Crimson Corn Snake
This is basically a hypomelanistic Miami phase. An idea that was rather late blooming, considering how long Miami Phase and hypomelanistics have been around. Perhaps it was the unfortunate circumstance that most of the Hypomelanistics available back in the late 80s were mostly deeply orange colored and it would have been a step backwards to infuse all that orange into corns that were selected specifically for the LACK of orange coloration in the background. But I decided to bite the bullet anyway, and surprisingly enough, the early results were very promising.
To get a good idea of what we are dealing with here, just take your typical Miami phase corn, which is attractive in it's own right, and make all of the colors about twice as bright, and you have an idea of what the Crimson looks like. Of course, it helps if you've been doing selective breeding with the Miami phase corns for over 20 years. The name 'Crimson' originated from the brilliant red coloration that the dorsal blotches can have in many of the babies. Of course, there can be some substantial changes taking place as the animals mature, but you still usually get quite an attractive looking snake as an adult.
Coloration in the ground color tends to be more towards the gray spectrum, in keeping with the ancestry of the Miami Phase corns, but even some producing the orange background can be very stunning looking. The dorsal blotches typically are orangish red, with some leaning more towards orange and others toward red. Some particular animals will have a more maroon coloration to the blotches that is quite pleasing to the eye. In some instances the stock has come from the Milk Snake Phase offshoot of the Miami Phase corns, and these will typically produce animals with very large dorsal blotches and often very pronounced contrast between the dorsal blotching and the ground color.
I'm expecting third generation animals this season and really have my hopes set high for some outstanding looking animals. I've been working on several parallel blood lines, and many of these will be joined together this year in the hopes of some real 'killer' offspring. With any luck, I'll produce far too many to keep myself and be able to offer animals for sale that you would have had to kill me for two years ago.
