About Our Geckos
Long Established Bloodlines
This species has been my primary focus and my profession since the early-mid 2000's, when I was a python breeder dabbling with other species, and I came across this gecko species that I quickly became obsessed with. Every gecko we sell hatched here in our facility and is descended from our own bloodlines, which have been developed in-house with founding stock acquired in the early-mid 2000's. Several of our projects and lineages are now nearing their 20th generation and have been outcrossed strategically to the point of serving as self-sustaining breeding populations - meaning they're large and diverse enough, genetically, to outcross from within and still be 6-8 generations removed from any common ancestors. Due to the increased risk of disease outbreak in a larger collection, I stopped allowing new geckos into my collection in 2006. Since then, only 7 crested geckos have been brought into my collection - either geckos that were wild caught (new genetic material) or geckos with a genetic mutation that I wanted (two genes). Everything you see here, with the exception of genes that didn't pop up in my collection, has been developed in-house since 2006.
3 Distinct Breeding Populations
The ACR breeding collection, as it exists today, consists of three distinct breeding populations of roughly 1,000-2,000 breeding adults per group. They're broken down by base color as follows:
- Pink/Red Type Base
- Tiger Type Base - Cream/Yellow/Orange
- Dark Type - Lavender/Black
Within these groups, we have projects that tend to revolve around various traits and genes (or combinations thereof) that may impact anything from the pattern or structure to things that tweak the color (think Tangerine pigment or Paper White). Phantom and Non-Phantom sub-groups exist within these populations, but we often outcross Phantom and non-Phantom geckos to make het Phantoms with particular genes/traits.
Occasionally there will be pairings where I need to breed different base color types together, in order to introduce a new gene or trait, but we keep most pairings within their own base color type (in order to better control color quality of the babies).
Line Breeding vs. Outcrossing
Because line-breeding is often necessary in order to prove out a new gene, and because we have a large collection, I avoid line-breeding until it's a requirement of the project. At that point, I know I have nothing but outcross babies and I can line breed them for 2-3 generations (to go after a double homozygous that's never been made, as an example) without coming close to compromising the 90+ gram adult size that I've worked 20+ years to develop. At the size we're at today, I almost never have to line breed anything beyond first generation half-sibling babies because we usually start any project where a new gene is suspected with multiple groups/lineages.
Signature Size & Structure
Our geckos are known to have solid structure and to regularly attain adult weights in the 70-80 gram range, with many reaching 90-95 grams by 5 years old. That's being fed only twice per week, often while housed with 3 other adults, which is how our standard breeding group is set up. We've attained these larger sizes in our colony by doing two things - selecting for appearance (color, pattern, size and structure) while outcrossing with every generation - try to make geckos that look the same, but do it with as much genetic variation as possible.
My Early Journey with Reptiles
Like most anyone who does this for a living, I have been catching and keeping reptiles for most of my life. I have caught every frog, toad and snake I could possibly get my hands on, going back as early as I can remember - and I'm talking since preschool age. I couldn't even begin to tell you what it is about reptiles and amphibians, but I was born completely magnetized to them.
Keeping reptiles at home started at age 7 with a couple green anoles that I got as a birthday present, followed days later by a house gecko and then I started catching and keeping native frog species as I accumulated more tanks to keep them in. My parents let me do this down in the sub-basement of my childhood home, which seems funnier now that I look back at what all I had down there at such a young age.
I finally got the OK to have a couple snakes by 8th grade, and I had raised up a fairly big Burmese python from a hatchling by the end of my senior year of high school. Burmese morphs had been making waves in the reptile hobby, so this is when the idea of doing this for a living first occurred to me. In 1998, about 18 months after graduating high school, I was forced to sell off the few reptiles I had. I was going to college, working full-time and still living at home...and no matter how good my pitch, I couldn't get the OK to start a reptile business in the basement. I'm thinking now that maybe the "frog basement" I had as a kid may have came back to bite me. lol
In 2001, a couple years after I had moved out on my own, I finally began putting together my existing reptile collection, with the blessing of some really patient and supportive roommates (who are still very close friends today). I started with pythons of various species and I made up for lost time by putting together a pretty legit collection rather quickly. It wasn't long before the idea of doing this for a living started swirling around in my head again. It just didn't sound like a viable business idea, at least not quite yet...but I was still intrigued by the prospects.
Brief History of ACReptiles.com
(2004 - Present)
My Introduction to Crested Geckos
I got my first crested geckos in late 2002, after reading an article about them. By the summer of 2003 it had gone from curiosity to a strong interest. By the end of 2003, it had become a little bit of an obsession. At the time, my main focus was on pythons, mostly carpet pythons and other Morelia species. The idea of crested geckos being a gecko that doesn't require live insects is initially what grabbed my attention and then the morphs got my attention. It was the potential for selective breeding and genetic mutations that flipped the switch to that lightbulb in my head. By 2004, I had started buying quite a few crested geckos. I had begun breeding them by the end of 2003 - my first crested gecko hatched on January 4, 2004. By then, I had fallen in love with the species for a variety of reasons, and I registered this domain name (acreptiles.com) on February 18, 2004.
Going Full-Time
Ironically, in October of 2004, the large computer company I had been with for 5 years closed their Kansas City office. They offered me a job for better money, but it would be in South Dakota. I wasn't interested in moving out of state, so I opted for a small severance package and set out to do this. Having seen how quickly the popularity of crested geckos was growing, I made the decision to take a shot at breeding reptiles full-time.
Today
Fast forward a couple decades and we're still hard at work, home to one of the largest collections of crested geckos in the world, and I'm just as obsessed with the collection as I've always been. Seeing this species, which I have always believed in, absolutely take over the industry has been rewarding and I'm grateful to have taken part. I decided a long time ago my focus would be crested geckos (and ball pythons, which we'll talk about next) and it's cool seeing both species getting the lion's share of public interest.
ACR and Pythons
So what ever happened with me and snake breeding? By the late 2000's, my focus on carpet python morphs (a limited market with a limited selection of morphs) gave way to the idea of specializing in crested geckos and ball pythons, two species I saw with the potential for extremely broad appeal and huge potential in terms of colors and patterns.
As the ball python breeding seasons became more and more productive, and as the collection grew to hundreds of snakes, my once-moderate asthma and my allergy to rodents had started causing me to have some pretty severe asthma symptoms. After some internal debate and talking with my long-time friend, Jake Milbradt, I eventually decided to remain in the ball python business, but not to keep them here. Jake came out and we loaded up my ball python collection and moved them to his snake facility in Wichita, KS. We joined forces as Milbradt & Caponetto Pythons. Today we produce around 100-120 clutches per year of higher-end ball pythons, which are sold on Morph Market exclusively.
PS - Funny side note. My asthma all but disappeared within a year of when we moved the snakes out of the warehouse and I was no longer breathing the same air as hundreds of rodents when I'm at work. That's when it occurred to me - I was first diagnosed with asthma when I was 17-18 years old, which we all thought was a little odd. Mystery solved - that was when I got back into snakes and started spending a lot of time in pet shops. Apparently the time I was regularly spending in the various shops around town (buying feeders and looking at reptiles/supplies) was enough to trigger the allergy that caused my asthma.
