The Most EXTREME Harlequin Babies: A “Not Mine” Series Post

The term “extreme” gets thrown around a lot for harlequins lately. It’s ok to have a beautiful harlequin that does not classify as “extreme”; when your harlequin has a fire-like pattern licks a little near the dorsal at its highest points and covers a roughly 65% of it’s base, it’s a very pretty gecko, but it’s not extreme. In fact, it’s actually quite common at this point, as hobbyists breed for more and more pattern.

These are my Top 6 Extreme Harlequin Babies to Watch, and I think they may help to put the term in perspective. These little kiddos already have almost no visible base; I can’t imagine what they will look like as adults. At the rate at which hobbyists are pushing the term extreme, these kids will need a new term altogether.

 

First up, Xanthium of Sticky Feet Reptiles, produced by Incredible Geckos. This gecko absolutely amazed me when I first saw pics; I’m dying for a close-up photo of this kid.

 

Next is All-Star Geckos‘ possible female from Sadler Reptiles‘ Chowder and  JB’s Cresties‘ Crescenza. Considering how Chowderlings’ cream spreads over time, this lady may not have any base as an adult at the rate she’s developing. (On a personal note, I’m really fascinated by the amount of orange pattern she has given how little our full sibling, Dr Venkman has, and I think that will cream out by the time he’s fully grown).

 

You’ve got to love little Georgina of Illumination Exotics, out of Flux x Secret. She’s unsexed so far, but I’m guessing from the name that they are hoping for a girl 😉

 

This possible female is Leica of Bad Obsession Reptiles (I believe out of Chubacabra x Michonne). I think it’s hardest to get pattern onto the cheeks and throat; you can see her base exposed there. It’s a huge feat of breeding that so many of our geckos on this list actually do appear to have pattern there (though we’re seeing their cheeks and not throat of most of them in this round of photos).

Kelly owns quite a few other extreme harlies worth watching, including Black Bird from Scaredy Cat Geckos‘ David  and, I believe, JB’s Raspberry (how jealous am I?) and a phenomenal Zoop kiddo from L.A.C. Herps.

 

Here is Gekkonidazed Geckos‘ creamy creamy Adonis, out of Alice x Inoki. This one takes a lot after dad, pictured underneath.

 

Finally, the big one: a baby whose pattern is so extreme his breeder said that it almost looks plain. It’s happening guys; I am struggling see any base on this little one already (looks like there’s a bit by the neck). I think Gekkonidazed Geckos will actually have produced baseless geckos when this one grows up, and that is amazing. Sibling to Adonis.

Now that’s extreme!

 

As with all of the “Not Mine” Series posts, neither these geckos nor their photos belong to me; I simply post them out of admiration and in the interests of discussion of the crested gecko hobby.

Breeder Shoutouts: Just A Few Breeders I’ve Done Business With

I posted a quick shoutout to some wonderful breeders I’ve had the pleasure of doing business with to my business page today and thought I’d pose here as well.

Greg and Jenella at Heres your gecko – HYG produces the most consistent geckos I think I’ve ever seen. Our lovely Lyric is from there, and we can’t wait to see Raven’s first ever babies hatch out over the course of the year (four fertile eggs laid so far). Plus, they are just sweet people; after holding our geckos for months, they actually offered to meet us in Tinley for pick-up when I had planned to drive all the way to Indiana to meet them. The told us their favorite brunch place and how close we were to the Chicago Reptile House. If you don’t want to worry about surprises in how your geckos will develop (except how crazy amazing they are), these are the people to buy from; they hold back their reds until they show their true colors, and their dark kids are unfailingly show-stoppers.

Megan and Greg at Sticky Feet Reptiles – Sticky Feet offers a enormous variety of quality stock at unbelievably fair prices and friendly customer service to boot. What I like most about Megan is her devotion to the well-being of her animals; she has her quarantine geckos not only in a separate room but on a separate floor from the others and is set up with her own microscope for fecal exams after what is often a three-month QT for incoming animals, and so you can be darn sure that an animal in her facility is being treated with the utmost care.

Meg, The Gecko Alchemist – Meg never treats her animals as inventory; you can tell that that she is very invested on a personal level with her animals through her stories about every individual’s personality at feedings and photo shoots. She is a true believer in doing good deeds within the gecko community, and her animals are absolutely gorgeous. If you ever have a chance to purchase from her or trade, do not pass it up.

