What's the deal with cinder and split belly checkers?
 

I know cinder can have split belly checkers, but is it related to masque at all? Is it a separate gene? Do all cinders have split checkers? So far every cinder I've owned has had split checkers.

https://i.imgur.com/zM60NRIh.jpg

In some morph combos with cinder there are little to no belly checkers...

Terri

Interesting. Is it specific combos or just a random thing?

Keys ancestry has always been the explanation I've heard.

Cinder Lava
 

Here is the belly of my Cinder Lava pos het Stripe. He has almost no belly checks.

I'd definitely go with Keys ancestry, as well as just it being part of the mutation. Cinder is known as a color mutation, but it's also a mild pattern mutation. They often have more saddles than the average corn. Possibly something to do with the pattern progression in development preventing the checkers from reaching the middle in some cases.