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At first, I didn't
understand the "snow" name because I was thinking of snakes, like the "snow"
corn snake or ball python, which are essentially all white animals.
Instead think of them as a snow leopard, a white animal with black spots.
Ah...now it makes sense. :)
This mutation is actually one of the most exciting in the leopard gecko world.
In its homozygous form (Super Snow), it's essentially a co-dominant axanthic
(lacking all yellow pigment) gene, which also gives the animal solid black eyes.
If you're already into leopard geckos, that's probably all you need to hear to
realize the potential of this mutation. One of my favorite things about them is
that the solid black eyes make for solid red eyes when the Mack Super Snow is
combined with an albino mutation.
The Snow/Super Snow mutation is one of the few that works surprisingly well with
just about every mutation out there and as such, it's also one of the most
popular.
Below you will find
pictures and descriptions of some of the various combos that we're working on.
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High White Striped
Super Snow
Mutation: Mack Snow & Super
Snow
First Produced: John & Amy Mack
Genetics: Co-Dominant
The Snow gene is co-dominant, meaning that
when two Snows are bred, you will get a small number of Super Snows.
Snow Description
Hatch black & white, but the color
eventually looks normal, albeit with slightly reduced yellow (can make very
pretty combos).
Super Snow Description
Axanthic color and pattern mutation.
Babies hatch with a charcoal grey/black wash on the back with a colorless belly.
As adults, they have a pure white ground color with a pattern normally arranged
in 4-8 rows of spots running the length of the back.
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Snow |
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This is the heterozygous version of the Super Snow.
Unlike the Super Snow, the Snow has normal eyes and only a reduction of yellow
pigment. Breeding these together will yield approximately 1/4 Super Snows, 1/2
Snows and 1/4 normals.
 
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Super Snow |
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The
Super Snow is essentially an axanthic mutation, meaning it takes away all yellow
pigment. It also takes away any trace of carrot-tail, so in some regards,
you could also consider it anerythristic. Aside from the obvious white and
black coloration, another key aspect of the Super Snow is the solid black eyes.
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Super Snow - Striped and/or High White |
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Our High White Super Snows are exactly what they sound
like: A predominantly white gecko with reduced black markings. Below
pictured are a few examples. In my opinion, these Super Snows are some of
the most attractive of all leopard geckos and the more I work with them, the
more I see them being a long-term specialty project here.
What about the genetics?
To be perfectly honest, we don't know much about these, but they're
definitely weird. At first, I just assumed it was nothing more than a
selectively bred appearance, but after two seasons, we've seen some very
'interesting' results from this group, both from the striped ones and the high
white ones, especially in 2008. I'm always hesitant to make more out of
something than it is, so we'll leave it at that for now...but rest assured, they
have my full attention now. :)
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Super Snow - Tremper Albino |
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The subtle pink
pattern is gorgeous in person. The solid deep red eyes are what make this
combination so highly sought after by collectors.
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Snow - Rainwater Albino (aka Las Vegas Albino) |
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The Rainwater Albino Snow is nearly identical to the Tremper
Albino version. We're only working with one pair of these and we've had
some really odd results so far, including producing a solid white gecko with no
pattern. The genetics of this pair are uncertain at this point, so we'll
continue working with them to find out what's going on.
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Snow - Patternless (aka Leucistic) |
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The Snow
trait essentially removes the carrot-tail and most of the yellow pigment from
the Patternless leopard gecko. The appearance isn't a show-stopping one by
any stretch, but it's a necessary ingredient for the Patternless Super Snow,
which is absolutely incredible.
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Super Snow - Patternless (aka Leucistic) |
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This is where it gets good. Unlike the
Patternless Snow, this one is basically a stark white gecko with solid black
eyes. While they do take on a slightly dark wash at times, this gives us a
glimpse of what's to come when combined with an albino mutation. |
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Super Snow - Patternless (aka Leucistic) - Rainwater Albino |
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This is the "end-game" when it comes to this project.
A stark white gecko with deep, solid ruby-red eyes. The coloration does
not change throughout the day unlike the non-albino version. Instead, it
stays completely white at all times. This gecko seems to radiate
white, if that make sense. Her eyes do look black in the photos, but as
she's grown it has become apparent that they're actually a deep red color.
Phenomenal gecko in all regards. This will be a very popular combo morph
as it becomes more readily available. Look for these to start appearing in
limited quantities over the next couple seasons.
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Snow - Blizzard |
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The Snow Blizzard is essentially a Blizzard with a little less
yellow than normal...not much different than a regular blizzard.
However....this is the necessary ingredient to create the gorgeous Super Snow
version (next). |
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Super Snow - Blizzard |
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The Super Snow Blizzard is something
totally unexpected. Instead of making a pure white gecko like we all
thought it would, we got a leopard gecko dressed like a shark. :)
6 Week Old Super Snow Blizzard
Adult Super Snow Blizzard
(Showing Light Coloration) |
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Super Snow - Blizzard - Albino |
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If the Super Snow Blizzard's shark paint job made you lose hope
about the ever elusive pure white gecko with solid black eyes, don't worry.
Put it with albino and you get a porcelain white gecko with solid red eyes.
They look like this every time too...no snake-eyes like you get with Raptors and
no yellow like you see with Blazing Blizzards.
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They should name this combo the
Porcelain Goddess. :) |
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Super Snow - Enigma |
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If the Super Snow
Blizzard's shark paint job made you lose hope about the ever elusive pure white
gecko with solid black eyes, don't worry. Put it with albino and you get a
porcelain white gecko with solid red eyes...every time too (no snake-eyes like
you get with Raptors).
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Super Snow Enigma - Wow! |
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Snow - Enigma |
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First produced in
2007, this project caught me completely off guard. I was pretty sure the
Enigma gene would do something strange with the Super Snow appearance, but I was
floored to see how different the regular Snow version looks. There are very few
of these around, but I expect this will be one of the most popular combos
around, both for the Snow and for the Enigma genes.
 
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