Okay Rich, Clint....others???

[Warren]

So how does one tell the difference between snow and opal babies? Are there any subtle differences? Or do you have to know who the parents are to know? Do all opals change enough as they become adults to easily see the difference?
Sorry for all the questions. Just would like to know for future referance.

wc

[CornsnakeKeeper]

Let's hear the answer to this one...
I want to order an opal-- watch 'em send me a snow! LOL:D

[Clint Boyer]

http://www.cornsnakes.com/pics/babies/lavmix.jpg

I also posted this in the photo section.

[Warren]

Hey Clint, thanks for the pic! It's a good shot of some new hatchlings!
I guess really, because this is a new morph, that there may only be a few people who can answer my question. I know the pic of the Opal at the top of the page is prolly one of the best Opal's Rich has produced so far. My question is, Is there any way at all to tell the difference as babies. Also, has anyone raised enough of these to know if it's possible that as they grow up, some may not lose that Snow look that they have as a baby?

(Just taking a wild guess. In the pic above, are there two opal's and the one snow in the top left corner? Or is that backwards?)

L8r,
wc

[CornsnakeKeeper]

The one in the top left is a snow.
And I count two opals. (The peachy colored ones)

Correct?

[Rich Z]

http://www.cornsnakes.com/pics/babies/butter_lav01.jpg

This is a photo of a clutch from parents that are amelanistic het for both Lavender and Caramel (Butter).

Figure out what all these are...............

This is the sort of thing I go through every year now........

:confused:

[CornsnakeKeeper]

Sports fans?
Herp fans...but geez, this much work could be a sport.

I can tell you that I don't see any lavs! Hehe...

I'll let someone else have their "dig" through that jumble of corns! :D

I think you're pretty lucky to hatch all of these babies each year... I'd be happy to have a clutch or two! :D :cool:

[Warren]

Okay. Here is my guess. Let's see - 3 Snows, 3 Amels and 6 Opals.
I don't see any butters but then maybe..... (This is all in my limited experience.) Hey Rich, what do we win if we guess right???
(How about a BIG bag of popcorn and a beverage or two.)

L8r,
wc

[Clint Boyer]

With the very light colored Opals compared to the light Butters, I could see some confusion growing!

The one in the center at the bottom facing the Snow looks to have some yellow and some peach color.

Great pic!

[abell82]

If I saw an opal at a show and did not know what it was,I would pick a snow as they are much prettier as babies.I do not think the opals are very spectacular as babies, and I have never(?) seen an adult.Just my opinion.This being said the motley(?) snow in the picture(lower right hand corner) is awesome!

[Hurley]

Interesting pic. Amels het caramel and lavender, huh? Any anery in that mix? If not, what are the snow-like 3? What do caramel/lavender/amels look like anyway?

I see 4 butters, 3 amels, 2 darker pink opals (?), 1 lighter pink opal (?) that almost looks like it has a hint of yellow (left hand side) and 3 snow-like animals that I guess are snows if there is anery in the parents, otherwise ??? triple homos? light/white opals ?

Answers? Bueller?

I don't envy you Rich, oh wait, yes I do! LOL. Nice animals.

[CornsnakeKeeper]

abell...
If you would like to see a picture of an adult opal corn, just scroll to the top of the page you are on right now. That corn up there in the top left hand corner is an opal corn.

[Simon]

I can see
4 buters,
3 opals,
3 amels,
and
2 snows

Hope that I get this correct...

[Rich Z]

I DON'T KNOW!!

The Opal used in the breeding has proven to be het for 'A' Anerythrism, so my NOT wanting to get Snows in this mix to further confuse things certainly guaranteed that would happen.

Are any of them homozygous for Caramel as well as Lavender while being Amelanistics as well? Beats me. The bigger they get, the less I can hazard a guess. And I bred the same blasted things together this year, so I'll have even more to puzzle over.

Let's see, I have two clutches of Amels het for Lavender and Caramel (32 eggs), and three clutches of Amels het Lavender & Caramel crossed with Normal het Lavender & Butter (56 eggs).

Hey, how about some more numbers to show how crazy I have become?

10 clutches of Butter Stripe possibilities (169 eggs)
18 clutches of Lavender Motley possibilities (267 eggs)

And just to show that I don't have a lucky horseshoe crammed where the sun don't shine, my Hypo Blood Reds have REALLY let me down this year. I may not even be able to meet the reserved orders for them. I've got some het animals that might be kind to me, but counting on that has let me down before.

Boy, did this get off topic!

I'm outta here!

[abell82]

I thought that it was, but was not sure.Still not my favorite,though.I would probably not go out of my way to purchase one of these,as I still prefer the snows.It is very interesting.But I do not find it nearly as pretty as the cornxgrey rat Frosted Snow corn that was for sale on a certain classified by Hoppy Hopkins the other day.Now that is an absolute gorgeous snake!!!How about it Rich, are you breeding any thing like this?Anybody?

