what is your favourite type of coloured corn?

Yeah those are all pretty cool... I like any with really bright colors or with the more 'striking' features like solid lavenders or blizzards. Anything unique is great. As far as new morphs go, can any two morphs be bred together to make something new? Or are certain morphs only compatible with certain other morphs? Just curious what some crazy combinations might looks like, such as a Lavender/Sunglow Motley combo.

 

If you are interested in genetics and which genes are used to create what, check out the Corn Snake Morph Guide. It is a book that is updated yearly and is very cheap...like $6 I think.

If you were to breed a Lavender to a Sunglow Motley (which is just an Amel Motley), you would get offspring that were all heterozygous (carriers) of the all three genes; Lavender, Motley, and Amelanism. If you were to breed these offspring back to the parents, or to other snakes that were known carriers of the same genes, some of those offspring (check out Punnet Squares for more information) would be Opal Motleys. Opal is the combination of Lavender and Amelanism. It gets confusing if you don't have a basic grasp of genetics and how simple recessive traits and combinations work. But, statistically, a very small proportion would end up showing all three genes. Some would show one, two, or even none. These statistics change if one of the starter snakes is a carrier of one of the other genes. For example, if the Lavender is also carrying the Amel or Motley gene, then some of the initial offspring could exhibit the Amel or Motley gene. It's very important to get familiar with recessive traits and how things work with carriers.

It's all on what specific genes do. Some, like Amelanism, effect black pigment (melanin). Others, like Anerythrism and Charcoal, effect red pigment (erythrin). Still others, like the Caramel gene, effect yellow pigment (xanthin). Combine two or more of these genes together and you'll get different looks. For example, a Snow is combination of Amelanism and Anerythrism. That is a complete lack of all black and red pigment. A similar looking snake is a Blizzard, which is a combination of Amelanism and Charcoal (also known as Anery . A Butter is a combination of Caramel with Amelanism. It's all very interesting if you read about it.

 

Re: RE: what is your favourite type of coloured corn?

If you are interested in genetics and which genes are used to create what, check out the Corn Snake Morph Guide. It is a book that is updated yearly and is very cheap...like $6 I think.

If you were to breed a Lavender to a Sunglow Motley (which is just an Amel Motley), you would get offspring that were all heterozygous (carriers) of the all three genes; Lavender, Motley, and Amelanism, however, since they are only carriers, they will all look normal. If you were to breed these offspring to each other, or to other snakes that were known carriers of the same genes, some of those offspring (check out Punnet Squares for more information) would be Opal Motleys. Opal is the combination of Lavender and Amelanism. It gets confusing if you don't have a basic grasp of genetics and how simple recessive traits and combinations work. But, statistically, a very small proportion would end up showing all three genes. Some would show one, two, or even none. These statistics change if one of the starter snakes is a carrier of one of the other genes. For example, if the Lavender is also carrying the Amel or Motley gene, then some of the initial offspring could exhibit the Amel or Motley gene. It's very important to get familiar with recessive traits and how things work with carriers.

It's all on what specific genes do. Some, like Amelanism, effect black pigment (melanin). Others, like Anerythrism and Charcoal, effect red pigment (erythrin). Still others, like the Caramel gene, effect yellow pigment (xanthin). Combine two or more of these genes together and you'll get different looks. For example, a Snow is combination of Amelanism and Anerythrism. That is a complete lack of all black and red pigment. A similar looking snake is a Blizzard, which is a combination of Amelanism and Charcoal (also known as Anery . A Butter is a combination of Caramel with Amelanism. It's all very interesting if you read about it.

EDIT - Sorry, I couldn't go back and change what I wanted to say so I double posted! Please delete the post just above this one if a mod swings by!

 

RE: Re: RE: what is your favourite type of coloured corn?

That's interesting stuff. Kind of like a three in one deal with that Lavender+Sunglow Motley breeding.

 

RE: Re: RE: what is your favourite type of coloured corn?

Not really, because all the offspring will look normal and you'd have to wait a long time to breed them to each other or to other carriers and hope you get homozygous offspring out of the second breeding. Breeding het to het (carrier to carrier) results in very few homozygous offspring of multiple traits. That's why hets for crazy morphs sell for pretty cheap...because it's difficult to recreate. Two hets for a triple recessive trait will produce a crazy mish mosh of results, but very few, if any, actual offspring will show all three traits.

