Leopard Gecko Morphs

Leopard geckos are known for their docile and hardy nature. These reptiles are easy to care for and don’t require any special care. This makes them popular pets.

There are also many different variants to this ground yellow gecko with dark spots. These variants are known as morphs. Morphs can be white, pale yellow, bright tangerine orange, spotless and pattern, or even larger than normal.

What Is A Leopard Gecko Morph?

This is a variation in the physical features of a leopard gecko, which can be passed on genetically from parent to offspring. Features include coloring, pattern, size, and appearance of the eyes. Morphs are generally discovered since breeders can’t physically create morphs.

Once a morph is discovered by a breeder, selective breeding is used to isolate the trait and ensure more geckos with the unique trait occur.

Similarly, different morphs can be selectively bred to create new and unique secondary morphs. Through this slow process, many morphs have been discovered. As of when this article was written there were over 100 morphs available.

The traits that make morphs have to be genetic and not environmental. Similarly, it has to be a trait that can be passed onto offspring. If the trait occurs in just one gecko and can’t be passed on, then it is not considered a morph. Similarly, if the trait is due to environmental conditions such as the diet of the gecko, then this trait can’t be considered a morph.

Learn more about leopard gecko breeding by checking out our in depth guide.

The Most Popular Leopard Gecko Morphs

​There are many types of leopard geckos (Eublepharis macularius). While all morphs belong to the same species, different morphs appear distinctive and unique.

Since different morphs can be combined to form new morphs, there are over 100 unique morphs currently available. We have reviewed the basic morphs that make up all other morphs as well as the most popular morphs.

1. Normal (Wild Type)

This is the normal leopard gecko. It lacks any unique color variations. It is ground yellow with dark spots. This color pattern resembles that of a leopard thus the name – leopard gecko. They are native to the high arid regions of Asia, from Afghanistan all the way to northern India. 

Normal leopard geckos won’t cost you more than $40. They are readily found in many pet shops all over the world.

2. Albinos

Albino leopard gecko morphs lack yellow and brown colors. Albinism in geckoes is similar to amelanistism among other reptiles since even albino geckos produce a small amount of melanin. There are several different albino morphs on the market. One of the most common ones is the RAPTOR (Red-Eyed Patternless Tremper Orange).

3. Bell Albino / Florida Albino

This morph is lavender in color and has dark brown spots. Their eyes are pink in color and are bloodshot. A unique cross of the bell albino is the bell enigma, which has solid red eyes.

4. RAPTOR (Red-Eyed Albino Patternless Tremper Orange)

This form results from the combination of several morphs including the eclipse, tremper albino, and patternless morphs. This variant has red eyes, orange body, and no dark spots. This morph is closely related to the APTOR, carrot head, and reverse stripe.

5. Tremper or Texas Albino

This is one of the earliest albinos discovered. They have yellow/white coloration with darker orange/yellow markings. They also have silver eyes with red veins. They can also be found in hues of brown, pink and orange.

6. Aberrant

With this morph, there is a break in the patterns on this gecko. While it still has bands from it head to tail, there is a break in the pattern where an oval appears instead of a line. Aberrant can be found among normal leopard geckos and mack snow morphs.

7. Blizzard

This morph has no patterns on the body. The body may be yellow, black or purple. Additionally, the eyes are either completely dark or eclipsed. Both the patternless trait and the eclipsed eye trait are quite rare. As such, the blizzard leopard gecko is difficult to come by.

8. Banana Blizzard

The yellow version of the blizzard morph is referred to as the banana blizzard because of its patternless yellow colored body. Their tails are usually pale.

9. Blazing Blizzard

When the blizzard morph is combined with an albino, a blazing blizzard may be produced. The coloration is very pale yellow or white with a tint of yellow. The eyes are that of the albino parent.

10. Carrot Tail 

This morph has a carrot-colored tail (bright orange). Usually not the entire tail is orange. You can find the carrot tail trait in albinos, Hypomelanistic, patternless, tangerines, and even RAPTORs.

11. Carrot Head / Red Head

This morph has a bright orange head as opposed to a bright orange tail as found in the carrot tail morphs. This trait can be found in other morphs such as the Tremper albino morph.

12. Genetic Giant

The biggest leopard gecko you can find is the giant leopard gecko. As evident by their name, the giant morph refers to the size of the gecko and not the patterns and colorations. These geckos are huge and can reach weights of 130 grams and lengths of 12 inches.

13. Super Giants

The homozygous form of the giant is the super giant and results from the breeding of two giant leopard geckos.

14. Godzilla Super Giant

The Godzilla Super Giant is a variant of the super giant morph. These are the largest specimens of the Eublepharis macularius species. They are quite expensive and cost over $1000.

15. Ghost 

Ghosts resemble snow morphs as they both have dimmed colorations. However, unlike snow morphs, the ghost variants simply have very faded colors. These colors continue to fade as they age. They are also referred to as hypo ghosts.

