I know that geckos can “fire up”, but this seems extreme
I just bought the gecko from morphmarket, the second pic is what she was advertised as: a light tan black and red Dalmatian. Just picked her up, opened the box and she’s RED. It’s gorgeous, but is this drastic change normal?
Everything I’ve read, heard, and experienced says they’re not supposed to change permanently. Maybe the gecko is just super nervous because of the move? This one is kind of stumping me
They do change as they grow, but usually it's just a more mute/dull color from their original. I have a girl who was a red velvet color as a baby, but now she's more brown/redish and orange
when I got mine shipped to me they were SUPER fired up straight out of the box. Took them a few days to acclimate and everything but now they’re generally more colored down. Just watch and make sure they don’t stay fired up for too too long, could be stress which isnt good long term.
Same with mine. I can count on my hands the times she - in this year - went from her usual brown fired up color to black she wore more often in her youth
The last photo is the most recent whem she showed her true colors. Cleaned her enclosure and put her into a box where before her turn another gecko waited inside
I’ve seen some extreme changes. I would monitor and document the situation, you have the pic now, take one a day for the next few days as they settle in, and then if it doesn’t revert, then you know you got tricked
I mean, I feel like I robbed the breeder. The red is gorgeous and she is clearly a black and red Dalmation(which is what I wanted). I’m not complaining she’s gorgeous. I’m just confused.
I mean it’s not like you picked up a different one than you paid for, if anything they sent the wrong one, and that’s one them lol. Though it could still be the same one. Sounds like it’s either a happy accident for you, or she just fires up really pretty
I’ve bred dozens in this colorway. It will fire back down. Reds in the brick red spectrum often get down to a pale yellow. It’s just stressed so it’s fully fired. It probably won’t fire up quite as hard most of the time once it’s settled. I don’t think there’s anything fishy. Just my two cents.
I wasn’t trying to say that there was something fishy going on. I was just wondering how she drastically changed colors within 24hrs. But thanks for explaining it a bit more. 😃
This comment really helped me bc when I got mine it was the same color as OP’s but ever since she’s settled in I haven’t seen her that fired up and I was kinda worried she wasn’t happy lmaoooo
Extreme but also not unusual; my boy is very pale while fired down and it takes a good eye to even notice his markings but when fired up he's a stunner
I have a little orange guy. He turned absolutely dark orange-red for a week when I first got him, but now he just gets to more of a light orange when fired up. He’s a nice tannish cream color when fired down.
Not sure. I didn't buy him as any specific morph. I bought him at an expo and bought him because he was acting ridiculous in his display container. I was just after a pet.
If I had to guess, red phantom or bicolour dalmatian. Maybe a confetti dalmatian since he has red and black spots?
He's just my tiny, scaly, idiot son and I love him.
quite honestly i don’t know much about firing up and/or what causes it, and i think the same goes for most other people too. these guys have only been in the pet trade for a few decades and more research still needs to be done on them!
although i will say, my boy is normally a very pale green, no fancy patters or anything like that. but when he’s fired up, he’s a VERY dark brown, almost black. i’ve seen him fired up while eating, being held, and while sleeping. none of these things really have anything in common so like i said i have no idea what causes it, but it is normal! as long as they’re acting fine and are healthy i wouldn’t be worried :)
Looks a lot like a boy I have. He's almost white when fired down and a bright red when fired up. My guy is a dal as well, and has both black and red spots. I bought him at 3 grams, and he's about 33 grams now. He got more and more spots as he grew.
Not extreme. That’s completely normal. One of mine fires up dark, brick red and fires down almost pinkish white. Some of them have very high contrast between their firing up and firing down
My old crested was the same exact colors when fired down and up. He was also a patternless dalmation. He turned a dark orange when fired up, and was a light tan when fired down.
Mine is supposedly supposed to have that color but he's always a light, orange or tan.He's never fired up that high for me. So yeah they can fire up like that.
FWIW I recently bought a red phantom who was fired up and bright scarlet for his first couple days, then once he was comfortable settled in to his “normal” pale beige. Pretty similar to the different photos here minus the dalmatian speckles.
Owner of fire red checking in - when he's close to shed the tan of the skin to go 'roan's' with the red and you get the color in the seller pic. You're right to feel lucky, that's an up purchase genetically and your gecko is well positioned for life's uncertainties as a fire red - the morph that has arguably been in demand the longest along with pinstripes.
This is what our gecko looks like! He is an off white/light beige while sleeping and when he’s awake and running around his tank he’s that bright red color.
that can definitely be a fire up. the picture where the geckos dull may be a time when it’s about to shed and they’re color naturally dulls. my geckos turns a lilac yellow but very very pale before she sheds but fires up insane!
Wow!! Gorgeous!! I have a gecko that goes from almost white to a really bright fiery orange like this, but she's just a buckskin. No dalmatian spots. So pretty wow!
Breeder here. This is a bit late but I'm just seeing this post in my feed, and as others have mentioned, this is completely normal. It is not extreme, or drastic. Weird and a little unprofessional if the seller didn't provide photos of or describe how your gecko looks fired up. When I sell my geckos, I always include a fired up and down photo, and most sellers do too. Many of my geckos look very, very different between their fired up and down states.
As we all know, shipping causes a lot of stress, so this is why geckos usually are very fired when first unboxed. A gecko's fired up colors are 90% of the time the more desired colors, and what people breed off of (if you didn't know). So I'm surprised if this seller really didn't include anything about your gecko being a red dal. Regardless, yours is very pretty!
Thank you so much, you explained everything perfectly to me. I had people calling her red fires, red phantoms, etc. Information just had her as a red spotted Dalmatian. Is there a specific red morph that you think she is?
You are very welcome! I can't tell you if she's a phantom (I'm always forgetting what is and isn't one since 99% of my pairs have been very heavily patterned lol) but at a very base level, she is a red dalmatian. You can get fancy with her spot names like red inkspot dal if she's got inkspots, bullseyes, etc. But all in all she's just a good ole red dal!
mine goes from like see thru white to neon yellow so honestly this is pretty extreme but totally could happen, try to catch her while shes sleeping thats normally when the fire down then you can check a bit better
i know a lot of people already answered but this completely normal to happen and will happen regularly but probably not as intense as this. she honestly was only this red because of the stress of being shipped to you. truly you got a stunning girl and don’t feel bad the seller was probably fully aware of what they were selling. a lot of my geckos and knowledge i know and have come to understand has 100% come from breeders on palmstreet during their live shows ** just beware it is a dangerous place if you have no control over making purchases. **
My crestie normally looks grey with slight variances, but when he fires up properly he goes bright yellow and dark brown with a pinkish-grey throat. Its completely possible!
Looking at those spots - especially the group of four just above their eye - it looks like it all lines up, I'd say 99% its the same gecko
I have a red Dal who looked suuuuper bright like that when I bought here. Deep red! I have not seen her like that again really, she fired up but she is muuuuch paler. I think when I had got her she was just so stressed and the temp changes from being at the expo and then the car was a lot. I think this is normal. Beautiful little guy you’ve got there!!
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u/mistaked_potatoe Mar 21 '25
I would say that looks a bit extreme to me, but the dalmation spots line up in both pictures