When identifying "what" type of crestie you have, there is usually an order to the labeling...That is Colour, Pattern then any structural and/or minor or not as visually strong traits. When looking to buy, minors may not be listed since colour and pattern is what is primarily used when describing and labeling a crestie. That's not to say they aren't there, just that they aren't worth mentioning unless it smacks you in the face, of a unique/high quality or a desired brucie bonus.
There are some key points you need to know when identifying the colour.
1) Colour is identified when a crestie is fired up.
Crested geckos can visually appear different under different circumstances.
Fired up: when they are at their brightest, darkest, highest contrast and most vivid depending on the traits. There are any number of reasons why a crestie will fire up. Heat, light, humidity, stress, excitement (hunting or breeding) or for no apparent reason that we could fathom! Some cresties are easily fired up, others rarely.
Fired down/ unfired: This refers to when they are at their palest, dullest and not as defined colours. A crestie may also "appear" this way if they are about to shed too.
Misfired: This is when they are showing patches of both fired up and fired down. A good example would be with light. If they were sleeping with only certain limbs or areas exposed to the light then in some cases only these areas may fire up, leaving the shaded/hidden areas unfired.
Louise from Suffolk Gecko shows Arizona in various stages of fired down to fully fired.
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Haru in misfire. Notice how the dark base colour is a mix of grey and black.
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2) Colour can be affected by age. A hatchling's colour can be harder to ID (especially of the red variety!) as they haven't fully matured, likewise an older crestie may start to fade a little with age depending on the colour trait.
There are 5 core colours commonly used in identifying. This refers to the BASE colour of a crestie, not the patterning itself.
- Olive
- Yellow
- Orange
- Red
- Dark/Black
There are some picture examples as a starting reference for you and an explanation or further details where one may be needed :)
Olive
Olives can range from relatively light green and/or yellow tinted brown to a deep, almost black mossy/muddy colour and all the varying shades in between. The term Olive can be replaced with buckskin in the event that the crested gecko has no defining pattern trait / patternless.
Many may consider these the plain Janes or less desired cresties as they aren't as colourful as their other counterparts....i say poppycock! Quite a few have or have had an Olive at some point. So whilst olives may have a much smaller following compared to the others, IMO it remains a faithful classic of the crestie world!
Olive from Crestie Addicted
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Yellow
Can range from a soft pastel/almost cream in appearance to a vivid yellow. May fire down and fade out with age to an almost white. This is IMO a very popular colour choice!
Lady MacBeth from GeckoDiet
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Above - lovely yellow fired up and down from Crestie Jungle |
Yellow Harlequin from Suffork Gecko
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Orange
Can range from a dirty orange, burnt/deep orange, vivid bright orange to a pale pastel. Again, can fade or start to "muddy" (brown out) with age depending on the quality and shade. A vibrant orange for example may golden out later in years.
Similar to the Olive, whilst more popular, orange itself isn't as commonly bred for compared to the other's.
Red
Red's, like with Olives, cover quite a range of shades! from a burgandy, to a deep brick red and then the almost scarlet. They are the last of the colour traits to properly develop with a hatchling or young crestie and more noticeably fade with age when fired up.
Arguably pink falls under this term as some cresties labelled as pink may infact be faded, older, red cresties, not fired up when shown or naturally a lighter shade of red. That's not to say there aren't Pinks about as some breeders are indeed selectively breeding for this particular shade. However i would advise that you properly research the breeder when considering buying one to avoid a misrepresented gecko after purchase.
Things to note when in conjunction with the Tiger and Brindle pattern trait: To date, there are no red Tigers or brindles despite previous efforts to achieve this.
Beautiful Red fired down and up over at Tiny Toe Geckos
Fantastic Red Patternless! courtesy from GeckoDiet
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Stunning Red base from MG Exotics.
Odin, Lovely Red Harlequin from Crestie Jungle
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Dark/Black
This is referred to when displayed in conjunction with the pattern traits of: Flame, Harlequin, Extreme Harlequin and Tri-colour. In other pattern traits the colour usually falls more into the Olive spectrum unless it is the morph: Axanthic (more details on axanthic in morphs).
Can vary in shade from a Chocolate/warm brown all the way to the blackest of black.
This is referred to when displayed in conjunction with the pattern traits of: Flame, Harlequin, Extreme Harlequin and Tri-colour. In other pattern traits the colour usually falls more into the Olive spectrum unless it is the morph: Axanthic (more details on axanthic in morphs).
Can vary in shade from a Chocolate/warm brown all the way to the blackest of black.
Beautiful crestie from Crestie Addicted.
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Bug, lovely Extreme from Welsh Morphology Photography.
Vanellope owned by myself, produced by Extreme Cresties
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Like mentioned previously in an example, there are other shades that get sectioned off into their own "named" trait away from the core 5. These are heavily reliant on the Pattern or a particular shade of a base colour that enables them to be described as one of the below. They are also the most controversial since everyones standards or opinion on these greatly differ, differ to the point that some keepers call poppycock on one or more of the below.
These are..
These are..
- Pink
- Lavender
- Halloween
- Creamsicle
Pink
As i mentioned under Red's, Pink can be a tricky one due to how some older cresties fade out and how red's fire down. It's a relatively new term to be used and there's a little controversy due to the for mentioned red situation. However, despite that, there are breeders working with and attempting to fine tune the varying shades of pink. Arizona from Suffolk Gecko, fired up a peachie pink and down as a pastel.
Lavender
Lavender is a bizarre one. Whilst IDing is done based on the fired up colours, Lavender are more commonly ID'ed based off the fired DOWN shade. Usually a tinted slate gray in appearance with what appears to be a mild hue of purple/blue. Fired up should be a darken version of the unfired with the forementioned hue. Lavender produced by Tom from ExtremeCresties
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Halloween
Referred when used with the pattern traits of Flame, Harlequin and Extreme Harlequin. By todays standards (remember what i said about standards shifting with time) it is when the base colour is black (or as near as) and the patterning orange. Now some will want this to be a vibrant/burnt orange on strictly black, however halloween's did not start with such a strict standard and referred originally to a shade of orange on a very dark base. Orange, as mentioned can also fade out to a golden shade over time. Lovely Extreme orange/halloween male produced by ExtremeCresties
Creamsicle
Referred to when used in conjunction with pattern traits of Flame, Harlequin and Extreme Harlequin. This is typically an orange based crestie displaying a cream to near white patterning. Sue from GeckoDiet shows of one of her holdbacks.
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So there you have it! The main colours and colour related traits covered! you should now have enough basic know how to wing it in identifying what colour your crestie is!
Next we move on to pattern traits!
Next we move on to pattern traits!