Crested Gecko Morphs — Demystified
So you’ve got a crested gecko, and you’re trying to figure out what the heck its morph is. Welcome to the expansive world of crested gecko morphs. The most important thing to know about crested geckos is that there is no scientific way to genetically determine their morphs. This means you could breed one gecko with another gecko and get an animal that looks nothing like either parents, which is a truly fun and exciting aspect to breeding these beautiful creatures.
You see, with many other reptiles like leopard geckos, ball pythons, and bearded dragons, the genetics for morphs are understood fairly well. If you combine X with Y, you’ll get Z. However, none of those genetics have been documented in crested geckos, with the exception of a possible axanthic morph currently being proven out, so we are left to speculate morph names from visual colors and patterns. Because of this, breeding them is often times an unpredictable, albeit exciting, endeavor. For this reason, you may see me refer to the word “morph” with quotation marks around it, because these color and pattern difference are not true genetic morphs such as true morphs like “albino” or “scaleless”. We can see crested gecko traits with our eyes but we can’t see them in the geckos’ genes yet.
There are a few tried and true visual “morphs” that hobbyists agree on as being pretty cut-and-dry when it comes to identification. Here is a list of some of the most popular crested gecko morphs, starting with the simpler (and often cheaper) types and working upwards from there.
Patternless
A patternless crested gecko can come in any size, shape, or color, but the main factor here is that it does not having any spots, cream pattern, or highlights.
Bi-Color
These geckos are similar to patternless in that they can be any color, but they have a dual tone coloring to them. A red bi-color gecko will be totally red, but have a different shade of red down its “dorsal area”, or the top of the gecko from nose to tail base.
Dalmatian
Dalmatians are a popular morph, and they can be all over a spectrum of spottiness. Just like the dog, dalmatians have spots. Some have a few spots, some have so many you can hardly see the gecko underneath. These spots can range in colors from black, white, red, grey, olive, and anything in between. Basic dalmatians with just a few spots are pretty easy to come by, but collectors will pay upwards of $1,000 or more for a gecko totally covered in big black “ink blot” spots.
Tiger/Brindle
Also like in dogs, brindle geckos have a stripe-y pattern on them. They can be any color. Geckos with an extreme brindle pattern are often referred to as tigers instead, because of their full-body stripes.
Flame
These cresteds are generally pretty common but can be very beautiful. They will often have a darker base with cream color on their back and light creamy coloring coming up their sides, almost like little flames. The base of these geckos can be any color.
Harlequin, or Harley
The more concentrated version of flame coloring is called Harlequin. These geckos have prominent amounts of cream coming up their sides, as well as decent amounts of cream pattern on their back, and are one of the more sought-after morphs in the low-to-mid price range.
Extreme Harley
These are often times “big money” geckos, most likely because of how striking they are to behold. These geckos look like they have an abstract oil painting on their hides, as they are heavily covered in cream patterning. Some of the most beloved extreme harlequins have a dark, almost-black or red base with bright white cream splotches from head to tailbase. The general rule of thumb to determine if your harley is extreme is to see if any of the pattern from the bottom of the gecko reaches the top, or dorsal, areas. You’ll also sometimes see “drips” of cream, or pattern that is dripping down from the top of the gecko, as seen in the photo below. Some extremes will have so much pattern that it can be a struggle to see their darker base color, even when fired up.
Lavender
The lavender gecko is an odd beast, with this morph just coming into popularity in the last few years. Lavender geckos are reported to be a gecko that does not “fire up”, or change their base color, like most cresteds do. They may change a tiny bit, but they stay a light grey or even purple-y color even when they fire. This pale grey shade is referred to as “lavender”. Some folks maintain that these geckos are not a valid color morph, but simply a crested gecko that has never been seen fired up with a darker color, which leads to lavender morphs being a topic of contention in some hobbyist circles.
Phantom Pinstripe
Phantom pinners are a less-common version of the classic pinstripe, where there is a darker stripe of color running down the gecko underneath and around the actual pinstripe scales. This “phantom” pinning is not raised up like normal pinstripes. The effect of phantom pinning can give a really beautiful contrast to a gecko, and most phantom pinners will be lighter geckos with dark pinning.
Pinstripe
The pinstripe is like the muscle car of the crested gecko world; an instant classic that most everyone loves to see in all shapes and forms. Pinstripes, or “pinners”, have two rows of raised scales, often times cream in color, running down their back. There are all sorts of forms of this morph in the pinner spectrum, with some geckos having full, long rows of beautiful white scales running from their crests to their tailbase, and others having a few little spots of raised scales but not much else. Having a small, separated amount of pinstriping down the dorsum is often referred to as “dash pinning”.
Quadstripe
The quadstripe is the “high-octane” version of a pin stripe. Essentially, quadstripes will have pinning down their lateral (side) areas, as well as down their back. The really cool thing about quads is how the lateral pinning causes scales to be raised up on the sides, which is not something you see often in other morph types.
Whew! So now that you’ve got all that, maybe you can pinpoint what type of gecko you’ve got on your hands. If you’re still having trouble, send us a clear, well-lit photo and we’ll do our best to give you an accurate “morph” description.