Megan of Mrs. Smith’s Geckos – Sure, I like her because she’s chatty and friendly, but one of my favorite things about Megan is how thorough and responsible she is about her geckos, regardless of whether they are monetarily hers or yours in a sale; this is someone who takes the time, initiative, and responsibility to check the weather of her buyers’ zip codes herself to make sure that they really are safe for shipments, and it’s little details like that that I think really speak to the ethics of a breeder/seller. Another plus: she has a beautiful collection of geckos whose offspring are priced incredibly competitively.

Kyle and Krystal at Gekkonidazed Geckos – Between loans and trades with L.A.C Herps, Derek Dunlop, and AJD Reptiles, Kyle and Krystal have some absolutely amazing blood in their colony and still have shockingly affordable prices; many people with that quality of stock would easily charge three times as much as what I’ve seen their kids go for. Fun fact: if you are ever at a show that they are also attending and need a gecko louped, Kyle will magically appear out of no where to check for pores on even the babiest of babies. I’m not sure how he knows when to appear, but they are an incredibly friendly couple.

Terri the Lizard Lady – If you want some fresh blood at great prices, look no further than Terri’s stock. Most of her females are bred to Stephan, her F2 male with harlequin pattern and head structure that would never let you guess that his genes are so close to wild-caught. She mostly sells locally at shows like WIRE in Madison, WI, but you can sometimes catch Gekkonidazed doing shipments for her if you don’t live nearby and are interested in picking something up from her.

Sevachko Exotics – I don’t know the breeders here personally, but they were fantastic about holding a gecko I purchased from them for weeks while their weather was warm and sunny, and I lived in the never-ending Mid-Western winter of 2014. If you need a red with structure, look no further; rarely have I ever seen a collection with so many reds that are well-structured in terms of both head shape and crest length.

Rhacs on Racks – Another breeder I don’t know very personally, but I can say that not only did they produce a very stunning gecko in my collection (Satanic Mechanic), but when another well-known breeder inquired about her, they checked in with me to see if I was going through with the transaction rather than simply taking the money of the second person as a sure thing (luckily, I’d sent my Paypal and secured my girl!). Loving the courtesy and ethics, as well as the gecko quality.

Incredible Geckos – Daniel has produced some truly amazing offspring and has probably the best prices I’ve ever seen.
He’s also just a really great guy in the hobby; though we don’t know each other very well, he was very helpful about my moving into his area and offering to give me a hand when I accidentally sent an order of gecko food to my old house in Illinois rather than to our PA residence. Definitely someone I would like to continue to work with.

Nicole of Lucky Find Geckos – What can I say? Great geckos making great babies sold at “I can’t believe it!” prices. Plus, Nicole is super sweet and bakes cupcakes for shows. What is there not to like?
If you ever sell her a gecko, you can be sure of plenty of photos showing is progress and prosperity, which is always nice when you’re dealing in living things.

We obviously haven’t covered everyone in just one post, but to everyone from whom we’ve purchased, a whole-hearted thank you for trusting us with your babies!

The Most Unique and Awesome Geckos I’ve Watched Lately

I think the title pretty much sums it up, other than adding that these geckos and photos are not mine.

5) Jubilee – Alex Manzo

Jubilee – by Alex Manzo – Produced by Designer Geckos from Nova x Wedgie

4) Schmaltzy – Tara Bowling

Schmaltzy at Tara Lee’s Cresties from Rahl by Harvati (Rahl as in Nautilus Reptiles, Harvati as in JB’s Cresties). Has mom’s pattern, but I love the change in color and contrast.

 

3) Eiran – Megan Angstadt-Williams

Eiran of Sticky Feet Reptiles, produced by Roxanne Hatfield of Gecko Luv – can’t wait to get some babies from him

2) Aquinas – Melissa Walker

Aquinas – Sublime Reptiles – I don’t even know how to describe him other than completely unique and awesome.

 

1) Marine – Ashley Jawiche

Marine, owned by Scaredy Cat Geckos, produced by Derek Dunlop. There are very few geckos I covet more than this one. The only ones I can think of are possibly Pamper and Tievel, also owned by Scaredy Cat Geckos. Seriously, I’d hand over an absurd amount of money for this gecko.

Rush

This girl from Sticky Feet Reptiles‘ Maple x Mandrake fires so black, and I can never capture it exactly on camera. I cannot wait to watch her pattern develop (and hope no pores ever sprout).

