Many generations were spent in refining the beauty of the Sunglow Motley, but when we first introduced this mutation compound back in the 1990s, we didn’t realize what made Sun Motleys so much more colorful than all other Amel Motleys in the hobby. At first, we believed that they owed their deeply colorful distinction to only two mutations; Amel and Motley and that they have been selectively-bred toward the goal of deeply saturated red coloration and classically orderly Motley pattern. For years, we were helpless to explain why the colors in this line were so deeply saturated and why they were redder than other genetic lines. In 2009, one of our friends that wondered the same thing–and conducted breeding trials to determine what caused the intense colors–came to the conclusion that SMR Sunglow Motleys possess the added mutation of what is sometimes referred to as Red Mask or Red Factor. It is thought to be inherited in dominant fashion.
If an animal that is dominant to wild-type receives just one DNA copy of mutation, it usually demonstrates a degree of that mutation; in this case, enhanced overall red/orange coloration that is much more pronounced than Amel Motleys without one (or both) copies of the Red Mask mutation. These are called Visual Hets and that’s what 95% of all the Sun Motleys we’ve sold over the past two decades have been. Then, in the second successive familial generation, (F2) some of the progeny have essentially twice the color saturation as the others. Those are homozygotes (sometimes referred to as the SUPER FORM of the mutation) and we’ve only recently recognized those. Therefore, whether the SMR Sun Motley you acquire is a Visual Het or a Super Form, expect deeply red/orange coloration with few (if any) white scales showing.
Comparison of classic Sunglow Motley (left) and Super Sunglow Motley (right). One has less red because it is considered a VISUAL HET with only one of the paired gene copies of Red Factor, while the redder of the two demonstrates that is is a homozygote, having both of the paired RF gene copies.
Some people mistakenly think that if a Motley has orderly and consistent circles down the back (as most Sun Motleys do), it’s a Hurricane Motley. Below is a demonstration of distinction between a Hurricane Amel Motley and a Sunglow Motley.
Important Note:
These images are not renderings of the actual animals being offered, (except for uniquely offered snakes found in the SURPLUS section of this web site). We do not provide pictures of individual hatchling snakes for sale, nor do we recommend that you ever choose a new pet based on an image of its neonatal form. Corns change so dramatically from hatchling to adult, they will NEVER have the same colors or contrasts throughout maturity. While most of the snakes we produce will mature to resemble the featured adult image(s) on our web site, unlike manufactured products that are respectively clones of each other, the nature of polygenic variation results in each animal being similar but not identical to others of its morph. The snake we select for you may not mature to be identical to the pictured examples, but will be chosen based on our experience of observing which neonates will mature to properly represent their respective morph. We take this responsibility very seriously, and therefore publish the guarantee that we will exchange your SMR snake if it does not mature to be like our advertised examples.