What should I breed?
People often ask what should I breed, or what morphs do I breed to sell? Here’s a checklist of what we recommend you to go by.
What should I breed? Well what morphs do you like?
You should always pick morphs that interest you. This way, whether your breeding projects take off or not, whether you can sell your geckos, you’ll always love what you breed and hatch out. Many gecko projects we have were picked because we enjoyed them. Projects such as the bandit project and sunglows were my personal favorites. This is key to keeping your interest level high.
Market research
As much as you should pick breeding projects you enjoy, you should also realize some morphs are not as popular. There’s no doubt some morphs are purchased more than others. Most do sell but they don’t sell at the same rate. It’s your job to do some research. Go browse some gecko websites, you’ll want to look at what morphs are sold, which breeds are sold quicker than others, and what morphs tend to stay available longer. You pretty much want to conduct your own market research.
Avoid muddy water and multiple hets
Use the genetics calculator to figure out what possible results you’ll get when breeding. Try to avoid complicated results that end up with multiple hets or normals. While some people enjoy breeding geckos with multiple hets for wider range of possibilities, understand that listing geckos with multiple “possible” hets are not always attractive to buyers.
Have a solid breeding group
Your breeding projects should consist of one male and at least three females. Sometimes it won’t hurt to have a backup male because you may end up with a male that either isn’t compatible with your females, or is bad at breeding. Yes there’s such a thing as bad at breeding. Some males are naturals, they get mating and they copulate with a high success rate. While some males may not breed as well, they don’t copulate well, or at times they act like they aren’t interested. Having a backup male will ensure you don’t end up wasting a whole season.
What should I breed? Difference between breeders & hobbyists
Find a happy balance with all of the above. You should most definitely breed what you enjoy, but you should also do your own research into what morphs are popular. Do note that what breeders buy are vastly different from what hobbyists buy. So if you chose to breed all high-end, high priced geckos, you may end up with too many you aren’t able to sell. This is because general hobbyists don’t spend that much money on high-end geckos unless they are looking to breed themselves.
We hope this helps, good luck choosing your own gecko projects!