Snowflake aka White Spot

We have genetically proven an entirely different gene that looks like Snowflake, but works as an incomplete dominant gene with an incredible homozygous or super form.

The Original Snowflake - Introduced as "White Spot" in 2009

In 2005 I hatched a lavender/black & cream pinstripe crested gecko that started off looking like a nice, fully pinstriped lavender & cream quad - which was a very high-end gecko at the time. It later started developing white spots all over its legs and flanks, which got more noticeable as it matured. Unlike lateral "porthole" markings, these white spots extended to the legs and reached further up on the sides of the gecko's abdomen - some reaching the dorsal surface, what some will call a "drippy" dorsal (like the one at right). Once I noticed that gecko, I went back and looked at the parents. Sure enough, the dam that produced it had these same white spots, but she didn't have very many - nothing I would've thought anything of. This pointed to a dominant mode of inheritance, rather than recessive. I quietly worked with these geckos for a few years before saying anything about them. The cages were labeled "White Spots". That wasn't a "morph name", but rather an internal label we used on the cages to identify the project.  I'll spare you all the silly details, but in the early 2010's I decided "Snowflake" was a more appropriate name and was met with some pretty heavy backlash from people who had already been marketing theirs as "White Spot", having no idea the name came they were using and defending like it was their baby had actually started as a note on my cage cards. 

Progress, while decent, was fairly limited because we just weren't able to produce really heavily snow-spotted geckos - and we had to raise up everything they produced in order to tell which ones were going to have the spots.  The biggest issue I had with this trait is that it's not generally apparent in hatchlings or even young juveniles, which puts a damper on how quickly you can make progress in a project.  This was the primary reason why I didn't focus on them as much as I did other projects in later years.  While we still produce some of these geckos, it's mostly by happenstance in our most recent generations.  It has been over a decade since I've put together any new breeding groups actually revolving around the original Snowflake trait - if it shows up as they mature, that's a nice bonus, but we're no longer breeding specifically for it.

NEW INFO ADDED DECEMBER 2025

The Genetic Snow - Formally Introduced in 2025

Background of the Genetic Snow

At the end of the 2022 season, long after my attention had shifted away from the original Snowflake project, I paired up the above pictured pair of what appeared to be very extreme examples of Snowflakes that didn't come from my original Snow project.  This pairing has been tracked for two seasons now, which I did in order to prove out what I believed to be a previously unidentified gene, which had to have surfaced here in my collection. 

The pair pictured above were some of the first to hatch from a Tangerine x Lavender Tri-Color project that I had set up in 2020 and they got my attention immediately as hatchlings.  By the time they were juveniles, I suspected this Snowflake was probably a completely different trait - or more accurately, a different gene, which just happens to produce white markings that look similar to the original Snowflake.  Though if I had to compare it to something else, it actually looks a bit more like the bright white markings that we see on the flanks of Lilly Whites (not the walled laterals, but the pure white part underneath).

Basic Description

The Genetic Snow's white patterning is typically in the form of dots, closely situated or overlapping, situated above the base color, but beneath the lateral markings.  This gives us the ability to make Genetic Snows without obscuring or tweaking the Whiteout laterals, as seen on the original Genetic Snow pair you see above.  The Genetic Snow's markings are pure "piebald" type white and cannot be influenced or tinted by Tangerine pigment, unlike other cream or white markings like Whiteout/Whitewall laterals, etc.  If you look at the original pair in the photo above, you'll notice the dorsal and lateral markings have a creamy tint (one more yellow, one more orange/pink), but the Snow markings are pure, bright white, devoid of any tint.  In the future, we expect to see these with intense Tangerine pigment that will create an even greater contrast to the pure white G. Snow markings.

Genetic Snow FAQ

Is the Genetic Snow a new gene?  

Not really.  Because the G. Snow looks superficially similar to the original Snowflake aka "White Spot" project, I don't have a precise date for when it first popped up in my colony. That being said, I can only guess that a decent number of them were probably sold before I realized it was a different gene than our original snows.  If I had to guess, I'd say it probably surfaced here for the first time in 2017-2019, meaning it probably surfaced around the same time as Lilly White.

How Rare or Widespread is the Genetic Snow?

Considering my frustration with my original Snowflake project and the fact we've just recently confirmed that the G. Snow is genetically different, I have made literally no effort whatsoever to produce more of them.  That being the case, it's obviously far more rare than Lilly White, even though the two genes have probably been around for about the same length of time. 

The other issue to consider with any G. Snows floating around on the market is that you'd either need a very well-trained eye, or extensive lineage information to positively identify G. Snows that don't come directly from us.  While there may be a couple hundred or so floating around out there by now, those geckos will either need to be line bred, or be bred to a known G. Snow, and then proven to produce a Super Snow, all before they can ethically be sold as G. Snows. 

This probably won't stop people from selling geckos as G. Snows when they don't really know which version they have, so be careful to ask questions if you're not sure you trust that breeder's expertise. 

Where did the Genetic Snow originate?

As mentioned above, it first popped up in a group of Tangerine x Lavender line tri-colors and then It popped up again shortly after that in Tangerine x Citrus base geckos, which are actually descended from the same lineage as the Tangerine x Lavender line, just a completely different branch of the family tree, which I still sometimes use for outcrossing purposes.  This wasn't unexpected, having known how often I outcross those two lineages, both having been descended directly from the original 2004 Stripes (Lavender/Cream Quad) x OG Tangerine pairing and then having been treated as separate lineages for 10+ years after that.

One thing we do know for sure is that this version of the Snowflake originated from within my collection because it's physically impossible for it to have been brought into the collection from an outside source. 

(Since adding the last of my founding stock, a wild collected male, back in 2007, only 7 geckos have entered my ciliatus collection since then - four Lilly Whites and three Leucistics, all tracked and completely unrelated to the G. Snow project.)

What's the difference between the Genetic Snow and the original ACR Snow line?

1. Genetic Snow has a predictable mode of inheritance (incomplete dominant).
2. Genetic Snow has a distinct homozygous or "super snow" form, which has more spots than anything we ever saw from the original Snowflake.  In fact, even a visual heterozygous genetic snow tends to have more spots than all but the best Snowflakes from our original Snowflake line.

3. Genetic Snows actually hatch with white spots already on them and they consistently have more white than the original.  The original - good effing luck figuring out which babies to keep (I'm still frustrated all these years later). 

4. The spots are typically so numerous on Genetic Snows, both visual hets and supers, that they often appear in connected groups of spots, whereas the snow spots were typically far more isolated on the original.

5.  While they are different, the differences are nuanced and you probably need a well-trained eye to differentiate these from other snowflake type geckos (without knowing the lineage). In fact, it's so similar to the original snow in appearance (especially as youngsters) that I didn't really think much of it until 2022 when I realized the Super Genetic Snows were far more extreme than the best of our original snows, and that they were being produced with the level of consistency I desperately wanted, but never saw, in the original project.  That was when I decided to line breed a pair of them in order to test the mode of inheritance, which ultimately led to the discovery that we have a straightforward incomplete dominant gene that's completely unrelated to the original project.

Genetic Snow Photos

G. Snow on Tangerine x Lavender/Black Base

Homozygous G. Snow on Tangerine x Lavender/Black Base

Homozygous G. Snow on Tangerine x Lavender/Black Base

Homozygous G. Snow on Tangerine x Lavender/Black Base

Heterozygous G. Snow on Tangerine x Lavender/Black Base

G. Snow on Tangerine x Citrus Base

G. Snow on Tangerine x Citrus Base (same gecko as above)