My two cents
OK, here's the deal on these snakes, from my perspective. Three years ago, I acquired a trio of normal corns from Vin, het for multiple traits, as already discussed on this thread. Last year, I bred them and produced a multitude of different morphs, all of which I brought down to Daytona (where Chuck took that picture). Out of those two breedings in 2005, I produced:
Normals
Amels
Butters
Caramels
1.0 Caramel Blood
Blizzards
Bloodreds
Hypo Bloods
Lavenders
Hypo Lavenders
Pewters
The "What Is It?" snake (subject of this thread)
Chuck and I discussed what it might be in Daytona last year, and agreed that it might (emphasis on might) be an amber lavender, but whatever he was, it would have to be proven by test breedings.
First let me say that these animals are obviously het for two different types of hypo, one probably the standard hypo A, the other unknown. How do we know that? If Vin bred a hypo lavender blood to an amber (forget what they were het for, it doesn't matter in this instance) the results should have been all hypos. It was not - my trio are all normals, so there are two (incompatible) hypo genes at work here.
For the record, besides for what I kept back (just the "what is it" and the caramel blood) several groups of the hatchlings ended up with Tim Smith, Deb Cash and Gideon Hodulick. All are doing well, I have been advised of their progress.
Zoom ahead to this year. I decided to test the combination lavender/caramel theory - my friend Gideon Hodulick has a normal female, het for both lavender and caramel. So we bred him to the male from the above trio, to see if we would get any combination lavender/caramel homozygous animals. We got normals, lavenders and caramels, nothing particularly unique. Doesn't necessarily disprove the amber lavender theory, just (in my opinion) casts a little more doubt on it.
As to what we got out of the trio this year, more of the same from year one plus what we believe to be a hypo charcoal blood and blizzard blood (Tim Smith again has these) plus two caramel bloods. No "what is it" snakes this year, and no lavender bloods (what I really wanted out of this year's group - 40 eggs).
The fact that there are two different hypo genes at work is actually problemmatic, because anything I produce that is a hypo (for example, I have a nice hypo blood this year) I don't know what type of hypo it is, so if I'm selling them I can't in fairness tell the buyer "breed this hypo blood to this hypo lavender" and produce all hypos het for .... because they may be two different hypo genes, and it is virtually impossible to discern the difference.
Now as to my opinion as to what the "what is it" snake is - I don't know. Is it an amber lavender? Is it a new (peach) type of hypo, because Vin produced two of them this year. Is it something unique caused by the smorgasbord of genes (including blood, which we know exerts sometimes exotic effects on het animals) in play here? In my opinion, as Chuck and I agreed last year, it has to be proven. My plan all along was to breed him back to his mom (in the hopes of creating more of whatever he is) plus I have a lavender female set aside for him next year, to see if I produce all lavenders. So I'm not ready to to declare it something new. At a minimum, I have to produce a female this male, breed them together, and see if that union creates all of the same animal.
I am attaching a few pics here - one of the snake as a hatchling, and two taken tonight. The problem is that he is deep in a shed, so visually this will be inconclusive to everyone. I will post a few more pics when he sheds. Finally, I also attach a pic of his brother, the caramel blood.
I will bring him to the White Plains show this Sunday, whether he has shed or not. I will also bring this year's hatchlings.
Rich Hume