Mutant corns

[MariaOrrom]

Was in a petshop the other day and saw these really tiny snakes, babies, but real small. Asked the shopowner what they were and he said they were corns, a mutant variety. They were really pretty. Anyone know what these are like, how big they grow etc...
Maria :shrugs:

 

[paulh]

At a guess, I'd have to say that the shop had either amelanistic or snow corns. Amelanistic corns lack black pigment, which makes them a bit brighter orange-red than normal corns. Snow are both amelanistic and anerythristic. The amelanistic corns lack black pigment, and the anerythristic corns lack the orange-red pigment, though they get a bit of yellow on the sides as they grow. Snow corns lack both the black and the orange-red pigments, making them a pinkish color from blood showing through the skin.

If the pupils of the eyes are a nice pink, then the babies are either amelanistic or amelanistic combined with one or more other mutants.

All corn snake babies (mutant or not) are around 12 inches long at hatching. Adults are usually somewhere in the 36-60 inch range. The usual diet is small rodents, with domestic mice commonly fed them in captivity.

Here is a link to a web page with many pictures of corn snakes: http://members.aol.com/guttata319/Hawkherp/morfs.html