Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently found a young pacific gophersnake that seemed to have some nice coloration to it. Here's two pictures showing the coloration differance between a typically colored juvenile and the one I just found. What do you guys think?

The one on the bottom looks a bit older than the other. I have noticed in my local wild population that they get that way as they get larger. Darker color and not as crisp patterns. My sons young P. Gopher looks to be kind of inbetween those 2
My Research and Collection

It was slightly larger than the other, but not much. They were both last years babies. I have noticed too that the gophersnakes gain more color as they grow and the darker colors fade. This snake was still very young for having that much color.

Looks like a "red phase" to me, based on other pix I've seen. But I'm fairly new to the morph thing.
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Carl