#morph mondays

Morph Monday My first snake and only corn snake is a Creamsicle. This is an interesting morph, as it's actually a hybrid of a corn snake and a Great Plains rat snake. When mixing the amelanistic traits from both snakes, you get this pastel yellow/orange color, much like the popsicle it's named after. They have clean, white bellies and red eyes. They can be selectively bred to get specific colors, such as more yellow or high-whites. Depending on the percentage of rat snake in their genes, their appearance will differ.

Morph Monday Today, we're looking at Plasma corns! It is a double-recessive morph which consists of Lavender and Diffused (aka Bloodred) traits. The diffused aspect removes the pattern from the under-belly and sides, leaving the adults (almost) solid grey . The eyes are a dark, steely color.

Morph Monday Along with Tesseras, I really love Stripes! Just like the Motley gene, it is recessive and can be combined with other traits to get different colors. The strength of the stripe can vary. Sometimes, the pattern will start breaking at the tail, and look more like a dotted line. But for breeding purposes, nice clean lines are preferred.

Morph Monday Motley is one of the oldest discovered morphs, which is used in combination with countless other traits. As opposed to a color change, motley alters the pattern, creating circles along the back and removing any ventral patterns. The prominence of the trait can vary, even to the point of resembling the stripe trait.

Morph Monday The Opal corn snake is a double-recessive morph, created by combining the Lavender and Amelanistic traits. As hatchlings, they're more of a pink color and almost look translucent. But with age, their colors whiten out. It is often mixed with Hypomelanism, Stripe, Diffused and many other traits to get different colors and patterns.

Morph Monday Tessera is one of my favorite morphs. It was the first dominant corn snake mutation discovered just a few years ago (remember how I've said most morphs are recessive?). The main trait is the clean stripe along the back, speckled sides, and white belly. Many breeders are finding interesting combinations with Tesseras, such as anerys, albinos, caramels... the list goes on!

Welcome to the first post for Morph Mondays! This is where I will briefly explain different corn snake morphs and the genetics behind it. Today, I will be talking about Candy Canes! Candy Canes are a selectively bred Amel. Selective breeding is done to get their typical high-whites and bright reds/oranges. Amelanism is a recessive trait (like most traits in corn snakes), which is the complete lack of melanin. Melanin is the pigment which creates blacks and browns.