Tangerine Carrot-tail Designer (Florida strain)???

I have one of the old LG care books from Vosjoli from (i think) 1991 with the "cartoon" drawing of the gecko on it. It is basically a classic and predecessor to the LG manuals. I should take a picture of the cover and post it for laughs.

Originally Posted by Franks_Geckos

I have one of the old LG care books from Vosjoli from (i think) 1991 with the "cartoon" drawing of the gecko on it. It is basically a classic and predecessor to the LG manuals. I should take a picture of the cover and post it for laughs.

Hi Frank,
I will post it for you. The Gecko in the picture with it is Ralph. He is the first Leopard Gecko I purchased after a fifteen-year hiatus of keeping Reptiles. I purchased him in 1993 and that is the owner’s manual that came with him. LOL



The picture was taken earlier this year and the next few are of him with some of his great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, Grand Daughters.





I hope you enjoy,

LOL albey! nice pics

i still remember always checking your site in the 90's for frequent updates and spending many MANY hundreds of dollars on your awesome "golden hypos" LOL oh why did u get me hooked albey? =P

jon

Originally Posted by Dan Lubinsky

Bill Brandt at The Gourmet Rodent in Florida has been producing a great number of geckos since the early 90s and is to my knowledge the first to have produced the superhypos. Ray Hine's animals are acknowledged to have originated from Bill's stock. The earlier TFH leopard gecko books, Vivarium and Reptiles magazines all have done articles showing Bill's supers years before we'd ever heard of Ray Hines or Urban. Just as Ron gets the well deserved credit for producing the first pattern morphs it's nice to see Bill and Marcia recognized for their work.

Hi Dan,
You are 100% correct in stating, “it’s nice to see Bill and Marcia recognized for their work”. Super Hypo Tangerine Leopard Geckos would not be any where near as nice as they are if it wasn’t for Bill and Marcia. You are however leaving out a few people. I am including a quote from a page I am working on that gives my history in keeping Leopard Geckos. It includes a few more of the pioneers. –

“In 1994 Kathy and I attended our very first National Reptile Breeders Convention. The show was still held in Orlando then. We could not believe the size of it and it still brings awe to me when I think of the incredible animals that are available there each year. That year I got to meet the top Leopard Gecko breeders in the country. At that time there were really only four of them. That would be Bill and Marcia Brant of the Gourmet Rodent, our fearless leader here on Fauna, Serpenco’s own Rich Zuchowski and his wife Connie, (actually Connie was the Leopard Gecko caretaker but I will include him just to be nice), Ron Tremper (who needs no introduction), and someone many of you may not know about, Doug Barr. Many of you may know about Doug from his caging and show display business but at that time he was responsible for creating much of the Hypo Hi Yellow Leopard Gecko stock that are the basis for all of the Hypo Tangerine’s now available.”

By the way, here is the picture of one of Bill's early Hypos from the Hunziker book you talk about in your next post.

Originally Posted by bro paul

My first trio (high-yellow) of leopard geckos came from Bill in 1995. I still have a Reptiles Magazine article he wrote about leopard geckos in April 1996...the centerfold had one of his beautiful super hypo. I remember dreaming about that gecko...lol

Hi Paul,
Actually Bill wrote the article in the April 1994 issue and Bill’s good friend Dick Bartlett wrote the April 1996 article. Both articles had pictures taken by Dick Bartlett of Bill’s incredible Leopard Geckos and set-ups. Here is a scan of the 1996 Centerfold.



Eat your heart out Playboy magazine. LOL

Thanks for the awesome memory jogger, Albey. You are the man, and will always be the King Of Carrot. So many great people that are still as fervent now as they were then. It's nice to see that there are many of us who have watched the unbelievable the gains in colors and patterns achieved in the short time span of less than twenty years. Of course Ron Tremper's a hard act to follow, and I'm guilty of purchasing more than one of Connie's ultra clean looking hypos and gawking at Rich's tank full of brilliant assorted corn snakes that nobody else could even approach. Doug and his good buddy Jesse Black always had killer animals of all sorts. Is there a morph of ball python that Doug doesn't produce ?? He's also very much into orchids and we had a blast setting up the exhibit and yacking about reptiles for five days straight last year at the Miami International Orchid Show. Sorry for rambling but it's like hearing old schoolmates that you haven't seen for ages.

Albey,
That is the one! I actually dug it out when I got home yesterday and wondered if anyone else would have one I was talking about and post a pic of it. I have another one just like it for Argentine Horned Frogs. Absolutely Classic! I have a friend that used to breed Leos and Blue Tongue Skinks back in the early 90's (The Leo one was published in 1990) who gave it to me back in 94 or so because I was interested in getting a few. Of course, back then, high yellows were the only designer morph and your picture of your first Leo alongside the great (many times over) grandchildren is awesome in showing how far the work of great breeders like yourself have come in the last 10 years or so.

Originally Posted by Dan Lubinsky

Thanks for the awesome memory jogger, Albey. You are the man, and will always be the King Of Carrot. So many great people that are still as fervent now as they were then. It's nice to see that there are many of us who have watched the unbelievable the gains in colors and patterns achieved in the short time span of less than twenty years. Of course Ron Tremper's a hard act to follow, and I'm guilty of purchasing more than one of Connie's ultra clean looking hypos and gawking at Rich's tank full of brilliant assorted corn snakes that nobody else could even approach. Doug and his good buddy Jesse Black always had killer animals of all sorts. Is there a morph of ball python that Doug doesn't produce ?? He's also very much into orchids and we had a blast setting up the exhibit and yacking about reptiles for five days straight last year at the Miami International Orchid Show. Sorry for rambling but it's like hearing old schoolmates that you haven't seen for ages.

Hi Dan,
How right you are about Connie’s Clean looking Hypo’s. I always bought a few Females from Connie for the clean look and a male or two from Bill and Marcia for the rich orange coloration. I never bought from any one else until Ray Hine introduced his Carrot-tails, which like you said originated from a wild caught Hypo and Bill’s Hypo Tangerines. There probably wouldn’t have been any Carrot-tails if it wasn’t for Bill and Marcia. Hence I would have had to settle for being King of something else. LOL

As for Doug, I think you are getting two of them confused. I believe you are talking about Doug Beard of Flora and Fauna who is also a friend of mine. He has great Ball Pythons and I hope to be purchasing from him some time soon. I am talking about Doug and Mikki Barr of B.A.R.R.s Reptiles. – http://www.barrs.com/index.html He has stated to me a number of times that he sold Bill much of his original stock. Since the two of them are still friends I have no reason to doubt him.

Thanks for the jog down memory lane.

Cool, a history lesson

Originally Posted by Franks_Geckos

Albey,
That is the one! I actually dug it out when I got home yesterday and wondered if anyone else would have one I was talking about and post a pic of it. I have another one just like it for Argentine Horned Frogs. Absolutely Classic! I have a friend that used to breed Leos and Blue Tongue Skinks back in the early 90's (The Leo one was published in 1990) who gave it to me back in 94 or so because I was interested in getting a few. Of course, back then, high yellows were the only designer morph and your picture of your first Leo alongside the great (many times over) grandchildren is awesome in showing how far the work of great breeders like yourself have come in the last 10 years or so.

Hi Frank,
It is pretty cool to see how far they have come.