Breeding an Amel
 

Okay, so I'm still very new to the corn snake world, and I don't plan on breeding for a long time yet, but out of curiosity and planning for the future, I was wondering how you would go about breeding? And also, what different morphs could you breed with an Amel to get various colors/combinations? Are there healthier ways to breed? Etc?


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There are lots of possibilities for an amel pairing. One of my favorites is amel and cinder to hopefully produce peppermints. Search for Iansvivarium and check out all the morph combinations. There have been numerous posts regarding breeding. Use the search function to read through posts that cover the topic. There are many factors, such as age, weight, health, cycling, etc. I enjoy reading some of Nanci's posts on her snickersnake blog. Check it out towards the bottom of the forum.

Breeding an amel to a cinder will not get you any peppermints unless the amel is het for cinder, and the cinder is het for amel.

In reality, unless the amel has any hets, the only things you can produce in the first generation with an amel are normals, amels, and ultramels unless you add in a dominant gene like tessera.

The longest journey begins with the first step. Amel to cinder is the first step that will hopefully lead to peppermints.

This^^
You have to have the genes present either in homo (visual) or het (recessive, not visual, carrying the gene) paired with another one that also has the genes to produce the additional morphs.

For example, if you pair an Amel with a normal, that has no hets, you will get all normals, hey for Amel. They will carry the Amel gene, but won't show it.
For most morphs, you need two copies of the gene to produce visuals.

As far as healthier, I would start with completely unrelated snakes. Reptiles can endure more line breeding or in breeding before you start seeing problems. They're not like mammals. However, with a number of projects, someone will produce a clutch of babies, they'll sell them, often in pairs, those will be bred together, and often sold in pairs, etc.
For the healthiest lines, I'd work towards completely unrelated pairings. That can be more complicated, especially when adding in different genes, but it's better in the long run.

An excellent, and easily understood explanation. We don't often realize that many of the new corn owners have no understanding of what we take for granted.