There are a lot of issues to consider in everyone’s mines concerning the current issue at hand. Do we ignore information that a particular line of Mutant Corns has hybrid Corns contained in its lineage? The majority of people would immediately answer no to that question. Is there a point in time or multiple generations of creating project corns that an Ultra Caramel Corn would be considered a pure corn? Most people would say that if it is “known” that a hybrid was ever in its lineage then, NO!, exactly like Creamcicles.
How much information do we require to say that our Corns are “pure“. From what I have read so far, it is the amount of trust that you have in the person you are buying them from and perhaps a little background on their lineage. I trusted Kat completely when I obtained the Ultramel het Lavender from her and I had a pretty good background on their lineage. If the current information that we have just learned about had never surfaced, then Rich and everybody else would have continued down the “Pure” path.
Everybody knows, or at least most people that have been interested in Corns for any length of time knows, how many people are involved in the hobby. How snakes are bought and sold, in pet shops, at snake shows, to and from wholesalers and between hobbyists. I have talked to thousands of people at snake shows who have 10 - 20 pet Corn Snakes in 10 gallon aquariums in their house and they all seem to breed a few and sell them to friends and pet shops. We also know that Corns Snakes have been bred since the 50’s and 10’s of thousands of people have had there hands in the reproduction and sale of Corns Snakes. We all know that Hybrids have been produced many, many years ago along with intergrades, which is a whole other topic but related. There is no record of the movement of any of these Corns and hybrids that have been bred in captivity and sold in various fashions except for word of mouth for about 50 years.
“If in is not known that my Corn Snake has hybrid blood in it then I consider them to be pure“. But what does a person really “know” about the Corn Snake they purchase. Most people “know” everything that I have brought up above, but choose to ignore it for purity sake. Hypothetically: If you had two choices to save your life. Would you pick A: My Amel Corn is pure corn. Or B: My amel corn is not pure, based upon what you really “know“. If you think about the purity of Mutant Ninja Turtle Corn morphs logically and use common since, you would most likely choose “B“.
The closest thing to Pure Corns that we have are the Okeetee locality Corns. We could start a registry if CAV or Chip or another Locality “freak” (This is good) would maintain it to keep track of the lineage of true Okeetee Hunt Club Corns. Now I will use one of Rich Z’s arguments against Hunt Club Okeetees, since he is a Purist and apply it to this topic. I am going to paraphrase and shorten his statement about Locality Okeetees. He said something like: “There can not be any pure Okeetees because many years ago, when I was breeding corns and was not really into marketing them to make money yet, I thought that I would help to repopulate the corns in Jasper County. I pulled off on “Such and such” exit (Which is in Okeetee Country) and released 100’s (I believe) of captive bred corn snakes into the wild that were from various backgrounds. These snakes would have bred with the local population of Okeetees and caused them to not be pure.” Can anybody perhaps apply this same logic to Mutant Ninja Turtle Corns that we breed in captivity, but perhaps multiply the times this has happened by a hundred or more.
I like to use Rich Z statements in arguments because he is respected and I am sure that he has this forum set up to notify him of any time that his name is used so he can monitor the comments and respond. His responses and opinions are always very interesting to read. I always chuckle to myself when I read about the history of the Caramel gene, which in fact was just brought up in this thread. I do not chuckle because of my opinion of the Caramel gene as a mutant type gene, but because of the story that we all except to show they are pure. I really like my Butter Motley Corns that I bought from Rich, but the originating Corn was bought from a Mom and Pops Pet Store. I found an Amel Corn in my local Mom and Pops Pet Shop that looked a great deal like an Amel Gopher Snake to me. Of course Rich Z’s expertise with Corns would make the identification of this originating Caramel Corn much more reliable and it was labeled as wild caught and confirmed by the pet shop owners. OK, that is good enough for everybody and myself included, but most likely the pet shop owners were into Tropical Fish or Dogs and Cats and did not have a clue about any kind of snakes. I could come up with many very plausible circumstances that may suggest that there is no proof of the purity of that particular corn.
I have always been a purist in the past, but I am on the fence now. What are we really trying to accomplish with our Mutant Corns anyway. A Hypo Lav Caramel Bloodred Corn in no way resembles a wild caught Corn Snake, genotypically or phenotypically. We can argue that when the Hypo Lav Caramel Bloodred Corn is bred to a wild corn snake that the normal phase looks just like a Corn Snake. When Kat bred her Ultramel Motley Corn Snake to my Lava Corn, the offspring looked just like a Corn Snake as well. What is the difference. Something is “known“. What do your really “know”?
