Halloween Leopard Geckos
Bold head and body markings on Halloween leopard geckos can lighten or darken depending on temperature and mood. Because consistency and quality vary between breeding lines, you should ask which line an animal comes from before paying a premium for the name.
About the Halloween gene
Breeders produce Halloween Mask leopard geckos to get bold, high-contrast patterning on the body and head. This look is built up over generations rather than carried by one gene. The intensity of the look and the way it shifts with temperature and mood are why keepers buy them. More than any single trait, the line behind an animal decides its quality.
Appearance
The morph gets its name because the head has the strongest markings, which are bold and dark against a lighter ground. Halloween Masks hatch with body and head patterning that is dark, almost black. These markings grow more irregular and bolder during the juvenile stage until adulthood. Some animals stay dark, with lavender showing around the tail and markings. A very dark, near-melanistic phase and a vibrant yellow, bold phase are seen in the best examples. This colour swings depending on mood, temperature and other conditions.
Genetics
Because Halloween is polygenic and built by line breeding, there is no het to look for and no Super form exists. It is listed as Halloween and Pos Halloween with no allelic partner or known complex. Albey Scholl of Albey's "Too Cool" Reptiles proved the line from a strongly patterned female he chose at the 1997 National Reptile Breeders' Expo in Orlando. He later passed the project to Paul Allen of Bright Albino. Since then, other breeders including PacHerp have worked the line. You will find Halloween Mask turns up in Tangerine, Tremper Albino, Jungle, and Bandit crosses. It is most often bred into Bold Stripe and Bold lines.
Known issues
Because some lines have been heavily inbred, problems have appeared within those groups and Pure Halloween Mask stock is now scarce. Ask what breeding history backs the animal if you are buying for breeding rather than as a pet.