I have five baby crested geckos I produced last year one I know for a fact I want to hold back, but the others I am not sure. I no longer have the parents (sold the male and the female passed away). Part of me wants to hold back all of them, but then that is a lot of related genetics in my potential breeding pool.
Holding back wise, I usually go for what I plan to do in the future, so for instance I know I’d like to hold an extreme female back for one of my male this year and a red or 2 for another and a phantom… Also I go by the structure as I don’t want to be producing Cresties with small heads!
I also hold back longer any that are ‘strange’ in colouration or pattern (like my golden nugget I’ve kept back, on a previous thread of mine).
All reds will be held back longer here as they can change a lot. Lillies also will be held, and any from my yellow will be held back as take longer to develop.
Also I have a lot of males, so any males won’t be staying I know for sure as no room for more right now…
It’s hard I know, I get attached very easily to them all (and I have a lot right now)… But I love them all so it’s hard to pick who stays!
If you’re breeding, which I assume you are, you really don’t want to have a lot related, keep 1 or 2 back, and get new lines. Since you can’t put back to eachother (well you can, but I don’t agree with it personally). Maybe keep the fav (I’m assuming the tricolour?) and then go from there on what you want to do…
Thanks for responding. I definitely am holding back the tricolor, the others are a toss up so I was planning on letting them grow a bit before I choose the ones I want to stay.
I agree that holding onto them for a while is best as they can change so much!
I haven’t bred yet (next year) but I’ve bought so many babies and now I’m over run with males, I know I will have to get rid of some eventually, but right now I’ve got room so I’m keeping them as long as I can.
I’m going to be keeping back as many Lilly Whites as possible and any with traits I specifically want to progress with like Snowflake, drippy and white tip.
I also have goals to work towards so the idea is to keep Cresties that will help me reach that goal - red super soft Lilly White.
But I fear my plans will be hard to stick to when I see the lil ones hatch
If you hold them all back, then you don’t have to choose that’s my motto anyways. By the time you’ve decided, they’re likely going to be worth more as they’ll be that much closer to breeding weight.
I stare deeply into the eyes of the creature. One blink followed by an eye lick. Its a holdback