What is Wigglet?

[SarahP]

So, we headed to the Bay Area Reptile Expo today, and I pretty quickly found this little guy/girl. S/he was only marked het lavender, which I usually assume means a classic het for whatever.

However.

Wigglet (temporary name because I'd forgotten how wiggly hatchlings are) is pretty clearly not a classic. For starters, s/he has a completely clear belly. Secondly, the purple-ish colors over that dark grey/silver ground is really there, not just in my amazing (*snort*) pictures. There are places where s/he nearly glows purple.

So I'm wondering what exactly I found. I'm thrilled, whatever s/he is, but I'm wondering if I could have been lucky enough to grab a pewter with a very visible het, or even a pewter lav.

His/her eyes, though they can't really be seen in the pictures, are blue.

Any ideas?

(And yep, I get to try to pop him/her as the vendor didn't know. Or... much about him/her, really.)

 

[SarahP]

(Also please ignore the state of my nails. I have been ill and so they're in dire need of maintenance.)

 

[Shiari]

Congratulations on your pewter. A lot of the charcoal-based ones go through a "pinkish" stage so I wouldn't be betting on her being a lavender pewter. I hope she stays that dark for you!


And if she does... and turns into a he... I claim first dibs!

 

[juliegarner]

Congrats on your little girlie. She is stunning

 

[hypnoctopus]

I agree that s/he looks like a pewter. Cute!

 

[airenlow]

I'm 99.9% sure this girl is a Lav Pewter...
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=124739

 

[Susan]

If she was marked as het lavender, I would say that is exactly what she is...pewter het lavender.

 

[SarahP]

My attempts to pop Wigglet thus far lead me to believe she is a she. I can't be 100% because mostly she just pooped on me, but... XD

 

[DMong]

Well, the "red flags" go off to me immediately when the seller didn't even have it labeled as an OBVIOUS pewter (charcoal x diffused). Much less know exactly what it might be heterozygous for, or not. However, lavender is quite common now days, so it is VERY possible for it to be het lavender. Only future test breeding will conclude this with any certainty though.

If they DID say it was a pewter, het lavender, then that is exactly what it likely is as others mentioned.

Nice pickup!


~Doug

 

[Susan]

Just thinking, I've seen many hatchlings marked at tables with only the hets as the breeder figured the actual morph was obvious and putting everything on the label may have simply taken too much time at the start of a show.

 

[DMong]

Just thinking, I've seen many hatchlings marked at tables with only the hets as the breeder figured the actual morph was obvious and putting everything on the label may have simply taken too much time at the start of a show.

Yes, that's always a likely scenario as well Susan. That certainly does happen.


~Doug

 

[SarahP]

I've seen vendors do that too. Those people tend to know the sex of their hatchlings, though, and not to shrug when asked, "So you're saying this is a normal?"



He freely admitted he didn't know much about the snake.

'tany rate, I'm thrilled with pewter. I'd be over the moon with lavender pewter, but a pewter het for lav is pretty amazing for my plans, so it's good all around.

 

[DMong]

Also, I'd like to point out to everyone that every single animal that is depicted on IV is NOT necessarily what it is said to be by all the different sources that submit these photos. many of them definitely are represented completely accurately,...no question there at all. Thing is, I know for an absolute FACT that I have seen many misrepresented morphs there over the years. There is no way on earth everyone that posts there knows precisely what some of these snakes are (or aren't). Quite a few snakes there are people's guesses of what they might have (or produced), not what they actually are. Again, there is no way on earth for IV to "police" all these morph submissions. They can only use their best judgment that the submitters know exactly what they are submitting, and that it is a fair assumption they know what they are submitting.

I can say with complete confidence that everyone in the hobby that has corn morphs is not certain about many corns they have acquired, bred, or produced, and are always represented accurately. Heck, far from it many times. Some of the submitters will actually go here first and ask........"hey, what morph is this?", then they will get a few answers from one poor photo, then submit the animal over on IV as whatever some of the guesses were. There is no way in hell anyone can possibly know what many of these snakes are,......just NO WAY on earth. Educated guess from what they can deduct from the photo?.....certainly!. But to KNOW exactly what all these snakes are phenotypically AND genotypically?............forget about it. It just ain't possible or realistic. I know many of you reading this post know full-well what I am talking about too. And theese scenarios are played out on a very daily basis. IV does an absolutely outstanding job of trying to supply as much morph info as possible, so my hat's off to them. I am also a Lampropeltis morph researcher there, so I am certainly not trying to slander the great efforts and results that that site has done for this hobby....not at all.

I am only mentioning all this because I look at things very realistically and say what I know about snakes and this hobby, that's all. Heck, if everyone was a taxonomic and genetics guru, there wouldn't be a need to show examples of every known morph combination. And we all know this certainly isn't the case..LOL!


cheers, ~Doug

 

[DMong]

Yep, it's a very nice snake no matter how you slice it in my opinion.


~Doug