Category: Old Shop

Each DAY at 11:00 am. ct (GMT – 5) we will post a different SMR snake being offered at a special price.

All snakes will be chosen for their rarity and/or unique beauty.

FREE U.S.SHIPPING for each Snake-of-the-Day.

 

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#030113

Tessera

Male

d.o.h. 2009

45″ long on Feb. 21, 2013

$475.00 Shipped

This 2009 male Tessera is now 48″ long, eating frozen/thawed adult mice.  He has spawned some of the most dramatically contrasting Tesseras we’ve had. He has a great demeanor and tolerance for human interaction.  He could be a prosporous breeder for someone looking for a 2013 breeder.  He was brumated from October 10, 2012 to January 31, 2013. 

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Tessera (no aka)
Most Commonly Used Name: Tessera
Mode of Genetic Inheritance: Dominant
Morph Type: Single Dominant Mutation

Eye Color:  Black pupil & body ground colored iris

FIRST, what makes Tesseras so expensive? Other than appearance, the primary (and inherent) value of Tessera-type Corns is their mode of inheritance.  Since they are dominant to wild type, pairing any Ultra Type that is a Visual Het to ANY corn snake (other than a Tessera-type) will render 50% Tessera mutants in the F¹ (first) out-crossed generation.  The results of pairing an Tessera homozygote with ANY corn snake (other than a Tessera-type) will render 100% Tessera mutants.

History of the Tessera Mutation:

In 2007, Graham Criglow asked KJ Lodrigue to order a 1.2 trio of Striped Motleys that were advertised on one of the popular Online Classified sites – since Graham’s job prevented him from personally receiving them at that time.  When they arrived, KJ discovered that they constituted a 2.1 reverse trio (two males and one female) instead of the advertised 1.2 trio (one male and two females).  KJ and Kasi recommended that Graham gift the extra male to me, and that’s what Graham did.  Profound thanks to Graham, KJ, and Kasi for that gracious and fortuitous gift.  In 2008, both the Lodrigues and I independently bred our males (Graham’s and mine) to novel (unrelated) corns. I produced about 24 TESSERAS (so named by the Lodrigues for the tessellated lateral markings) from over 50 fertile eggs, but since the Lodrigues were in the middle of a career move to another State, they were less fortunate, producing just four non-mutant Okeetee-looking corns.  My Tesseras were produced by the pairing of the male Tessera to three novel female corns (two F¹ Locality Okeetees from Chip Bridges Rhett Butler Line and one Okeetee-ish female, Het for Stripe and Amel).  Imagine my surprise in seeing what we thought were nearly flawless Striped Motleys from three different females, only one of which was Het for a recessive pattern mutation?  After the first brood of 50% Tesseras hatched from the female that was het for Stripe and Amel, except for the perfection of pattern, I was not thinking new dominant mutation, but when both wild-type Okeetees produced the same results, it was obvious that a new mutation was discovered.

Upon receiving the reverse trio from the seller, we all commented on the mutual peculiarity of the phenotypes.  Most appeared to be the most perfectly Striped Motleys ever seen – in so much as their dorsal stripes were nearly contiguous from neck to tail tip (something never before seen in any corn snake pattern mutant) – but that was hardly possible if the admission of the breeder were true – that they were products of pairing a Striped corn with an Okeetee corn.  How could these descendants of a Striped corn bred to an Okeetee be Motley types, instead of Striped?  It is still unclear if those 2.1 Tesseras were F¹s (first familial generation) or F²s (the originator of this line is now out of the hobby and difficult to reach – for clarification).  If these three Tesseras are F¹s, my deduction is that the striped corn he used in the original pairing was actually Striped AND Tessera.  Even if those three were F²s, the likelihood of the mutant patriarch being a Striped Tessera is strong.

What to expect:

At this early period in the Tessera’s resume, we still don’t know what phenotypic potentials exist.  So far, the only behavior that is atypical for a corn snake mutation is that many of the non-mutant siblings of Tessera types seem to have enhanced pattern and color features.  So far, I don’t see any hybrid markers, since the collateral sibling features to which I refer are – so far – in the realm of improving existing corn snake features (i.e. some non-Tesseras have better, brighter, cleaner, and/or more consistent colors and markings).

