Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My girlfriend and I were at a pet store looking at getting our first corn snake, but we were presented with a bigger problem than we had thought we would face: Which color should we get, and what will the various colors look like as they grow and shed? We saw basically three different morphs (at least, that's what they would call them in the gecko world, which I am much more familiar with) that I will try to describe as best I can.

The first was a black and white banded snake showing no real color other than those two. There was a red and white banded snake, with some orange pigment and red eyes, and there was a mostly white snake, with pink bands and bright red eyes. We are both very interested in getting a snake that will display vibrant colors while having a diverse "palette".

I'd greatly appreciate any direction to either a web site displaying pictures of babies and their adult colorations, or, giving you all a chance to show off your snakes, we'd love to see some user's snakes with some comparison shots. Your help is greatly appreciated here. Thanks in advance.

If you're confused now, just wait until you look through some more pics. You'll want all of them.

i agree.. just buy all 3 and then decide what you like best for yourself..

By next year this time you will have 12 more!

~ Mike

The obvious answer would be to wait until you can find an Abbott's Okeetee!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAHA I second that!

or a Caramel...

I have an Okeetee and after she sheds she is like the most beautiful snake.

I appreciate all the responses already! Now, in an effort to refocus though ( I'd like to point back to part of the initial post. I'd like to see or have explained what these various colors will end up looking like in comparison to their colorations as hatchlings. Again, all the help is awesome. My girlfriend is sitting here reading while I hammer out some electrical resistivity problems for school and can't believe that this post has gotten this many responses already! Keep them coming! Thanks.

the snakes you saw were most likely

Anerythristic A

Amelanistic

and a Snow

here is a good source of pictures.

http://www.cornsnakes.net/pricelist.php?catid=2

Below are pictures of my Ghost female and Motley Albino male mating. Its pretty cut and dry which one the Ghost is. Did the one in the store look anything like these? I would highly recommend a Ghost. I love mine.

Foot Hill Reptiles

Snows tend to get whiter as they age but will develop yellow streaking around the neck and first third of the body towards the end of the first year. Yellow pigment is the last color to develop in corn snakes so isn't always apparent at birth.

Aneries will get that same yellow streaking but retain most of their black/grey/white type coloration, though it can fade after a few years or more, as the snake gets older.

The albino again, may pick up some of that yellow streaking on the neck..but it will retain most of the same color it had as a baby, though it may become slightly less intense well into adulthood.

All and all, they are pretty snakes and will always be pretty snakes even as they age. The patterns they have as babies, will be retained throughout their lives. A few aberrant traits and some morphs can change it, such as the blood reds (the red diffuses into all areas of the snake and eventually it looks almost like a solid deep red), Some aberrant traits will cause scales to turn white, speckle or go 'bold' but this is rare and typically not found in most corn snakes.

Doing a search online or even in the photo gallery here at kingsnake (just click on 'photos' tab above) will bring up all kinds of pictures of both baby and adult corn snake morphs, including the various wild type phases (ie okeetee, miami, etc.)

Picking up a copy of 'The Corn Snake Manual' by Bill and Kathy Love, is also a great ideal to learn basic care and breeding of corn snakes and see picture and explanations of the various corn snake morphs out there.

To get just a pet corn snake, go with what attracts you. If a brightly colored high contrast snake is what you want, the anery or albino is a good choice. Okeetee, reverse okeetee (basically an albino Okeetee phase), Miami corn snake are also quite colorful and distinctive.

Then....there are pattern morphs that can be quite attractive. Motley and striped pattern morphs are quite striking, especially when combined with anery.

In truth, there is so many different varieties of normal corn snakes and color/pattern morphs out there now, every body here is going to give you a different suggestion because we all like different things. Corn snakes have just about everything possible to suit everybody's tastes in both color and pattern. Heck, if you don't care if its a 'pure corn' the hybrids are quite striking as well (jungle corns are wild. though I can't remember what the corn snake is bred into to get that look, maybe kingsnake). Hybrds are the creamsickles (corn snake x emory rat snake), Rootbeers (I believe these are hybrids, but I can be wrong..but i don't remember the non corn parent is...in other words, i don't keep track of hybrids to much).
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PHLdyPayne