Yeah, confusion and misidentification is a gross under-statement actually. There are more factors that contribute to this now days than you could possibly imagine. When there are a couple common equations (multi-morphs) to their genetic equation, they can very often "look" like they are a certain morph, but actually be something very different altogether. Also, without a breeder and/or buyer both knowing the precise parental genetic lineage, it can be virtually impossible to tell by many snake's outward visual appearance (phenotype) as well. When people acquire snakes from pet stores, shows or classified ads that are commonly sold as only what they seem to look like, then bred later on to other morphs, they can often produce countless unexpected surprises too. Test breeding is necessary in many cases to find out what many really are (or are not).

In short, there are TONS of cornsnakes (and other types too) out there in the hobby mainstream that are basically a huge "grab-bag" of unknown genetics. This is why if you want to know what genetic morph combinations a snake actually has, it's usually best to buy them from trusted sources that are very knowledgeable about the animals they work with. And by this same token, even then there are often scenarios of hidden genes the breeder's are not at all certain of either. Just one simple example would be an amel (albino) snake also being hypomelanistic. The hypo gene would then be "masked" visually by the albino gene leaving them looking virtually identical in most cases. Further still would be when any particular snakes in a given clutch are "possible" heterozygous gene carriers. Those cannot be distinguished from one another either until they are later test bred and you conclude what the parents are by what you breed it with and what your results are. This can definitely be half the fun, but it also leaves many unknown genetic possibilites too.

There are many other factors that can also be involved with many multi-morph snakes, and I see this all the time on a very daily basis. As you said, the typical guestion of"hey guys, what do you think this is I have?, any ideas?" is EVERYWHERE!..



cheers, ~Doug
-----
"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

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