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Fire or Amel Masque? Please help.

albertagirl

albertagirl

Sharan
Hi, I just bought a fire baby at a reptile show. She has the masque-esque head marking, and a white belly (so I thought). When I got her home I was giving her one more good look over before putting her away, and I realized she doesn't look very diffused. Um... or perhaps not diffused at all. So I took a closer look at her belly, and I think I do see some checkers after all. :nope:

I think I just made a big rookie mistake and bought an amel mislabeled as a fire... at a fire price no less. Can you guys look at the pictures and tell me what you think? As usual, less than stellar pics of a wiggly wormy, which have been shrunk way down for uploading, so I hope you can see what you need to see to determine what I'm asking.

Thanks.

1.jpg

4a.jpg

5.jpg

3.jpg

6.jpg
 
Looks like an amel masque to me (I hatched out several of them this year as well as fires, so I had to get help learning the difference, too). But honestly, if you have the seller's information, I would contact them and let them know. Maybe they can give you a partial refund or something. She's still pretty, though.
 
hypnoctopus said:
Looks like an amel masque to me (I hatched out several of them this year as well as fires, so I had to get help learning the difference, too).
Click to expand...

Thanks Olivia, actually it was only because of seeing your thread that I even knew this was possible... and also why I feel like I should have known better. I was *not* looking for an amel, and if I was going to get an amel, there was a really pretty amel stripe there... but actually I turned down an incredible abbotts okeetee for this one, so I'm pretty disappointed right now. I want you to be wrong! :sobstory:

Crap. So now do I keep her because she's the sweetest girl ever? I have a limited amount of room, and a basic amel was never on the wishlist.
 
Have you contacted the breeder about it? Maybe they would be willing to exchange the baby for an actual Fire.
 
Yeah,I think the best course of action is to try to get in touch with the breeder. It was probably just a mistake on their part because they look so similar.
 
I've just send an email. The show runs until tomorrow, but the show is 1.5 hours away, so that's a pain... and the breeders are from BC I think, so that's an additional pain if I don't make it back to the show. Hopefully they get back to me tonight, and I can head out there again first thing in the morning. And hopefully they have an actual fire or one of the okeetees left.

I *HATE* to be THAT customer!! This sucks.

I am also supposed to go to a baby shower tomorrow, and that really doesn't help schedule-wise.
 
Ok, so the breeder (who is absolutely willing to accept a return, thankfully) is saying that the parents were an inferno (ultramel blood) and a sulphur (butter blood)... so this really should be a fire baby!
I need advice! With the lack of diffusion that she's showing now, what are the chances of ending up with a more-or-less red patternless adult? Slim? Good? Does anyone want to hazard a guess?
 
She looks like a bloodred to me. I would bet on it. Look at her belly- see the "clear" (they look gray in the pics) marks in the center of the belly scales? That means bloodred. In my opinion, what you think are checks is color bleeding in from the sides. She's most likely masque, too- look at how wide her nose band is!

I believe she will mature into a very red or orange adult without much, if any, visible pattern.

That's great of the breeder to allow you to return her if you aren't happy. But- I'm positive she is what she was sold as.
 
She's also the sweetest baby, honestly. I love her personality already.

I have no experience with telling these *almost identical as babies* morphs apart, so I will take your word for it. If the breeder guarantees both parents are diffused, who am I to argue!? LOL. It was unfortunate that the breeder couldn't be at the show, but amazing of her to get back to me SO quickly! Gotta love excellent customer service. :)

I am relieved, I would be so disappointed if she was the wrong morph. I know I now have one vote saying amel, and one (well based solely on pictures anyway) saying bloodred, but I ~really~ want her to be bloodred, so I'm gonna go with that for now. Thank you Nanci, you've made my day! (Olivia, I'm sorry, but I still really want you to be wrong! LOL)
 
Nanci, I'm pretty sure I'm seeing actual belly checks on the neck, not just color bleeding. You can see them in the third picture if you look closely. The amel masques I hatched this year on have checkers on their necks, no checkers on their bellies, except for one.

Here's some updated pictures of my three:

I forgot to take a picture of the head pattern of this one, but it looks like a fire head pattern:

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This one has even fewer checks:

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And this one has a lot of checkers, but they are split:

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I admit that I am new to identifying the masque gene, so I definitely could be wrong!
 
Of yours, I think 1 and 2 are bloodred, and 3 is amel. They look completely different to me.
 
Maybe I should try to get some better pictures by holding her the way you have your little ones there? I still want you to be wrong, but I could swear I see checkers by her neck too... They look... not orange, but sorta clear.
 
I just feel like I can't label them as fires if they have any belly checkers at all, even if it's just a few.
 
albertagirl said:
Maybe I should try to get some better pictures by holding her the way you have your little ones there? I still want you to be wrong, but I could swear I see checkers by her neck too... They look... not orange, but sorta clear.
Click to expand...

If it makes you feel any better, I want me to be wrong, too! :)
 
The first pic of Olivia's fire- those markings on the neck are not checks. Those are clear patches.
 
Hmm, well now I don't know what to think. When I first posted my inquiry when they hatched, Shiari thought that those ones were amel masques. I trust both of your guys' opinions!
 
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