This conversation was held in Oct 99 before the New Mexico Reptile Expo. I had posted a photo of my then completely brown Tremper albino (it arrived pink and yellow in Aug 99) to kingsnake.com stating that I was going to be taking photos of it next to Rainwater's albino. I received an e-mail from Ron asking what I wanted to do as a result of my unsatisfied feeling of the albino. I wanted my money refunded, but Ron asked me if I was interested in any other geckos he had. I made the mistake of saying the orange albinos were appealing to me, but I still wanted my money refunded. About a week later I had sent back my albino and he had sent me a newer female. Mind you that when I ordered if back in Aug. Ron assured me his line looked just like the "other" line. I was expecting an albino gecko to remain pink. I was expecting what the "Leo Gecko God" has told me was true, that his line look just line the "other" line and that the rumors I had been told of Ron's line browning were false. The photos on his site (at the time) also comforted me that the rumors were not true. So I purchased. Anyway, so I'm talking to Ron. We got to talking about the whole albino situation. His line arose in 1996. Two brothers in CA produced a het male and a runt albino female. Ron purchased the pair and the runt female died in his care. He bred the het male to everything and anything he had at the time. Thus producing possible hets. By now breeding some of the female possible hets back to the known het he produced albinos. He hatched his first albinos in 1998, but not many I believe. Finally in 1999 after raising up the albinos and more hets/possible hets he finally had enough albinos to offer for sale in May of 1999. So you see Justyn, he had the albinos BEFORE then, he knew what they would look like and whether or not they'd brown. He denied showing me or others (snakebyt, aka Terry Davis can back this) photos of his breeders. I REALLY wish I still had my e-mails from between him and I from 1999 and 2000. I feel sour because I feel I was lied to.
Hell, I ordered 1.1 hets from Rainwater in 1999 through Tim McBride and proved out the female het in 2002. 16 eggs and 2 albinos by breeding the female het to an albino male. I never did prove out the male het as I never bred him to a het or full albino. I only bred him to a patternless. So in my book Rainwater never did me wrong, though apparently he did others wrong.
Craig Gagne asked:
Which Brings me to a question. What is this whole "Browning" in the albinos. I just had alwaysed assumed that all albinos were pink. I currently have 3 baby Trempers and one Las Vegas which I ordered from Gerrick at crested Gecko. The trempers are brown banded and the Las Vegas is slightly more Pink. So what is with this? Could these albinos be from post 99 tremper line? This is in no way putting down Ron Tremper or Garrick I was just currious. Also, the albionos of the more current lineage, they are much more pink?
Chris could you help me with these questions?
All 3 strains of albino (possibly a 4th though I've been told the 4th [Leshock line] is Tremper strain) are what's called tyrosine positive albinism. The metabolic pathways of phenylalanine and tyrosine are defective, but some way tyrosine is still being produced. In a t- albino, these mentioned pathways are fully defective and no tyrosine is produced. these mentioned pathways are the pathways that produce melanin (black and brown pigment). All 3 strains are also not compatable with one another. In order to get albinos you must breed Tremper to Tremper, Bell to Bell, Rainwater to Rainwater. Breeding any other combination results in normal babies. The real question I have is does anyone have DHs from the attempt to validate the strains and if so, have you produced an albinos from the double hets? I know Golden Gecko never did or so Mark had told me back in 2002. Originally, the Tremper strain was the brown strain and the Rianwater strain was the pink strain, but as I mentioned, both a T+ albinos so they both have the tendency to brown up. I believe it was 2000 that the Bell line appeared, which is also a brown strain.
As for why the strains you see now are pink, a lot of it has to do with incubation now. Breeders are using the Tremper method, where you incubate at higher temps which decreases the amount of melanin that forms in the gecko. Some are not using this method and are also producing pink geckos. This, in my opinion, appears to basically be just like the tangerine leos. All selective breeding. So in essence, it's 2 factors, incubation temps and selective breeding which is causing the pink albinos. And as I said earlier, the Rainwater strain is the strain that tends to be lighter, originally. They tend to be born light and remain light with age, without screwing with the incubation temperatures. So pretty much what you see on Garrick's site is what the original tremper and rainwater strains looked like back in 1999 and 2000, pre-incubation temperature induced coloration.
Below is a photo of my first tremper albino (it's the attached file, I don't have it loaded to my website) back from 1999. She was replaced with another albino in Oct 1999.
This was the replacement gecko, picture of her when she arrived and then her at the age of 7 months old. She was kept at a constant 88°F and she only fed on meal worms.
<img src="http://webpages.charter.net/geckos/tremper/TR-compare.jpg">
This next photo is of my male Rainwater albino vs. the above pictured Tremper. The photo was taken Nov. 2001.
<img src="http://webpages.charter.net/geckos/tremper/RWVSTR2.JPG">
The photo below here is the attached photo I mentioned.
