Hello all,
I’m very curious to know whether or not my female crested gecko is possibly a soft scale.
Kind of going out on a limb here but she has noticeably smaller scales compared to my other cresteds and she feels much softer, almost velvety.
She wasn’t listed as a soft scale when I got her and I don’t recall seeing a morph listed either if I’m remembering right.
I’d like to also confirm what I’m assuming she is, a reddish/yellow cream Harlequin Pinstripe?
She is fired down in the photos. Fired up she’s close to a less saturated brick red/brown.
Thanks!
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I don’t see soft scale. But I could be wrong.
Usually soft scales go super bright when mixed with red.
Do you have any fired up pics?
Also what was the pairing?
Also I’d class your Gecko as a partial pin, red harlequin
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Soft-scale is one of those traits that you pm need to prove out by producing super softs to know for sure if you don’t have lineage from a breeder who knows what they’re talking about. I have one that i’ve been told looks like a soft that i definitely don’t think is based on her lineage, so it can be really tricky to spot (: And i agree with the above, looks like a partial (almost full) pin red harlequin, with some fragmented quadding.
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She’s a Red Harlequin partial pin.
Fragmented quadding isn’t really a thing, it’s just the dashing along the side they mean Fox, not something that’s said in the hobby. You either get a quad or partial quad really.
If paired to a quad you would get some nice babs though 
As for soft, I don’t see it at all no. I have a few cretsies myself that feel ‘soft’ but aren’t one.
After many chats with Anthony though, getting a soft male and pairing would be good.
I’m needing a male to prove out a few here, maybe a female too 
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Yeah quadstriping - not everyone recognises partial/fragmented quadding as a thing but i like to since based on the foundation genetics guide they really aren’t any different than full quads genetically only visually 
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So would they class as het quad rather than quading?
And I’ve also got a Gecko here that is super soft compared to regular geckos, but she isn’t a soft scale. I believe it was pulled in from the Lilly White gene even though she isn’t a Lilly White
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How it works exactly is a bit confusing to me tbh, but I believe it’s more similar to partial/broken pinstriping, so just lower dominance, but in the right pairing it stil has the same potential? I also don’t believe quadding is a gene on it’s own, based on what i could find in the guide it seems that quadding is related to either pinstriping, whiteout or both. They mention it in the parts about pinstriping, lateral striping, and quadstriping in FG-PT2.1.
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I may have to re read as that’s not what I got from it or maybe my brain turned it to mean het
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Not recessive.
It’s just dashing instead of being an actual quad.
To still just a Harley pin.
Being paired to a quad is best though if breeding
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The guide isn’t super clear imo, but here are the quotes that i’m referencing
From pinstriping: “(…) Quadstripes are considered animals with a very strong pinstripe influence that usually orients pattern horizontally. These animals also have a clean horizontal pattern with little jagged edges in the pattern.”
Quadstripe description:
" Quadstripe is pretty simple. It is an animal with 4 stripes. Two from the pin on either side of the dorsal, and two on the laterals. in general, if there are breaks in the lateral stripe some hobbyists disqualify the quadstripe label, but breaks do not mean the animal can’t produce quadstripes. Genetically the animal is the same but cosmetically doesn’t meet the qualification for unbroken stripes."
Lateral Stripe description:
" This characteristic is described as an unbroken stripe of WP through the center of the lateral. This pattern’s formation is controlled by pinstriping at the mid-lateral line. The more pattern that develops on the lateral the better chance it will form an unbroken stripe. The pattern is likely due to whiteout … the lower expression of whitewall ."
If it is a signifier of stronger pinstriping/less tigering then i guess it could be considered redundant to mention the quadding, but each to their own. I guess it could also be whiteout, but either way both this and the softscale (to bring that back) would have to be proven to know for sure 
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Thx for the info, my brain still translates it as het my brain works more like… If it’s a visual quadstripe, it’s a quadstripe, if it has breaks… Then it’s not a quadstripe. I know it’s more in depth then that. But from a buying point of view it makes more sense to me. Esp if I wasn’t planning to breed the Gecko.
With soft scale, it’s a visible trait so doesn’t need to be proven. However breeding is always an option.
That being said, I still find it difficult to identify. I use my soft scales as a guide. I’d be useless without them
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Unfortunately no, she doesn’t fire up very often. As for lineage I don’t have that either. I believe it was listed on the OG sales post on the sellers website but I didn’t screenshot it before it got taken down.
When asking for other info on her a few times I didn’t receive answers. As far as I know she wasn’t produced by the seller I got her from.
Also thanks for the confirmation on both! I had a feeling she might’ve just been simply a soft gecko. Would’ve been cool to have a soft scale by accident though haha.
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I get that haha I don’t think my brain truly comprehends how it works either tbh when it comes to dominance and such
But yeah het is only something that refers to a gene, so since it is not a specific gene but the result of an interaction between multiple genes it cannot be het.
Due to this I genuinely think it’s a case of each to their own as to whether it’s worth mentioning; personally I would find it worth mentioning, because depending on what you want to breed you might be looking for a gecko with higher or lower pinstriping/tigering dominance ratio? But yeah, each to their own, especially if the gecko is just a pet the specific genetics don’t matter as much.
According to ACReptiles’ softscale project site, it typically has to be proven if you don’t have lineage since the het-form can be so subtle that even well-established breeders might have a hard time seeing it in some cases. On top of that, there can also be cases of geckos that appear to be softscale visually/feel soft, but it’s actually just a coincidence due to other traits/that specific gecko just happens to be soft. I’d think it’s similar to i.e. EB where some hets are very obvious and others are not? But I don’t have much experience with them, I typically just go by whatever the person who first coined the trait says if I’m unsure tbh
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Yeah I get that. Some bits I get with ease, but other can take a while lol
I just feel like it should be mentioned different. Maybe something like “potential to produce quadstripe due to …”
It just seems to be made very hard for those just starting out, or just starting to learn about morphs & traits. I mean I’ve done LOTS of research on traits and I still gets me confused (I’m easy to confuse)
Just wish it was a bit more simple for everyone to understand 
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