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Help differentiating a neonate amber stripe from a caramel stripe

blacktip

blacktip

Member
My girlfriend and I have had our eye on a 2014 caramel/amber(?) stripe at a local pet store for a month or two now. The pet store doesn't know if it's a caramel or amber stripe and my girlfriend and I have gone back and forth between the two every time we see it. Sometimes I see it and I swear it's amber, the next time something looks more caramel about it. Anyways, I haven't been able to get any good pictures of it but once I do I'll add them to this thread.

My question for you all, are there any typical distinguishing features that we can look for to possibly aid in identifying if the hypo gene is present? Iris color? Pupil color? Body color? Anything else? The stripes are lighter colored, but I've seen pics of caramels with lighter stripes so that just leads to the confusion. Oh and she's somewhere between 16" and 18" I'd say if that makes any difference.

Assuming no one else buys it before we have enough room for it in a couple months, we are definitely going to pick "her" up. She has a lot of spunk and a very engaging personality. So it really doesn't matter if she's one or the other. But it would be nice if we could be more definitive about what she is without having to resort to test breeding since we have no plans to breed (she would be our 4th corn and with those 4 all we could produce is normals and caramels with hets, no need to add more of those to the market)
 
Personally I find that it's as hard to tell as with normal stripes. The stripe gene has a hypo effect of its own, so a lack of black doesn't really tell you much. You can't look at the belly checkers, cause well, there are none. The only way I find reliable (without breeding) is to see the whole clutch and compare clutch mates, but I understand that it's not an option. Sorry I can't be of more help here!
 
There is a way to distinguish if an animal is Homozygous for any of the hypo genes. It requires the use of magnification of the scales. Chuck Pritzel describes it in depth in his Corn Snake Morph Guide and website. He figured out how the different Hypo genes manifest themselves based on the shape of their melanophores. This magnification can be done with a dissection microscope or a good camera (I've used my iPhone camera with good results.) Definitely worth checking this out even if it doesn't help you in a store setting.

Terri
 
I have the same problem with a Stripe girl I have, according to what her siblings are she could as well be Hypo Stripe.

Terri - So if I were to photograph my (Hypo) Stripe girl with a macro lens on DSLR I could find out if she's Hypo or not?
 
I don't think the macro lens on a camera would be sufficient. You need to use a microscrope to get down the level of the melanocytes.
 
Shiari - That's what I thought when I looked it up in the Corn snake morph guide. My macrolens can come close but I don't think it would be enough to see..
 
I was able to snap a quick picture of the little girl this weekend. Unfortunately the store was really busy so we weren't able to get a good picture of the whole body. It's really yellow up front and fades to more of a light olive green.

Anyways let me know if this head and neck shot gives you any idea of what she might be.
 

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I say if you like this snake then go for it! From what I can see it's beautiful. Not 100% with stripes, but you could wait for a shed to see how much melanin is on it. I'd have to dig, but I believe I have some comparison shots somewhere of sheds from Hypo and non Hypo corns. The Hypos sheds are much clearer, which the shed of a non hypo will be darker.

Breeding trials is really the only way to be sure though!
 
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