[Rich Z]

I think if you had read the text in that ad, you probably would have known the answer to your question to me.

That animal is a cross involving a gray rat snake and a corn snake. I do not, and will not, knowingly work with hybrids or intergrades with my corns.

Now, that being said, I bought a bunch of animals from a guy by the name of Andy Barr years ago that he was calling Frosted Corns. I had several snows and Anerythritics from him. Neat looking animals, especially the Snows, but the more I worked with them, the more I became convinced they were not pure corn snakes. So I asked Don Soderberg if he wanted them and sold them to him for a lot less than I paid for them as hatchlings. I have no idea what he has done with them, but they looked like Snows that had yellow streaked all throughout the body. If they had been pure corns, they would have been interesting to work with, but that's the way it goes, I guess.

Oh yeah, one other thing. There is NO Motley in that blood line, so there is no Motley Snow shown in that photo.

[Elaphe_Mo]

what great pics, and great babies...although trying to figure out what is what gives me a big headache. Rich I don't know how you stay sane enough to do business.

As for the Opals, I have one ('00) which I like a lot, but is hard to tell from a snow for an average observer. I think now, given the choice, I'd still take an opal over a snow, he does have some nice pink in him, but really I prefer just the plain old lavenders. Just my $.02

[Darin Chappell]

Short on hypo-bloodreds?????


Say it ain't so, Rich! I've been patiently waiting for some time now, and I WANT those babies! You'll just have to go in there and talk those babies into hatching the correct color!

Oh, well, I guess I could come up with another option if I have to, but I don't wanna! Maybe a 1.1 pair of motley butters? I don't want to think about it right now. I'll think about it tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day.

(The Gone With the Wind lines there at the last are for my wife . . .she's a Scarlet fan)

Later -- Darin

[Simon]

Originally posted by Rich Z
they looked like Snows that had yellow streaked all throughout the body.

Hey Rich,

just kinda wondering what you mean here. I just got a pink snow (I think) from a pet shop. She told me that this snow was a "pure corn". When I took it out to take a look, I find that the corn is really pinkish and on the boaders of the saddles, there were these purplish and blueish tone on it and it had a lot of yellow on the side, like the Anery type A. I thought that it looked really interesting so I got it. But then after reading this post, I started thinking on whether or not this is really a "pure corn" as the shop keeper said. She even told me that the breeder was certain that all 3 (the shop has 3 of them for sale) of them were females because the breeder likes to probe it.....instead of poping it....well....guess what...I poped it today and found out that it's definately a male........so this leads to a more uncertainty of what the snow corn really is. Is it possible for a snow to have yellow tone on the side? I really haven't studied snows that much, just that I thought that the one that I got was really eye catching so I got it.......and because of the loss of the ball python that day...a little thing to cheer myself up.....

[Darin Chappell]

I'm not Rich (nor do I play him on T.V.), but it's fairly common for snow corns to have a great deal of yellow on the sides of the neck. My motley snow corn has yellow down his sides to nearly half his body length. I really think Rich was speaking of yellow that was pervasive throughout the entire body, but I'm sure he'll correct me if I misinterpreted what he meant.

Darin

[Rich Z]

It is not at all unusual to get substantial amounts of yellow in a Snow corn. I have found this especially to be true from those examples coming from my Butter bloodlines as well as from projects involving Motleys. Matter of fact, I have a couple of Snows that have SO much yellow they are rather bizarre looking. The name I refer to them internally is not at all flattering, however. :eek: (Just a hint, any Frank Zappa fans will know about the 'yellow snow')

I found an old photo in one of my photo galleries of the animals I was referring to as the Frosted Corns:

http://www.serpenco.com/pics/mavica/frosty1.jpg

This animal was still rather young when this photo was taken, as it developed a LOT more yellow down the center of the back than is shown here.

[CornsnakeKeeper]

Wow...that doesn't look like a corn at all to me based on the head shape.

Rich, since it is getting close to the time where you put your price list up, can you tell us? Will you be putting any new cultivars up for sale this year such as butter stripes or the lavender motleys? bet they'll be expensive... and if they are gonna be for sale, do you have a waiting list yet?

thanks!!!

[abell82]

I agree the head shape of your frosted corn is not at all like a corn.Here is the pic of Hoppy's frosted snow for comparison.(I have asked the author for permission)

[Serpwidgets]

Looks like a very light lavender to me. The head still looks non-corn, even to me.

Pretty though, I really like the frosting. :)

[Simon]

O Okay,

cause I was wondering what my snow looks like. I asked the pet shop and all they know is that it's father was an amel....mother... no info on it at all....so I was really worried that it might be a mix of something.....I don't want out-crossed.