SMR Archive

An exceptionally colorful sub-adult RedCoat Lava corn snake. 

Known in our hobby as a Blue Motley, the three gene mutations in this morph are Anery, Motley, and Dilute.  The dilute mutation–when in conjunction with the Anery mutation–renders the predominant silvery/blue hues.  Not unlike Blue Persian and Blue Siamese cats that are perceived by many to be more gray than blue, this morph of corn snake has many different color renderings that fall in and out of what most consider to be “blue”.

Pictured above are a SUPER (Homozygote) Salmon Snow corn snake, possessing both of the paired gene copies for the dominant mutation, Red Factor, with a Salmon Snow Tessera (only heterozygous for RF), possessing only one of the paired RF gene copies (expressing about half of the vibrant coral coloration of the homozygote).  Technically, both are homozygotes of Amel and Anery, of course, but only the non-Tessera in this picture is a homozygote for the RF gene mutation. 
2018 will be the first year I’ll be pairing Salmon Snow Tesseras like these to het and homo Salmon Snow-types.  

Today, we’re showing you some (certainly not ALL) variety in this corn snake morph.  The only known gene mutation in this morph is Amelanistic (aka: albino), so what distinguishes these from classic Amel corns–AND other Amel morphs–is the result of polygenetics (interactions between genes–mostly non-mutated genes) and selective-breeding toward the respective look within this morph. Tempting to call this a Candy Cane, it not only has overt blotch margins–unlike virtually all Candy Canes–but the blotch margins also contrast with the difficult-to-reproduce white scales in the ground color body zone. 
Also, this one is selectively bred from Reverse Okeetees right here at South Mountain (unlike any of the Candy Canes we used to produce).

 

When I was staging this Scaleless Corn Snake for a photograph, I noted the “air bubble” a little behind her head, between skin generations–denoting that she was about to slough her old skin. After shooting her individually, I decided to shoot a Scaleless Tessera with her, going for the “twofur” (two snakes in the same SOTD feature).

This male Gray Ratsnake (Pantherophis spiloides) LEMON mutant produced by TONY DONGARRA shows a little more color than the female featured on Jan. 8, 2018.

 

A couple of 2017 Scaleless corn snake hold-backs. 

note:  ALL Scaleless corns in the hobby toDAY (including SCALED corns that are carriers of the Scale-less mutation–aka Het Scaleless) 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.

Upon searching archived image files for examples of carotenoid exhibition in corns, I came across this picture of a High-white Reverse Okeetee that we featured in 2016.  Does this snake not beg the question, “is the carotenoid renderings relegated to the upper dermal layers?”?  Breeding one to a Scaleless “corn” is surely the only way to know where the carotenoid renderings reside

Photographed while soaking in a clear deli cup of water in 2017, is a Scaleless Reverse Okeetee corn snake.  The egg tooth is still slightly visible at the snout, indicating that this snake had been out of its egg for less than 24 hours.  ALL Scaleless corns in the hobby toDAY (including SCALED corns that are carriers of the Scale-less mutation–aka Het Scaleless) 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.

This 2013 hatchling Amel Palmetto corn snake was a year-old in this picture.  I think Travis and John still have some 2017 hatchlings of these for sale, but more will be available as 2018 hatchlings this Spring or Summer.