 

Predominantly contiguous dorsal striping is the most unique feature of most Tesseras.  Even when the stripe is broken, it resumes immediately thereafter (unlike Striped and Motley mutants whose dorsal striping never resumes with any degree of renewal). Roughly 1/3 of all that have been produced so far have no stripe breaks.  Another 1/3 or so have two to four stripe breaks, and the other 1/3 can have five to 20+ stripe breaks, but those breaks are merely interruptions of the stripe.  Not unlike very good Striped Motleys, many Tesseras have an interruption of stripe at the girdle (anatomical location – polar to the cloaca), but unlike Striped and Motley mutants, the dorsal stripe almost always continues to the tail tip.  Thus far, fully striped Tesseras have been produced from parents with some-to-many dorsal stripe breaks.  Hence, broken-striped Tesseras can produce fully striped striped Tesseras, even though their stripe is broken.  Incidentally, none of the original 2.1 original Tesseras in this line have complete dorsal striping, but many of their progeny and grand progeny do.

More than 2/3 of the Tesseras produced by me so far have atypically large amounts of black pigment in their non-ventral pattern — a feature roughly 1% of all Striped and Motley mutants have demonstrated to date.  Less than 1/4 of all Tesseras produced by me have little to no black in their markings, and these are mostly Striped Tesseras.

The belly patterns are all over the charts.  A precious few have enough belly checkering to qualify them as wild-type common corns — until you flip them over to see their mutant pattern elsewhere.  About 1/3of them have roughly 15% to 30% of the volume of checkering seen in wild-types, and about 1/3 or more have virtually no belly checkering at all.  Some of the ones with NO belly checkering have organized strings of black markings running the length of both sides of the belly, along the ventral crest.

 

Having grafted another entire branch on the already sprawling corn snake family tree, we think the Tessera mutation will offer genetic flexibility never before possible; mainly in the realm of making Stripe and Motley types without losing the black (or white in albinos).  Imagine all the current colors of corns infused with the Tessera, Striped Tessera, and Motley Tessera patterns?

 

 

This compound morph results from combining the color mutations Amel + Caramel = Butter and the pattern mutation, Motley. Color and pattern are variable, but it is apparent that the Motley mutation has a beneficial color impact upon the Butter corn’s coloration, and that impact is one of enhancement.  I don’t recall ever seeing Striped or Motley Butter corns that was not more deeply yellow than Butter corns without a pattern mutation.

What to expect:
Expect  most neonates to have surprisingly low-quality yellow (compared to adults), and pattern on some may actually be brown for up to a year or longer.  I have personally never seen one retain non yellow colors, so be patient.  In six to 18 months, all other colors should transform to yellow.  The pattern mutation, Motley demonstrates its power when combined with butter by heavily saturating and otherwise improving the yellow – compared to non-Motley Butters.

Each DAY at 11:00 am. ct (GMT – 5) we will post a different SMR snake being offered at a special price.

All snakes will be chosen for their rarity and/or unique beauty.

FREE U.S.  Shipping  for each Snake-of-the-Day.

 

 

ToDAY’s SNAKE of the DAY (Mon. Feb. 18, 2013)

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#021813

Motley Sunglow

Female

d.o.h. 2010
49″ long on Feb. 18, 2013

$250.00 shipped

This 2009 Striped Sunglow Motley is 49″ long and eating frozen/thawed adult mice.  She lays over 20 fertile eggs each season.  She brumated from October 10th, 2012 to January 31st, 2013 so she will be in the mood in three to five weeks.  The Striped mutation in this snake is barely visible in this specimen, but you should get some striped mutants when breeding this female to a Striped mutant. 

 

 

 

Many generations were spent in refining the beauty of the Sunglow Motley.  Their genetic mutation is officially Amel Motley, but 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 and conducted breeding trials to determine what caused the intense colors.  She concludes that SMR Sunglow Motleys possess the added mutation of what is sometimes referred to as Red Mask or Red Factor.  It is allegedly inherited in dominant fashion (it is a recently discovered mutation and is still poorly understood).  Once I validate her genetic inheritance findings, the price of Sunglow Motleys will increase, since they will undoubtedly become powerful genetic tools in deepening and saturating reds in other corn snake morphs.