Caramel confusion

Well, 2 of my clutches this year have me stumped. #1 was a caramel het hypo stripe male x (supposed) normal het butter anery. Something told me to do this pairing because I had a hunch that the girl was also het hypo. Anyway I have not been around enough caramel or amber hatchlings to know exactly what Im looking at, so...




dad


old pic of mom (on the right)

...a different one, same clutch

1st hatchling is a caramel, 2nd looks like a normal, but MAY be a hypo. A photo showing the color of the belly checks might help in that determination.

I'll get some more photos tomorrow. What tells you that the first is a caramel? Also, what would you expect to see in an amber taht is not there? There are very few GOOD pictures of the caramel family hatchlings that I can find. Im just trying to learn...

You know, if the mom is the lighter colored snake in the 4th picture, that looks more like a hypo than a normal to me, but maybe it just a really light one that has the yellow wash that het caramels can get :shrugs:
How many hatchlings are there? It may become more apparent if there's more and you start getting different looks

OK, perhaps a bit more information is needed on both ends.

The best way to try to distinguish hypo hatchlings in a mixed clutch is to compare them to their siblings. I made the assumption that the hatchling photos you posted were after they have shed a few times due to the amount of ground coloration they show. Caramel hatchlings, out of the egg, are very dark, looking almost like anerys but show just a touch of that yellow ground color on the neck. In comparison, I would expect an amber hatchling to look much lighter overall (all I have to go by are two ambers I purchased as hatchlings and photos posted by others).

HOWEVER, there can be very dark hypos that can pass as non-hypos initially, only showing the lighter black markings as they grow older (I'll try to post a progression thread in my personal forum of one such hatchling from an entire clutch that threw me for quite some time). Also, you can get normals that show very little black and can appear to be hypo as a result (I've had some of those as well).

You are right, they have shed twice. This a bad pic of them hatching. Thanks for the help. I'll get more pics after work today.

Actually, it's a good photo for comparison! Starting at the lower left and moving clockwise, I would say caramel (ground color on neck is yellow), hypo (overall rust color, not yellowish), normal (orange ground color on neck), amber (more yellow shades seen, especially on neck and even more on the head when compared to the hypo hatchling), caramel (yellow ground color on neck), and amber with it's head out of the egg (same head color as other amber, more yellow than hypo hatchling).

Wow, thanks ALOT! Now if they only still looked like that after their sheds... That does give me a basis to go by though. I am color blind to a degree and I see that caramel is not the family of morphs for me to work with, oh well. I can't hardly tell a difference between the ones you call caramel and the normal, or between the hypo and the ambers. Adult are no problem though...

Give it a few years. You'll get it. If anything, you could get the morph you want in pairs, such as just straight amber.amber and then you would know that you would only get ambers. You could get just straight pairs of each caramel morph you like and then after a few years, you should be able to learn the subtle differences.

Just glanced through the rack at them. Looks like I have 3 ambers... all of which are non-eaters

I also wanted to add that I still have two or three snakes that haven't eaten. They were born in July. They'll probably eat when they get hungry enough. Have you held the snake, holding right near the head so that they can't move and holding a pink in the other hand? I got a few of mine to start eating this way. Just watch your fingers! Most snakes won't get you but remember, once they latch on, they aren't likely to let go because they think your food. There's a thread somewhere about force feeding this way, which is how I learned.

Well, its kinda a bad year to decide to get out of caramel anyway. The 2nd clutch is due to hatch from that pairing next week, and these hatched yesterday from a butter motley x a different het butter anery...

Ok, I had my girlfriend and a friend look at them after reading your explanations. Tell me if these look tagged right. Still uncertain on a couple...

caramel


hypo


amber


hypo or amber?


hypo or amber?

The last two in question look like Ambers to me! They have an overall yellowy tint.