Snake of the Day 02-04-19

Show & Tell
More images of yesterDAY’s MicroScale Butter corn snake mutant.  Notice the different shapes of body zone scalation, but also the occasional random anomalously shaped scales, here and there?  Why there seems to be a lateral delineation between the dorsal and droso-lateral scales and the start of the lower lateral mid-line scales, I can’t explain the lower half of the body being wider than the upper lateral body (at blue arrow point)?  I am not implying that all MicroScale corn mutants have this, but it’s overtly noticeable on this snake.  Is this because of different scale thicknesses, or musculature?  Bonus PIC . . .

Snake of the Day 02-03-19

 
Head shot of a MicroScale Butter corn snake, demonstrating only part of the abnormal scalation that is often rendered by this mutated gene.  Not only are virtually all scales smaller than those on their scaled counterparts, but also malformed–relative to the shapes of normal corn snake scales.  Likewise, not only are different body zones dominated by particular atypically shaped scales, but there are also random anomalous scale shapes?  On the head of this one you can see that not only are there many skin zones that are not armored by scales, but a somewhat nonbilateral-symmetry of scales.  While color and markings are generally bilateral (each side being typically a mirrored pattern of the opposing side), some of the scales do not necessarily follow bilaterally symmetric rules?  Such is the nature of mutated genes, eh?  The next picture exaggerates this nonbilateral exception with black outlines of scales.  One example does not indicate that perhaps only one side has more uniformly shaped scales, but you can see on the head of this snake that the left (picture-right) side of the head has notably “malformed” scales that are not the same shape as the scales on the right side of the head (picture-left)?  Tomorrow’s SOTD demonstrates other features of this handsome corn snake mutant.

Snake of the Day 02-02-19

This 28″ male 2017 corn snake is het for Amel and possibly het for Caramel and Scaleless.  He is currently eating frozen/thawed large fuzzy mice.  While not the most colorful of corns, this snake is about to slough its outer skin, so it should have a little more color in a week or so?

Snake of the Day 01-29-19

Over the years, many people have asked what the difference is between Reverse Okeetee and SMR Fluorescent.  I don’t say that all cases are parallel to the comparative offered in toDAY’s SOTD feature, but the snakes in toDAY’s comparison between Reverse Okeetee and SMR Fluorescent represent the average pheontypes of respective SMR morphs. Featured pic shows Reverse Okeetee (top) and two Fluorescent corns below it.  What makes the white saddle margins POP in the Fluorescent Amels is the absence of white “clutter” in both ground and saddle zones, unlike the white stippling and softer colors on most Reverse Okeetees.

 

Snake of the Day 01-28-19

This snake is a vivid demonstration of the mode of inheritance of most red-modifying gene mutations AND also the power of most red-modifiers.  Two years ago I bred a Cherry Amel to a classic Okeetee (obviously het Amel) that actually had very faint black blotch margins, but just look at this sub-2-year-old Amel from that pairing?  No telling how red he will be in another year?  The next generation of Cherry Fluorescent Amels should be spectacular. I hope to show you hatchlings of those later this summer. 

Snake of the Day 01-27-19

No, they’re not related.  Center is a yearling Cayenne Fire (red-factor, Amel, Bloodred) produced here and outside is an Ultramel Okeetee produced by Dr. Brad Lichtenhan.  They’re together in this feature for color comparison.  This is NOT the Cayenne Fire that was featured on January 7th.

Snake of the Day 01-26-19

This male 2018 Amel corn snake is possibly het for Scaleless Striped Caramel (therefore, het Scaleless Striped Butter).  He is 16″ long, eating frozen/thawed pinky mice.

note:  ALL Scaleless corns in the hobby toDAY (including SCALED corns that are carriers of the Scale-less mutation–aka Het Scaleless), AND even possible-hets are descendants of the original pairing of a Corn Snake to an Emory’s Ratsnake (aka: Great Plains Ratsnake).  Therefore, all Scaleless corns (and their scaled siblings) are inter-species hybrids.