For example, if you were to breed two carriers of all three traits together, the offspring could be this, statistically:

27/64 would be Normal, 66% poss.het. Lavender, 66% poss.het. Motley, 66% poss.het. Amelanistic
9/64 would be Lavender, 66% poss.het. Motley, 66% poss.het. Amelanistic
9/64 would be Amelanistic, 66% poss.het. Lavender, 66% poss.het. Motley
9/64 would be Motley, 66% poss.het. Lavender, 66% poss.het. Amelanistic
3/64 would be Lavender Amelanistic, 66% poss.het. Motley
3/64 would be Lavender Motley, 66% poss.het. Amelanistic
3/64 would be Motley Amelanistic, 66% poss.het. Lavender
1/64 would be Lavender Motley Amelanistic (Opal)

So you see, statistically, only 1 out of 64 offspring would actually show all three genes. 9 out of 64 would show two and be a possible carrier of the third, 27 out of 64 would show one and be a possible carrier of the other two, and 27 out of 64 would be normal and be possible carriers of the other three. Statistically, it's a mess!

 

RE: Re: RE: what is your favourite type of coloured corn?

Statistically, it's confusing.

 

I like all pretty much all of those morphs, too, but I just love good ol' normal corns. I just bought a little Corn Snake on Sunday, his name is Pahokee (a place in Florida, and an Indian word meaning "grassy waters").

But looking through the morphs, one of them was just too damn awesome to me. This is the next snake I hope to get:

Okeetee Corn(Abbott's)

 

Yeah, I like Okeetees.

 

Thanks for the insight Dragon... I am somewhat familiar w/ genetics and recessive traits, etc... but only what I learned in school - and those kind of classes were a loooong time ago. But I definitely understand the concept you are discussing.... brings me back to class when we did those BBbb charts to determine the percentages (or I guess the probability) for each combo of recessive & dominant traits. For ex. a BB (normal, not carrying the recessive trait at all) breeds with a bb (let's say pure lavender) would produce all Bb babies, and since dominant traits P override recessive traits ) then all the babies would still be normals but carry the recessive trait. But then if you breed those snakes together (Bb with Bb), then you'd get 25% BB, 50% Bb, and 25% bb, so really 75% normal and 25% lavender. I know it can get more complicated than this, but isn't this the same kind of concept? lol I AM pulling from a faded memory. And doesn't gender play a role because of the XX XY thing.... that females can pass on two traits (XX) and the males only pass on one (X), and then (Y) determines sex, or maybe that's only w/ humans? Maybe I need to take another biology class

 

I'm not sure those types of genes are effected by gender, but I don't think they are. I'm sure it depends on what type of gene it is and where it's located.

 

Yeah... any idea what I was talking about with the BBbb

 

lol I tend to ramble on.... sometimes. ok.. lots of times.

 

Yes, I know what you're talking about with that. It's how offspring are predicted by matching up alleles in a punnet square.

 

There are so many kinds its hard to pick a favorite. i really like the lavenders and the bloodreds and the caramels and butters and anerys and ghosts and normals and....
ok i like them all!
I just picked up an anery hatchling yesterday...he's freaking adorable and the tiniest baby i've ever had. i'll get pics next week. he ate his first pinky on wednesday. and i mean first. i got him almost straight out of the egg.

 

Congrats! Come up with a name yet? How do you manage do get all these babies in past your gf?

 

i dont tell her and i just sneak them in....just kidding.
really she likes the little babies, she thinks they're really cute and she likes snakes as long as they arent huge like retics or burmese pythons. but i think this will be it for now. i'm running out of room for tanks. and when i got Blaze i almost got an anery too. the petstore had an anery that my gf liked. but it was already on hold for someone.
i had actually went by the petstore to get a live pink for Shadow...which is a whole nother mess. i may end up giving Shadow to the petstore owner...he's giving me a heck of a time feeding. and i cant continue giving him live food. i dont have the time to make a trip to the petstore every week. and even then, half the time he refuses the live pink too.
but anyway, i went to get a pink for shadow and saw the anery. the petstore owner had just hatched him and he had his first shed. so yeah, he's about a week or so old. i brought him home and my gf likes him.

 

That's really too bad about Shadow. He's such a pretty little guy. The anery sounds soooo cute! I'd love to see pics

 

Simple, get a g/f that like reptiles just as much as you do.

I'm the other way around, my b/f and I are complete herp-aholics!

 

Man, I wish I lived with my bf. He absolutely adores my snake. I can't wait to finish college and move out.

 

I like Ghosts, Lavenders, and Bloodreds, Butters are really nice too.