Now out of curiousity Serp how can anyone tell if there bloodred corn snake... is a normal that is expressing the bloodred ventral pattern? or if its a true Bloodred? since both of the young look the same... how can you tell?
I could be wrong, because I really haven't had that much experience with bloodreds, and I've yet to hatch any, but it's my understanding that the simple mutation in question causes not only the loss of belly checkering, but also the reduction or elimination of side blotches and the fading of the sides of the saddles.
I'm sure those pattern effects are offset by other influences and/or variability within individuals, just like with motleys... some are extreme, some are mild. I'd be willing to bet that if you bred the same bloodred male to an Okeetee female and an Upper Keys female, and then bred the offspring to their siblings, you would get drastically different-looking F2 "bloodreds" between the two sets of clutches.
I think the problem is in the nomenclature. It's my opinion that the "true" bloodreds are analogous to Reverse Okeetees. They are both expressing a simple trait (one the bloodred trait, the other amelanism) but they are distinct from the other form because of multiple other influences. If you were to breed an amelanistic to an Okeetee, you would not get a predictable ratio of 1 in 16 F2 offspring being "reverse Okeetees." You would however get a predictable ratio of 1 in 4 F2 offspring expressing amelanism.
From what I've gathered, the same holds true of bloodreds. If you breed a "true" bloodred to a normal, you get F2 offspring that are expressing the simple pattern trait in a predictable ratio, but, just like with the Reverse Okeetees, I don't think very many of them will look as extreme as the original "true" bloodred. The problem is that the "trait" has the name bloodred, and so does the "morph" which has been selectively-bred to achieve looks above and beyond that provided by the simple trait.
Which one is the "true" bloodred? I don't know. I don't like the question... depending on your perspective, it's like asking which one is the "true" amel?
Anyway, I'm rambling... I don't know if it's possible to know for sure which gray-headed or plain-bellied offspring will be the best bloodreds, any more than it's possible to know for sure which amelanistic offspring will develop the most extreme oranges and become the best examples of "reverse Okeetee." I would imagine someone who has hatched a lot of them would be able to say something like "least belly freckles" or "baldest head pattern" or whatever. But I honestly don't know, and I hope to find out before I start hatching my own bloodreds.