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morph question

L

lily---

New member
hellooo people!
im new ... and welll i joined to know more about corn snakes and to look into get one ... but i have been told to do lost of research ... and i have looked but cannot find the answer to the following question ... was wondering if u guys could help.

i have been doing research on different types of morphs ... and am wondering why in fact there are so many types of morphes to begin with and also what are the differences between them ;

for example : a granite corn snake and a charcoal corn snake look extreamly similar in my opinion... what is the difference ... do they have different caracteristics or what ?
or even a bloodred and a granite... excluding the colouring and maybe pattern what is the difference ? :shrugs:
 
its all in the genetics.
look at it this way... chocolate chip cookies are what they are, because the ingredients used to make them combine to make chocolate chip cookies.
so, a charcoal cornsnake has different genetics than a granite.
some morphs DO look very similar. sometimes its impossible to tell one kind from another without a test breeding.
clear as mud?
 
Breeders have been developing new morphs over the years by combining different genes. When genes are isolated, and then mixed with other genes, the come up with new colour morphs.
A granite is an anery X bloodred and a charcoal is the homogenous form of anery B.
In your second example, bloodred is the homogenous morph and granite is anery X bloodred.
A good book to get that would explain this to you is the Cornsnake Morph Guide 2009 by Charles Pritzel, or visiting www.serpwidgets.com That is a website run by Charles Pritzel and lots of good info there.
 
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now THAT is not really a hard and fast answer. Its all speculation....there are many members on here that have different opinions. I've HEARD snow's can be quite mellow, I've HEARD lavenders can be tricky feeders....i've also heard the opposite of both of thoes things.
i think the safest answer is no. there is no essential differance by morph. (anyone care to correct me?)
now...by individual snake, there is a ton of differance! they all have their own attitudes.
as to why there is so many different kinds of morphs...well...same reason theres so many kinds of colors for mice/cats/dogs/fish whatever whatever. there just is. :)
 
i understand u completely ... but i dont think i fully explained my question XD the wright way anyway ... ill use another example ... humains! humains have many different "morphs" but for example for reasons ... i.e. a black person has a uv protection of about 500 yet a white can be born with very little protection .
 
...i'm still going to go with my origional answer. there is some speculation about differances between morphs, but i dont know of any hard and fast 'facts' from one to another.
for example, feeding, temperature, housing etc. for cornsnakes are the same requirements regardless of the morph.
 
I'd agree with Rosie - there aren't any differences between Corn morphs apart from colouring and pattern.

Most Corn morphs exist because humans have selectively bred them to be those colours. They aren't those colours for a natural reason such as better camouflage or to attract a mate.

Most captive-bred Corn morphs wouldn't last long in the wild, because they'd show up too much and get eaten.
 
Snake "morphs" are like human eye color, *not* human skin color which is a polygenic trait.

Brown eyes are dominant. They're the natural eye color and so they can be compared to a normal or "classic" corn snake.

Normals can be "heterozygous" for certain traits, but still look completely normal, just as someone with brown eyes can be het for blue eyes. But two brown-eyed people can have a blue-eyed child. However, two blue-eyed people cannot have a brown eyed one. You'll not get a normal corn from an amelanistic x amelanistic pairing.

So, granite is Anery A + Diffused. Diffused is a pattern modifying gene. It creates a clear belly, and often reduces the side patterns of the snake. Anery A is a gene that removes all reds and oranges, and most yellow. Combined you get the gray snake that is a Granite.

Charcoals are single recessive. They are simply Anery B which is Charcoal. They often have black eyes, while Anery A have silver or gray. Charcoals are often less contrasty than Anery A snakes.
 
You'd probably really enjoy the book Cornsnake Morph Guide. It explains everything, with pictures!!!

I started out with my first cornsnake, a normal. Everyone here was morph this, morph that. I found it sort of boring. I got a bunch of other snakes. Kingsnakes, hoggies, whatever. Then Carol (yes, I blame Carol) had a sale, and I bought three really pretty corns, and I started thinking about what I would breed them with, if I ever felt like it, and then Rich Z. had a price-slashing event, and I got a lavblood, (previously way, WAY out of my price range!!) and Joe Pierce had a sale, and I spent my tax refund there, and it was all downhill from there...Now I think about cornsnake morphs whether I am awake or asleep. It's fascinating. Even if you never breed, just the endless possibilities are amazing!! I think right now is a very exciting time for cornsnake genetics. New morphs are being proven out. We are seeing quad and quint homo snakes with increasing frequency. Very exciting times!!!
 
... cool i might pick the book up ... becoz i am extreamly interested i went on the authers website ... its very interesting as im learning about humain genetics in class atm soo seeing the differences is quite inerresting ... im definetly gonna go get the book XD
 
Agreed! when i'm bored and have a few moments, i'm constantly playing with the corn calc. it is really really interesting, and i've only got one corn at the moment and i'm never planning on breeding it for two reasons. one, i dont know the sex. two, he's from a local pet store and for my first breeding (in theory, if i were to start breeding at some point), i'd like it to be with genetics i'm more sure of.
 
the reason why i asked the question to begin with is because on winkipedia they explained a few morphs and they all had very different characteristics for example they said that a bloodred ;"The earlier bloodreds tend to have large clutches of smaller than average eggs that produce hard to feed offspring" i had almost no idea what it ment :confused: that was the snake i was looking into to get ... wich got me curious on morphs
 
ah, well...i kind of go with common sence on this one.
so...with dogs, dalmations have a reputations as high strung dogs. i think that any highly bred dog, or snake, or anything, would have a more delicate condition than a more varied bloodline.
So, inbreeding may be an issue i guess is what i'm saying. although i dont think its too much of an issue with snakes....

Your best bet, for your first cornsnake, is to find someone you trust, and like talking to that breeds. They will set you up with a snake that is healthy, and has a GREAT feeding history. more important than morph is that the breeder knows their business and gives you honest good information about your animal.
 
yea i dont realy care about the morph ... but i asked the question coz i was curious to know if there was a easiest snake to take care of morph ... u never kno XD
 
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