Came upon a thread with some questions about what dream corns are. Serpwidget did a pretty fair job of saying what thay are or might be but thought I'd post an except from my old web site explaining their beginnings:
DREAM CORNS
In the late 80's a friend of mine collected a unique, exceptionally bright, corn snake near Ridgeland South Carolina. In an attempt to produce similar corns, he was bred to a "pure" female Okeetee acquired from a west-coast breeder. The F1 babies matured quickly and were bred producing an F2 generation composed of normal and light phased neonates in numbers that suggested a typical recessive trait was at work. A few of the clutches however also produced albino (amelanistic) specimens. Subsequent breedings back to the west-coast female proved her to be the carrier of the stray albino gene. Since albino corns were a hot commodity at the time, the project to took a back seat to albino production. Unfortunately the original male died during this time and the project foundered as a result.
Several years ago I was fortunate enough to acquire one of the original F2 males. For all intensive purposes this male looked to be a light phase Okeetee. He was BRIGHT orange, instead of the usual vermilion red, and had the classic black blotch borders. He was bred to a pure locality matched Okeetee and I held back a pair of offspring for further breeding. In 1997 this pair of corns produced their first clutch. The results were initially disappointing as no light phase specimens were apparent! I was actually in the process of packing the entire clutch up for shipment to a wholesaler when I noticed the eyes of one of them were somewhat ruby colored. (This was interesting as neither the original wild collected male nor the F2 male had ruby colored eyes.) On CLOSE examination I decided that the little fella indeed had something different going for it. Carefully, I went through the rest of the clutch and came up with a female that had the same ruby colored eyes.
Though this F3 generation started out looking very similar to ordinary Okeetees they quickly differentiated themselves and developed the bright orange coloration of their grandfather (F1). The male lost virtually all black pigment and today looks much like a "sunglow" albino with darker eyes. The female, while still bright orange, retained the classic Okeetee pattern with bold borders around her blotches. These borders however, are a charcoal gray instead of the classic black.
In 1999 these two corns were bred together and produced an F4 generation of brightly colored "Dream" Corns. (Unfortunately, the albino gene persisted and a few albinos were also produced.) It is noteworthy that, as neonates, it took close examination to differentiate the F3 generation from normal corns yet these babies were VERY distinctive right out of the egg.
To me these corns were very distinctive from the established line of hypomelanistic corn snakes and I wanted to give them a market name that would set them apart. I settled on the name "Dream Corn" because this strain embodied what I thought were the most desirable characteristics of corn snakes. I also felt the name would gain easy acceptance as Bill and Kathy Love used "Tangerine Dream" to describe their strain of Honduran milksnake. Please note that I am marketing these corns as a strain and make no claim that this is a new mutation. Websters dictionary defines a strain as:
"descendants of a common ancestor; race; stock; line breed; variety"
Though these corns are quite distinctive I am not 100% sure they are not related to the current line of hypo corns. Lacking the space (and inclination) to test these two lines, I played it safe and priced my Dream Corns at the same level as Serpentco's Crimson Corns (which are simply hypo Miami phase corns). The Dream corns were introduced at the 1999 National Reptile Breeder's Expo in Orlando and were quite well received. All but one trio, which I retained, sold on the first day of the show!
My plan for the Dream strain is to continue crossing it to select Okeetees. At their best, these classic corns are celebrated for their color, size, pattern and vigor. Further incorporation of these qualities seems to be the only natural course for the propagation of a Dream Corn. (END site text)
So there it is in a nut shell. The pic BTW is a 2004 comparison shot of a dream, a het sibling and an albino. If any of you have proved or disproved these against the original hypo trait I'd be interested in hearing the results. Thanks in advance.
Tony D
DREAM CORNS
In the late 80's a friend of mine collected a unique, exceptionally bright, corn snake near Ridgeland South Carolina. In an attempt to produce similar corns, he was bred to a "pure" female Okeetee acquired from a west-coast breeder. The F1 babies matured quickly and were bred producing an F2 generation composed of normal and light phased neonates in numbers that suggested a typical recessive trait was at work. A few of the clutches however also produced albino (amelanistic) specimens. Subsequent breedings back to the west-coast female proved her to be the carrier of the stray albino gene. Since albino corns were a hot commodity at the time, the project to took a back seat to albino production. Unfortunately the original male died during this time and the project foundered as a result.
Several years ago I was fortunate enough to acquire one of the original F2 males. For all intensive purposes this male looked to be a light phase Okeetee. He was BRIGHT orange, instead of the usual vermilion red, and had the classic black blotch borders. He was bred to a pure locality matched Okeetee and I held back a pair of offspring for further breeding. In 1997 this pair of corns produced their first clutch. The results were initially disappointing as no light phase specimens were apparent! I was actually in the process of packing the entire clutch up for shipment to a wholesaler when I noticed the eyes of one of them were somewhat ruby colored. (This was interesting as neither the original wild collected male nor the F2 male had ruby colored eyes.) On CLOSE examination I decided that the little fella indeed had something different going for it. Carefully, I went through the rest of the clutch and came up with a female that had the same ruby colored eyes.
Though this F3 generation started out looking very similar to ordinary Okeetees they quickly differentiated themselves and developed the bright orange coloration of their grandfather (F1). The male lost virtually all black pigment and today looks much like a "sunglow" albino with darker eyes. The female, while still bright orange, retained the classic Okeetee pattern with bold borders around her blotches. These borders however, are a charcoal gray instead of the classic black.
In 1999 these two corns were bred together and produced an F4 generation of brightly colored "Dream" Corns. (Unfortunately, the albino gene persisted and a few albinos were also produced.) It is noteworthy that, as neonates, it took close examination to differentiate the F3 generation from normal corns yet these babies were VERY distinctive right out of the egg.
To me these corns were very distinctive from the established line of hypomelanistic corn snakes and I wanted to give them a market name that would set them apart. I settled on the name "Dream Corn" because this strain embodied what I thought were the most desirable characteristics of corn snakes. I also felt the name would gain easy acceptance as Bill and Kathy Love used "Tangerine Dream" to describe their strain of Honduran milksnake. Please note that I am marketing these corns as a strain and make no claim that this is a new mutation. Websters dictionary defines a strain as:
"descendants of a common ancestor; race; stock; line breed; variety"
Though these corns are quite distinctive I am not 100% sure they are not related to the current line of hypo corns. Lacking the space (and inclination) to test these two lines, I played it safe and priced my Dream Corns at the same level as Serpentco's Crimson Corns (which are simply hypo Miami phase corns). The Dream corns were introduced at the 1999 National Reptile Breeder's Expo in Orlando and were quite well received. All but one trio, which I retained, sold on the first day of the show!
My plan for the Dream strain is to continue crossing it to select Okeetees. At their best, these classic corns are celebrated for their color, size, pattern and vigor. Further incorporation of these qualities seems to be the only natural course for the propagation of a Dream Corn. (END site text)
So there it is in a nut shell. The pic BTW is a 2004 comparison shot of a dream, a het sibling and an albino. If any of you have proved or disproved these against the original hypo trait I'd be interested in hearing the results. Thanks in advance.
Tony D
