Beardie/Rankins/Vittikins

[BecciBoo]

I currently breed beardies and I have quite a nice collection now:
1.0 Citrus
1.0 Red/Gold
0.1 Orange/Red phase
0.1 Yellow phase
1.0 Red Purple Tiger
0.1 Yellow Purple Tiger
0.0.1 Hypo Red
0.0.2 Hold backs from this years

I recently started looking after a friends group of baby rankins and I've fell in love with one of small ones. I don't really know much about them (apart from how to look after them) and so was wondering if I could have a few questions answered please

The one I like is really pale in colour and has clear nails...does that make it a hypo the same as in beardies?

Are there 'morphs' of rankins?

I remember reading that if you breed rankins and beardies then you get vittikins...is that right? and is it safe?

I am thinking of buying this rankins off my friend and then waiting to see what sex it is before buying he/she a mate.

[LouiseK]

Yes
Yes
Yes

And - i don't agree with man-made hybridization. I am a purist and i like things to be as nature intended. Breeding isn't regulated and we risk diluting the whole captive stock.

I know of well regarded breeders that use rankins or vittikins in their breeding stock and don't mention it on their site.

I wouldn't buy a Vittikins anyway.

[HadesDragons]

Sounds like quite the collection you're developing!

Originally Posted by BecciBoo

The one I like is really pale in colour and has clear nails...does that make it a hypo the same as in beardies?

Possibly - I've not heard of a proven hypo Rankins (you may be able to get the Inland hypo gene into a vittikins line by hybridisation, but I've not heard of it appearing in captive 100% pure Rankins...) Have you got any photos of it?

Are there 'morphs' of rankins?

There are "colours" - as far as I'm aware there aren't named morphs as such with Rankins in the UK, but you can get ones with more red, more yellow etc.

I remember reading that if you breed rankins and beardies then you get vittikins...is that right? and is it safe?

Rankins x Beardie = Vittikins.

Why would you want to do it though? Rankins x Rankins is worth more; there's also a lot of people don't like hybrids so you may struggle to find homes for Vittikins as easily as something like Rankins. The captive gene pool of Rankins is also a lot smaller than for Inland Beardies. Because of Australia's export rules, the gene pool isn't going to get refreshed any time soon. Thus every Rankins bred to an Inland and not to another Rankins is a bit of a "waste" of the genes. I'm not by any means saying everyone with Rankins should breed them, but people who have a breedable Rankins AND want to breed it should - in my opinion at least - breed it to another Rankins to help keep the gene pool going. The more Rankins being bred, the more variety there is. If you want to breed vittikins, get a pair of vittikins and breed them, or breed vittikins x Inland etc.

I am thinking of buying this rankins off my friend and then waiting to see what sex it is before buying he/she a mate.

[GlasgowGecko]

The hybridisation question is an interesting one, and one I face daily at work. But there are some points I like to make to species "purists", which are certainly thought provoking.

- the term "species" is a man made one, and by the commonly used species concept (biological) a species is reproductively isolated from others. This is not the case here...

- Hybrid zones occur naturally throughout the world for countless "species"
- Hybridisation is a common method of speciation, and so plays a role in species evolution.

- I would suggest that these two "species" have probably diverged relatively recently, I haven't looked into the phylogeny, but I might.

Andy

[PhilW]

i didnt think there was rankin morphs

[BecciBoo]

[BecciBoo]

Another:

[HadesDragons]

That's pretty neat...

It'll be interesting to see what size it gets to as an adult to know whether it's pure Rankins or a hybrid that used an Inland to introduce the hypo gene. Either way it's interesting stuff!

Given the small numbers of Rankins bred outside of Australia the odds of getting a mutation like that appearing in CB stock are pretty long; you never know though. Either that or it was WC before Australia stopped exporting animals.

Cute little thing though.