"So what's the difference anymore?"

Yes, unfortunately there isn't much "difference anymore" in quite a few lines of either in the hobby nowdays. It is just like MANY other types of snakes in todays hobby that are thrown together haphazardly. There are more crossed animals of ALL types in the herp hobby now than anyone could POSSIBLY shake a stick at, kingsnakes, ratsnakes, cornsnakes, ..you name it, and "it's in there!" (Prego spaghetti sauce slogan)..

The discovery of the amel nelsoni around 1994-95 is what actually set the stage for everyone to run scampering for a similar snake to breed these nelsoni to in order to produce more $2,000 snakes to sell. So since there were very few nelsoni in the entire hobby anyway at that time, Sinaloan's were the nearest thing. My gorgeous original male was acquired just before any amels were ever known.

As "DISCERN" mentioned, meristic-wise, nelsoni have 13 to 18 or even sometimes more RBR(red body rings)from neck to vent. Their snouts can be slightly mottled and flecked with white/yellow pigment, or can also have more pronounced white on the snout. Sinaloan's are generally a bit less light mottled on the snout than nelsoni however in general, but both subspecies can often have some light pigment or substantially darker snouts. The only real difference being is that nelsoni are more noted for their higher amount of light pigment on their snouts, especially from certain locales.

The first black ring on nelsoni underneath the throat are typically not connected, very thinly connected, or very often have a wide, incomplete "notch" where the black ring is broken . The first red ring width behind the head on nelsoni are typically much shorter than seen in sinaloae, as are the rest of the red rings because of their higher RBR count and wider, arching black rings. The outer black rings in the triads(rings of three)in nelsoni are wider at the base than sinaloae, and also follow suite upward and tend to arch outward much more on the dorsum compared to sinaloae as well. The tails on true nelsoni also tend to HEAVILY obscured with black pigment to when compared to most sinaloae.

Sinaloan milks on the other hand have RBR counts from 10 to 16, and their red rings are substantially wider because of the lower ring count. Their outer black rings are also thinner and arch out far less dorsally than does nelsoni. Also, sinaloae tend to have "cleaner" tails and are generally far less oscured with dark pigment. The first black ring underneth the throat in sinaloae tend to be connected, and often form a "V"-type pattern that points forward to the snout at the apex.

Here are a couple genuine nelsoni for comparison to good text-book examples of sinaloae.........









Genuine t-plus sire owned by Shannon Brown....



another t-plus genuine nelsoni



And some sinaloae for characteristic comparison to the above nelsoni....To summarize, simply note the shorter first red ring, RBR counts, thinner, less arching black rings, and cleaner tails on the sinaloae compared to the nelsoni





DISCERN'S genuine sinaloae.....


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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

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