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Is this amel, hypo or?

Brady

Brady

New member
Hello all,

I've received a sub adult, male striped motley as a gift :dancer:.
A couple of question have come up that I hope someone can help me with. First, are the genes that create the stripe motley phenotype independent of the color influencing genetics? Also, take a look at the detail of the scales I've posted. The pair of dots on the tip of the scales fascinates me. They show up all over the snake on scales where that lighter color is prevalent. The darker pigment has me confused, hence the title of this post.

cydetailjw5.jpg


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His belly does not prevalent the checkerboard pattern. I'll snap some shots at feeding time tomorrow to show off the pattern. Thank you in advance for sharing your information with me.

Kind Regards,
Brady
 
Nice present! I love motley's!

If he is a striped motley, he will not have the belly checkers but a clean white belly like you have already mentioned. He looks to just be a motley from your pics, but it is hard to tell.

Also, motley does influence colors on corns. I am not sure how it works though, but I do not believe they are independent of one another.

Also, by looking at the eyes, he looks to be a normal coloration corn snake. Definitely not an amel because amels will have pink eyes. I would say no to hypo because I don't see any color surrounding the saddles on his back. I am not 100% sure on the hypo though.

I have a normal motley, and here is his picture. Looks a lot like your guy. Normal patterned corns have black that surrounds their saddles. As you can tell in my boy, he has no black on him. Something that the motley gene influences.

DSCN0103.jpg


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First off, Welcome to the forum! You've been given a beautiful corn snake!

The gene controlling the motley pattern is completely independent from any of the color morph genes. However, it IS located at the same gene locus as the stripe gene, but when one of each gene is present in an individual snake, the motley pattern is dominant to the stripe pattern. This can be confusing to many people, so if you want to read more on it, you'll find many threads on the subject when you run a search.

By the coloration of your snake, I would say that whoever gave it to you and called it a normal motley is probably correct. The motley pattern has a naturally lightening affect in most of the color morphs. That is why you don't see much black pigment dorsally. However, the color of the eyes definately says that your snake is NOT amelanistic, as those have pink/red eyes and pupils. Your snake MAY be a hypo motley, as it is quite bright, but only breeding trials can give you a guaranteed answer.

Your snake has a plain, checkerless belly because it is a motley. Motleys, stripes and bloodreds have genetically plain bellies. Many Keys corns have minimal checkering on their bellies as well.

As for those tiny little dots on each of the scales, that is a normal finding. I love zooming in on the photos I take of my snakes to look closely at their scales. The coloration that close can be quite fascinating, as you have discovered! :)

Here are 3 of my motleys for comparison:

Normal Motley
Bobby-600x450.jpg


Hypo Motley
Vali_March_07_-_2.jpg


Amel Motley
Odysseus_Dec_07.jpg
 
Learn something new every day Susan! I thought that they were not independent because of the lack of black on a lot of motleys. That was more my educated guess just from my one motley and others I have seen on this forum.
 
Thank you both very much for the info. I was floored when I came home and found him. A very nice gift indeed. I had put a deposit on him last week and my partner and our kids picked him up and set him up in an enclosure for me as a birthday present.

I agree that he is most likely a motley and was mislabelled striped motley in the shop. I'll post more photos later today so you can see his pattern. Also, thank you for the pictures as I was unsure if there is a "standard" coloration to motleys and striped motleys.... Learning basic genetics is fun. :p

Have a great weekend,
Brady
 
Does he have all spots down his back, or do some of the spots elongate and join together? A striped motley is different from a Stripe in that all/most of the spots join together and form a stripe. A Stripe is a solid, symetrical stripe. Well, except it can be vanishing, and broken up that way...

Some people think the motley pattern has a lightening effect on the typical color. If you search for "Dior," you will find a snake that is genetically lavender, so would be expected to be some shade of lavender, gray, something like that, but is instead a very strange but beautiful pink color.

Congratulations on your new snake, he's a beauty!!
 
It's true that Motley causes dilution/reduction of the black pattern in many corns. You do occasionally see very dark black borders on motleys, it's possible that the lightning effect could be not directly due to the motley allele. I have a line of banded motleys that are variable as far as melanin dilution and reduction. I like the contrast the melanin gives to the motley pattern.

motleyposshet.jpg


corn_banded_jfd.jpg

This female has colored up alot since this picture, she's much brighter now and the black is still very contrasting. This year breeding her with a banded male from the same line yielded banded anerys that also showed variation. In all cases so far, my males have a significantly more diluted black pigmentation.

Jean
 
Extremely good info. Thank you all very much. Here is a body shot so you can see the pattern. I just finished feeding him and have put him up for a few days to acclimate to his new home.

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Best Wishes,
Brady
 
ratsncorns said:
Definitely a motley and not a motley stripe. He is one nice looking guy!
Click to expand...

Excellent! This is the second corn I've picked up from that shop and even though the owner has nice healthy specimens I do question the validity of the info he gives me. I tend to be sceptical of what I'm told in many shops anyway.

He's a little on the thin side so I'm looking forward to putting a some weight on him while I decide what to cross him with next year.

Thanks again everyone!
Brady
 
Not yet, I can snap some in a couple of days. It's patternless and a creamy color with a hint of orange. He has a great temperment and the feeding was easy. I'm very excited about him and have been running him though punnit squares all morning. lol
 
Woot! Nanci, you are my hero today! :bowdown: ....I see hours and hours of oohs and ahhs in my immediate future.

Thanks!
Brady
 
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