Lavender corns

I have a question about the coloration of Lavender corns. I've seen pics that some post on kingsnake.com and I've seen Rich's and other sources such as Jeff Yohe's. (All via pics of course)

A lot of them appear really purple at a young age and some pinkish tones. Then the older ones on cornsnakes.com appear really purple. Their colors appear weird to me. Some corns have purplish tones that are so dark they are almost "mocha" with olive markings.

Am I looking at a lot of varying picture qualities? or are the babies really this different??? if so, there must have been a lot of outcrossing because they all came from one source? Thanks to anyone brave enough to take a stab at this one.

I want to get lavenders, but some I find more attractive than others.

Bump, because I want an answer too! :dancer:

I love the Lavenders but have never seen one in person. The pictures are very variable.

For a start there is a lot of variation in lavenders, and it's further complicated by a sexual dimorphism in the morph, with males generally much more colourful, with a lot more of the peachy tones. There was a wallpaper showcasing lavenders made by a member here I was going to link you to but it's not working. This thread shows some lavs;
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99182&highlight=lavenders
Lavs were originally called 'mochas' because of their hatchling colours.

I've got a "theory" and that is all it is...

I think when the lavender morph was new, it was more common to have straight up lavenders, as for a while they were decently expensive to attain.

As more and more people started breeding them other genes were commonly found along with the lavender. I am mostly referring to hypo A. Hypo lavenders have still been fetching a bit more money than regular lavenders so more and more are including hypo in their lavender combinations, thus a huge number of lavenders are hypo or het hypo.

Hypo A has been shown over and over to show through a little bit on the animals, even if they are only het for that gene. The most noticable difference is in the males. A number of my lavender het hypo stripe males, I found that by yearling size some almost looked HOMO for hypo.

Thus, all the "pinkish" lavenders that are pictured now on forums. I'm guessing it's that hypo gene playing it's magic.

Anywho... That's just my theory...

Rebecca

To give you an idea as to how much a lavender can change since hatching, this is Tristan, an '08 male lavender het opal motley male. The photos were taken just after his post-lay shed (9/17/08), then on 10/13/08, 11/23/08, 1/26/09 and a more recent photo taken March 2010.

I love the Lavs too! My Elvis looks similiar to Susan's Tristan. He is gray with the peachy tones and is het Hypo. I bred him in April to a Normal het Lav, so I'm anxious for eggs so I can see the variety in Lav hatchlings.
The breeder of the male I have told me the keepers would be a grayish steel blue, and the more mocha colored ones wouldn't be that outstanding.
Tristin certainly is pretty!
I chose Lavs to focus on since it's a gene not yet done to death and you can get some interesting looks with other genes in combo

My serpenco lav female has such a strong pink wash that I've wondered if it's redcoat or masque being expressed.

theres a page full of lav pics here: http://iansvivarium.com/morphguide/lavender/ which shows just how much variation there is between different animals, male/female, and how age can affect the colour too