Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, this offspring hatchled a few weeks ago from snow x normal het snow.
It has reddish pupils and the black color is replaced by grey.
Is this an hypomelanistic or a ultra hypo? What's the difference between this two? Thanks for your help.

Looks like a possible Ultramel.

Impossible to be an ultra (ultra is not hypo), but it could be ultramel. If you let us know what siblings it has (or had in past seasons), we can help you "guess" what it is. The only way you'll know for sure is to breed it to an amel corn when it grows up. The pictures are not conclusive proof, but if you're sure the pupils are reddish in low light (even black pupils will appear red in bright light - like birthday party eyes), there's a better than average chance it's ultramel. Again, only breeding trials will tell AND even ultramels have black pupils at maturity. Eye color distinction is only a good test in neonates.
South Mountain Reptiles

Thanks for your answer. The mother(normal het snow) parents were Arythristic (type A) x Amelanistic het Anerythristic, the father (snow) parents were Amelanistic het Anerythristic x Amelanistic het Anerythristic. The brothers were 2 normal, 3 amelanistic, 5 snow.
Instead of black it has like a transparent gray.
Here are more photos. Thanks

From the babies you got, the indication is that you have nice looking hypo A corns. You didn't get enough babies to make this official, but no way both parents could be het ultra, since amels cannot be het ultra. If the normal was het ultra, it's possible to get what you got, but you should also have gotten the ultramel equivalent of snows (ghost-looking anery ultramels). Again, you may have just missed getting some, since your brood was so small, but if I had to recommend that someone keep the non-albino adult as being het ultra, I'd advise against it. I've hatched many hypos like the one you showed us. They're just stunning. People think that gray on a hypo means the ultra gene is present. Gray has been replacing black on non-ultra hypos for over 20 years.

Final analysis: I'm saying the non albino parent is not het for ultra and of course, the amel cannot be. The only way for you to know for sure (haha) is to raise up one of the hypo-looking ones and breed it to an albino that you know is not het for hypo A. I said "haha" cuz that is definitely not an acid test for proving or disproving your snake has the ultra mutation. It's just a fairly good indication. You see, if the amel you breed this baby to is het for hypo A, and if the snake you hope is ultramel is actually hypo A, you'll get the same visual results you'd get if you bred an ultramel to an albino. Approximately 50% amels and 50% hypo-looking animals. I think it would be fairly rare for the non-albino parent of your non-albino breeder to be an ultra gene carrier. For your non-albino to be het for ultra, the anery grandparent would need to be the sole carrier. If he was het for ultra, he would have sired ultramels when bred to the snow parent of your breeder. The more I read my typing, the more I'm convinced you've produced some killer hypo A corns. Keep us posted, should you take this to the next level.

Best wishes,

Don
South Mountain Reptiles

Thanks a lot Don, I am from Argentina and here there are few people breeding reptiles and sometimes it's difficult to recognize a new color just by seeing a book photo (I have Bill love first cornsnake book). Then may be I'll send you some photos of another "hypos" that I thaught they were but now I don't know because they didn't look like this one when they were offsprings. Here many people are calling hypos corns only because they have less amount of black.
Best Wishes,
Augusto

The problem with identifying ultras and ultramels is visual. There really is very little difference between ultramels and hypo A corns. Breeding trials are the best ways to determine which you have. Pictures probably won't help and for sure there is no way to visually tell which is when in the adults.
South Mountain Reptiles