The Snake-of-the-Day headliner of this web site features photographs that we believe will interest our web site visitors. Each daily photograph will be posted at 11:00 am. central (GMT – 5) and replaced in 24 hours. Feel free to make suggestions regarding what snake photographs you would like to see in this daily feature. The animals pictured here are not for sale, unless otherwise noted, but you can find available surplus snakes for sale on the Surplus Page of this web site. We appreciate your your patronage and welcome any suggestions you may have.
This female Ultramel is perhaps one of the most poignant examples in the contraversial debate over the origin of this mutation. Her markings are precisely like all of the original F1 out-crosses of Corn Snake to Gray Rat Snake I have ever seen. All Ultra-type mutants (including Ultramels) are hybrids of those two species. Though I have NEVER heard of anyone crossing those two species since the introduction of the Ultra Mutation into corn snake herpetoculture (except to challenge the declaration of the originator that he did indeed use those two species to make Ultra-type Corns), this one is a good example of the phenotype for F1 Gray Rat/Corn out-crosses. That said, I’m honored to have her for many reasons. She is beautiful, large, friendly, and VERY fertile. Here, she shows off her 32-egg clutch on May 17th, with no slugs. Ordinarily we do not over-moisten moss for the nest box (evidenced here by its dark coloration), but I was out of town for two DAYs when she was due to lay, and when that happens I always over-hydrate moss so that if they lay the eggs on the 1st DAY of my absence, there is less likelihood of the eggs dehydrating before I can set them up.
Note her “necklace” of eggs in the right-hand vertical egg shot – denoting the lower group of eggs in the mother-&-clutch shot. Perhaps one in 20 of my female corns lay eggs in connected strings like this. Had this string not been broken, the eggs would probably have been massed in one pile. Thank you, John Finsterwald (Zorro) for this awesome corn. Her brood will consist of Ultramels Charcoals, Blizzards, and more. BTW, I’m positive that John F. has never crossed Gray Rat Snakes with Corn Snakes so this beautiful specimen just happens to show more throwbacck Rat Snake than Corn Snake features. In other words, her parents were likely of lineage much closer to the original hybrid pairing than most of them in the hobby toDAY. Most Ultramels have been out-bred to pure corns enough generations to render more classical corn snake features. The Ratsnake markings of this one render this Ultramel the exception to most of them in the hobby toDAY.