An undecided Crimson corn........

Total was a frustrating day in the baby snake mines. I am pretty much convinced that I have yet another Hypo gene floating around in here and it's driving me nuts. I'm getting way too many instances of breeding Crimson to Crimson and getting normal colored snakes. This happened the last couple of years, and I just assumed that I had some very brightly colored normal Miami's that I just had mislabeled as Crimsons. But I'm not swallowing that excuse any longer. Then in another instance I bred an Ultra Hypo to an Amber and again got all normal colored babies, which should have been Hypos. Last year I bred this very same Ultra Hypo to a regular Hypo female and got all Hypos as babies. So what in the world is going on? I keep tight controls on whom I breed to whom and make note of ANY male introduced with a female, even if there were no signs of breeding activity.

So I am muttering to myself as I am going through checking on eggs that are hatching out, and pick up yet another clutch of Crimson eggs and flip up the paper towel to see what is laying on top of the vermiculite, having hatched out of the eggs. I thought I was having spots before my eyes when I saw this critter laying in the corner right on top of the pile:



To add insult to injury, there were a couple of normals in this clutch as well. Some days I just feel clueless about what in the world I am doing with these animals. If someone else had told me the stuff I am running into this year, I would just assume they were paying the price of bad record keeping and forget about it.

But something is definitely amiss with the results I am getting from Hypos, that should be pretty much cut and dried.

That is an interestin looking snake. What would it be? A normal??

Wow! I'd love to own that! care to sell it? Almost a mix....awful neat!

Some odd things happening in the Moltey line as well. There are some snakes that seem to defy the accepted definition of Motley. Such as a Motley with ventrals checks, or pattern mutations within the Motley gene that have ventral checkering. Some of the animals I'm working with carry Milksnake phase and some have Bloodred genes also.I suspect that the combination of pattern mutating genes is creating some variations of it's own.

As for your situation with the hypo gene, I can only speculate. I'm sure it's possible that there is another hypo gene present in your lines. I would think it's also possible that the same genes you've been working with for years can be altered or mutate on their own. I'm no expert but it seems to me that a gene just might lose it's simple recessive state to random mutation, (just thinking out loud).

That's one strange looking snake, hypo pibald comes to mind.
It seems from the photo to have concentrations of dark/normal pigment and patches of lighter pigment like you've taken an eraser to it.
I love anomolies like that.

If you don't want that odd crimson, I'll take it off your hands! I think it is very beautiful !!! Being a little "odd" myself, I have a soft spot for other oddballs!

how did this one turn out?

No changes yet, but at least it is still alive.

I know I've looked at this one before, and I still want it, but it just hit me as to what the color reminds me of...a calico cat, but in this case, a calico corn.

Achh!! But I could NEVER use that name of this cultivar if it proves to be reproducible. That name has been forever tainted, I presume, which is most unfortunate.

I guess I could always call it the "Bad Day With A Bleach Bottle Corn"!