16. Halloween Mask

This morph has bold patterns on the head and body. The patterns on their body and head continue to develop as they age and keep getting bolder and more distinctive.

17. High Yellow

The high yellow morph is one of the earliest ever discovered. With this variation, the yellow of the gecko is brighter and the gecko has fewer dark spots/stripes. Specimens of this morph are also quite common although not as common as the normal variant. They are also referred to as the high color or yellow phase morph.

18. Hypermelanistic

The pigmentation of this morph is much darker than other leopard geckos. While they are not necessarily black, their colorations are almost black. Despite having more melanin, the patterns on the coloration stand out clearly.

19. Hypomelanistic

These have very few spots. They have less than 10 spots on their bodies with the super Hypomelanistic having no spots on its body. The spots on the head and the tail of this morph are not counted. The Hypomelanistic has more melanin than other leopard geckos (although not as much as the Hypermelanistic); this makes their background color more intense.

20. Hybino / Hypo-Albino

This morph is the result of an albino and a Super Hypomelanistic. They usually are all yellow or orange. They are also called sunglow leopard geckos.

21. Super Hypomelanistic

These have no spots on their bodies although they have spots on their head and tail. A baldy is a Super Hypomelanistic morph with no spots on the head. They still have spots and color variations on their tails. There are quite rare and very expensive to acquire. This is one fancy leopard gecko.

22. Lavender

The lavender leopard gecko is lavender or light violet. While they are quite common, they tend to lose their lavender coloration as they age. Therefore, while the morph is common, leopard geckos with the lavender coloration are still uncommon, as most lavender morphs have lost their signature coloration.

23. Stripe

The stripe trait results in the gecko having longitudinal stripes -from the head to the tail, instead of lateral stripes – from side to side.

24. Red Stripe

The red stripe morph has a pair of parallel red strips that runs down the back. The red stripes usually show when the gecko is about half a year old. Before that, the stripes may be brown.

25. Raining Red Stripe

This striped reptile is a mix of the red stripe, the bold stripe, and the rainwater albino. They resemble rainwater albino with a pair of red stripes that runs down their back. As with striped morphs, the raining red stripe is expensive. This fancy gecko can cost you over $500.

26. Reverse Stripe

This morph has a stripe from the neck to the tail. The color of this stripe varies. The stripe occurs in many other morphs and the description, reverse stripe, is used in conjunction with other morph names. The back spots and marking of this gecko are concentrated on the stripe.

27. Bold Stripe

This gecko has bold dark stripes that run down the sides of its body, unlike other striped morphs who have stripes that run down their back. They are quite rare and as such costly. It can cost you as much as $300 to acquire the bold stripe leopard gecko.

28. Snow

Snow leopard gecko has no yellow coloration. This means they are usually varying degrees of black and white. The true snows are all white and closely resemble blizzard morphs. The snow gene is dominant. A variant of the snow is the mack snow. 

29. Mack snow

This is a variant of the snow. This gecko has dark/brown spots on a pale white background. When newly hatched they are white. As they mature, they develop more coloration. When you breed two mack snows, the resulting morph is referred to as either the super snow or the super mack snow.

30. Tangerine

The entire body of the tangerine morph is intensely orange in color. The orange hue makes it stand out. When bred with the super melanistic, the resulting offspring may be the very distinctive looking super hypo tangerine.

31. Diablo Blanco

The Diablo Blanco is a combination from the Blizzard and RAPTOR morphs which is usually white and has a pattern less body and tail. One of its unique traits is that it has vibrant red eyes.

Eye Morphs

32. Eclipse

Like the giant morphs, the eclipsed eyes trait doesn’t refer to the patterns and coloration of the body. The eclipse trait refers to the eyes. The geckos with the eclipse trait have solid colored eyes. Mack snows can produce offspring with solid black eclipsed eyes. Albino mack snows can produce offspring with deep ruby red eyes. The trait is recessive and as such difficult to replicate.

33. Snake Eye 

A variant of the eclipse trait is the snake eyes trait, which occurs in Tremper eclipse morphs and blizzards. With this trait, the gecko’s eyes resemble that of a snake’s. This occurs when the eyes are not completely solid. Breeders usually list the percentage of the snake eye which of the eye is solid. For example, a 75% snake eye means approximately 75% of the eyes is solid.

34. Marble Eye

This trait produces snakes with marble-like eyes. The trait is rare and very little is known of this mutation.

Leopard Gecko Morphs Video

Conclusion

Acquiring a morph is not difficult as morphs are readily available. However, finding a specific morph can be difficult if you are to visit pet shops individually since no shop/breeder has every single morph. This is where online shops come in handy.

You can easily browse several online shops until you find the leopard gecko for you. Prices leopard gecko morphs range from as little as $20 to as high as $1000.

The price of the specimen will depend on how rare the morph is as well as the reputation of the breeder. Reputable breeders usually charge more. Some reputable online shops include Underground Reptiles, BHB Reptiles, Morph Market, and Backwater Reptiles.

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