Chahoua Trait and Morph Guide

Trait, Phenotype, or Morph? Getting the Terms Right

It's tempting to call every distinctive chahoua look a "morph." We want to be precise about that. A morph is heritable: you pair two parents with a specific look and reliably reproduce that look in their offspring. Right now, most of what we see in chahoua is trait and phenotype variation, not confirmed morphs.

A trait is a single heritable characteristic: base color, pattern structure, white expression. A phenotype is the full combination of traits an animal displays, the complete visual package you see with your own eyes. We're seeing early hints of heritability with super white chahoua, but proving a true morph takes years of paired breeding data we simply don't have yet for this species.

How Chahoua Colors Develop

Chahoua go through ontogenetic color change: hatchlings start out tan or brown and develop their adult coloration over time as they mature. What you see in a baby chahoua isn't what you'll get as an adult, so don't judge a hatchling's future looks too early.

Color change doesn't stop at adulthood either. Older chahoua, especially in their later years, can lose saturation and shift toward green. If you want an animal to hold a specific color long term, make sure you choose offspring from parents that are proven in producing the desired colors you are looking for.  

Firing Up and Firing Down

Like most New Caledonian geckos, chahoua can fire up (intensify their color) or fire down (mute it) depending on mood, stress, temperature, and time of day. This causes real, temporary color swings in the same individual animal.

This matters most when you're evaluating white markings. A white collar can look completely different fired up versus fired down: brighter and higher contrast when fired up, duller or greener when fired down. When you're shopping for an animal based on its white expression, ask to see it in both states if you can, or at least understand that a single photo only shows you one version of that gecko.

Base Colors

Red

Red chahoua are consistently one of the most sought-after looks in the species. They can develop genuinely deep, saturated red tones.

Green

Green is the color that gave chahoua their nickname, the mossy prehensile-tailed gecko. Expression ranges from dark forest green to lighter olive tones, sometimes with yellow mixed in.

Pink

Pink chahoua range from bubblegum pink to near-magenta. These are consistently showstopper animals and among the most in-demand colors in the hobby.

High Color

"High color" describes animals with unusually saturated, vivid pigmentation: bright oranges, pinks, and reds rather than the more muted, earthy tones common in the species. High color often stacks with the white pattern traits below to produce some of the most striking chahoua being produced today.

Pastel

Pastel chahoua show soft, muted pinks, peaches, or oranges. In our own pastel pairings, offspring often hatch with a noticeably light, creamy tan base color straight out of the egg, though this isn't consistent across every pairing.

Earth Tones

Not every chahoua is bred for bold color. Plenty of animals carry more naturalistic browns and grays. Every chahoua is beautiful, and taste varies keeper to keeper.

Dark Traits: Melanism and Hypermelanism

Dark chahoua are showing up in collections worldwide, and the terminology is still catching up:

Melanism generally describes animals that are close to solid black.

Hypermelanism describes animals with significantly increased dark pigment where the underlying pattern is still visible.

These two terms get used loosely, and sometimes interchangeably, in the hobby right now. Treat them as descriptive categories rather than an agreed-upon standard.

White Traits

White expression is where chahoua breeding has advanced the most, and it shows up in several distinct forms:

White Collar: A band of white across the neck. Early wild-collected chahoua have shown this trait too, and it's proven to be selectively breedable. Not all white collars look alike, some run bright, paper white, others lean more green, and this can shift further with firing up or down. Certain lines consistently throw brighter white than others.

High White: A white collar plus additional white patterning down the body. This is a subjective, informal category rather than a strict standard.

White Spotting: Distinct white spots running down the laterals (sides), seen across many different bloodlines.

White Flecking: Fine, subtle flecks of white scattered across the body, easy to miss if you're not looking closely.

White Shoulders / Wings: White on the neck that doesn't form a complete collar.

Super White: Used for animals with 50% or more of their body covered in white. These frequently stack with other traits (pastel super white, high color super white, red super white), and the results are some of the most spectacular chahoua being produced today.

Banded Super White: An ongoing project pairing a white collar with thick, distinct white bands running across the body, alternating with a base color. This is one of the most striking chahoua projects in the hobby right now.

Pattern Traits

Ocelli: The small, dark circular markings running down a chahoua's dorsal (back). Expression varies by individual and lineage.

Black Lateral Markings: Dark markings on the sides, seen alongside ocelli in some lines. 

Striping: A light to dark patterned stripe running from just behind the head to the base of the tail. This is a relatively new trait in the hobby and becoming more visible.

Pin Striping: A term borrowed from the crested gecko world, describing two defined dark lines running parallel down the dorsal. Full pin striping is still rare in chahoua, though partial expression is becoming more common. It may be connected to how ocelli break up and extend along the spine, though that connection hasn't been confirmed.

Quick Reference: Chahoua Trait Glossary