How Many Animals Did We Bring Home from Hamburg?

(and what kinds?)

Let’s start with the runners up:

1) A beautiful female pastel ball python who was both the prettiest pastel at the show and the most realistically priced (I was hoping the hubs would go for this)

2) A beautiful male hypo honduran milk snake who was marked down to 50% of what they normally cost, supposedly because he needed his frozen/thawed prey wiggled in front of him to take it, and the breeder really didn’t have time with that with feeding all his snakes (really?)

3) An enormous Sumatran water monitor that we could in no way accommodate, afford, or realistically care for at this time

 

So, what did we get?

An actual Rhac for one thing (yes, I’m still a bit burned about the re-classification. I don’t even care if it’s more taxonomically accurate; Rhacodactylus is a cooler word, better for puns, and more familiar to me from years of use).
My husband wanted a pet gecko that would not end up in my breeding cycle and picked out a Garg, who we of course named Hugo:

We picked up this little guy or gal from Gecko Haven. He’s missing the tips from most of his toes from Repashy formula drying on them, and we were told that he wouldn’t have any problems sticking to his enclosure, but so far, he hasn’t been able to stick (his set-up is the same as all my cresties, who are sticking just fine). We may put him in a metal screen cage to allow him to climb and have to keep an eye that he’s not losing too much humidity through the screen.

 

If you’re reading this, however, I’m sure it’s for my breeding stock, not my life decisions, so I’ll come through with the goods. I got a wedding present today from my best friend from college, with whom I went to all my reptile shows in college and in my year off before grad school. This is Rush (no pores) from Sticky Feet Reptiles by Mandrake and Maple:

I obviously don’t own the first photo but am including it because I don’t have as good of a picture of her yet (I will definitely get on that).

I’m not supposed to buy anything between now and Tinley…can I make it? I’d like a few bigger, older geckos.

Surprises – Updates on Incoming Geckos

Yesterday I received an email from Anthony Caponetto that my geckos couldn’t be shipped out that day but could be shipped for Friday delivery, which he and a lot of others don’t often do for fear of the gecko getting stuck at a hub for the weekend if something goes wrong (so far, all of mine have always made it to my by 10:30am on their expected delivery date). For the late notice and inconvenience, he told me he would throw in a surprise, that he couldn’t tell me what it was, but that it has four legs and eyelashes and that I might want to have an extra cage ready. Surprise AC gecko tomorrow!

On that note, my fiance has said no more new geckos for a while. This site will still be quite busy with incoming geckos, as I have quite a few that I’ve already purchased to still be delivered or picked up, but no new purchases. The Hamburg show is going to be hard. Initially, I thought that maybe no more meant no more until Tinley, but it seems to mean next Spring/Summer. No new geckos at Tinley? That seems a combination of cruel and impossible.

I agree, we cannot continue purchasing at the rate we have been, and we can’t consistently make the splurges we did on Lyric and Blue, but there is a hatchling at Sticky Feet Reptiles that I am absolutely purchasing if it goes up for sale. I would post it, but even with what I assume is a readership of zero people, I don’t want anyone to snake it. Anyway, our last gecko was free.

Back to the geckos that are actually incoming – and to the surprises. Chaos Monkey came today from Gorgeous Geckos and broke my heart by not being fired up when I opened the box, though her(?) pattern is fantastic. Kimberly included a clever care sheet one what your gecko needs right after shipping and a very cute free t-shirt that I hope to wear to the Hamburg show (though that show is always hotter than the depths of hell, so I may need to stick to a tank top). I’m getting so spoiled; I want free surprises with everything from now on.

This little goose didn’t seem too rushed to get out of her deli cup, which I set in her enclosure to exit at her leisure. I don’t actually know that it’s a her; Kim sold this gecko unsexed at 8-10g, so I’m hoping that no sign of maleness is a good sign, but if we get this gecko fired up, I probably wouldn’t mind it going male (I’ve been imagining my unsexed red from ACReptiles as turning out male, though, so we’ll see).

Speaking of 8-10g, I did not actually weigh her to confirm her weight, but she’s much smaller than Zazzle, who I last weight at 7.5g a couple days ago. Snapdragon, who was listed at 7g, is also, and I’m wondering if my scale is off. It’s a brand new scale from Pangea:

Digital Scale CJ-600

 
Can’t sort it out now; the new babies need some time to settle in. For now; photos of my unfired acquisition: