopard gecko morphs available. Each has its own unique defining characteristics with a variety of colors, patterns and more.
These characteristics are based on the base color of the skin, the arrangement of black spots, referred to as the pattern and the morph, which is the breeding traits that affect your gecko’s appearance.
The majority of leopard geckos available for purchase from reputable breeders and reptile stores have been bred in captivity, enabling you to choose from a wide variety of leopard gecko morphs.
Terminology
When you are first introduced to leopard geckos, the terminology used by enthusiasts can be confusing and daunting.
There is some basic terminology that can prove useful when making your selection, these include:
- Generic Traits – These are the determining genetics, such as eye color and size of a gecko.
- Recessive Traits – These are traits that have been passed on by both of the parents.
- Dominant Traits – One parent’s dominant genes are displayed.
- Co Dominant Traits – The gecko will display two dominant traits.
Further reading:
- Best enclosure for leopard gecko
- Top amazing hides for your leopard gecko
- Best heating mat and how to set up in a leopard gecko enclosure
Leopard Gecko Morphs
1. Aberrant
The majority of leopard geckos have a solid pattern without any breaks. The Aberrant on the other hand, will display a broken pattern. Often you will find the gecko has beautiful bands where the pattern break is.
2. Albino
An albino leopard gecko has a cream or pink body color. It will still display a pattern, which really stands out against the pale skin color.
You also get the patternless albino, which is cream or pink and has no bands at all. The gecko displays a very pale overall single color appearance.
3. Baldy
The baldy has been achieved through effective and careful breeding to create a unique morph that has no spots on its head.
Some have no spots or patterns while others retain some pattern on their body and tail or only their tail.
They do have a color variation that is clearly visible between the body and tail.
These morphs come in a variety of colors from bright yellow to tangerine.
The color is vivid without the patterned markings.
4. Blizzard
The blizzard leopard gecko is very similar to the baldy, except that they are one hundred percent patternless. These geckos can come in any color from yellow and purple to white.
5. Carrot Tail
The carrot tail leopard gecko offers a great opportunity to own a gecko that has more than fifteen percent of its tail in bright orange.
This trait makes these reptiles stand out and be a top choice with reptile enthusiasts.
6. Circle Back
The circle back offers a very unique pattern which really stands out when compared to other leopard gecko morphs.
These reptiles tend to have circles on their back, often comprising of connected dots that appear as a bulls eye.
7. Halloween Mask
The Halloween mask leopard gecko offers the boldest of head patterns. These patterns continue with maturity, making these geckos unique and interesting.
8. High Yellow
The high yellow is a very unique leopard gecko in that the morph often varies from one breeder to the next.
These geckos have very few spots but are easily identifiable by their bright yellow body.
8. Jungle
This leopard gecko displays black spots which connect in order to form a unique pattern. This is often similar to camouflage. These reptiles come in yellow and black only.
These are the best choice if looking for an unusual design. You will never find two of these geckos exactly the same.
10. Lavender
The lavender is as the name suggests. You will find a hint of lavender in white areas on your gecko’s skin.
This morph has been achieved through years of breeding to create brighter colors.
11. Melanistic
The melanistic leopard gecko is dark or black. This gecko does not display any patterns.
In order to be considered a Hypo Melanistic, the gecko must display ten or fewer spots on its body and tail.
If you buy one that has no spots at all on its body, then it is considered a Super Hypo.
12. Patternless
This gecko is as the name suggests and will have no spots or bands on its body. They are yellow in color, though the shade of yellow can vary from light to dark.
These leopard geckos are born with spots, which disappear with age.
13. Raptor
The raptor leopard gecko is a red eyed patternless gecko that is an orange albino. These geckos have orange bodies with no spots. Their defining characteristic is their red eyes.
14. Reverse Stripe
This gecko offers you the opposite of the normal leopard gecko stripe. The reverse strip is a white stripe which is outlined by a dark strip and can be found on both sides of the reptile’s body and usually follows down to the tip of the tail.
15. Snow
Snow leopard geckos offer a normal color pattern, except that their body is white instead of the normal yellow. This enhances the gecko’s pattern, making this a beautiful choice of morph.
16. Striped
The striped leopard gecko has a lightly colored stripe at the top of its head down to the tip of its tail. This stripe is black with light stripes on either side. The stripe is clearly visible against the gecko’s body.
This is a very common choice when it comes to leopard gecko morphs.
17. Super Giant
The supergiant isn’t named from its body, color pattern, or morph, it’s named after the reptile’s actual size.
The largest recorded super giant leopard gecko was an impressive twelve inches.
18. Tangerine
The tangerine is one of the most common leopard gecko morphs offering a large area of its body and tail in the brightest of orange.
These are very in-demand geckos and the more orange they are, the more expensive they become.
Further Reading:
My gecko is just a juvenile and has some lavender on her but also has aberrant. How do I tell?
My leo has both dark and light bands and spots, the light bands, like the albino’s colors, going from his neck, legs, and back, and his nose and tail are dark, anyone have any clue what his is?
The patterns are specific to most morphs so judging on your description it seems to be of the snow variety. I hope this helps
He may be a Bell Albino, I have one. To see if he is an Albino, check his eyes. If they are a tan-ish color with a red-ish pupil, then he is an Albino. If he has black eyes with a light colored pupil, he is not an alibino, though he may still be a cool morph. Are his bands brown-ish? Does he have some yellow and white? And how old is he? This may help, our Bell Albino was 2 months when we got him, and he as bright pink and white, he has changed in coloration drastically. Also, if you have a regular morph, along with some other morphs, the babies have bands but loose them as they get older. I hope you can figure out his morph!
I don’t understand what the difference is between a blizzard and a patternless.
the difference is that the blizzard is more white and orange and the patternless is more green
Patternless are born with blotches and they fade as the animal grows. You can see some of the pattern in adults but it is very faded. Blizzards are born completely patternless. They can be hard to tell apart as adults but a trained eye can usually tell them apart pretty easily.
Can anyone tell me what color morph leopard gecko I have?
I recently got a baby leo it has a bright orange head, green eyelids, with a white stripe around its mouth to back of head, with light orange/yellow body and 2 round spots, a brownish greyish stripe above her tail, and tail goes dark grey stripe, white stripe, and the grey gets lighter all the way to the end, ive been told shes a carrot head, super hypo, baldy, albino, i have no idea what she is
WHAT KIND IS MINE…its a juvenile and it looks like is has a orange and yellow camo plz help
thanks for making this I have two leopard geckos and I have been wondering what morphs they are 😀
My Leo’s are two different morphs and I have not seen any morphs like there except the baby one I got last month her sisters were the same but never got told what morph and the older boy one who is 1 I have never seen a Leo look like him any help please
I was hoping you could help me identify 100% what morphs I have
My gecko has a peach colored body and a orange tail
them that is a carrot tail but you will never know with out genes
My gecko has the Aberrant pattern but he is white with blue on his eyes. he has a little yellow on his sides but other than that he is completely black and grey. I think he is a mack snow, but i have seen a cross of black night/black pearl and they kinda look the same. please help if you know!
I honestly can’t figure out my geckos morph. He has the exact same patterns as an albino but lighter. I haven’t been able to find any that look similar. ive been thinking he’s an albino but again his color are way lighter. Can anyone help? 😅
I did find my leopard geckos morph, His name is leo and he’s a reverse stripe. I was told he’s albino but I’m not sure because he seems to have brown stripes, but he is a light pinkish color. Thanks for helping me.
I got my male leopard gecko from the Arizona Expo, he a 1 year old adult male, and he a giant blood x emerine, he’s 10 inches and he weighs 90 grams, I’m trying to figure out if he’s an actual giant 😐!
My 7-month old leopard gecko is probably a Halloween mask one. Her head and tail are light brown and her body is yellow with a few big swirls that are turning into spots. I named her Lydia after I found out her morph and gender (yes, she’s female)
Can I use your pictures for my book for free? I write your name in the book. Thanks
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