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Much to my relief I have arrived at a name for this morph. I have been batting ideas around for four years now and had almost given up the effort. I will call it Moonshine. I could not find any other morphs in Pantherophis with this name, so it is done. Most of the hatchlings have eaten their second meal now. I only have one that is holding out on me. I guess I'll have to try scenting for her. I wonder if the anoles in my yard have learned that this time of the year is when they are called upon to donate the tips of their tails!

Hmmm, now what about the very obvious display of different phenotypes between the two there?, and are these even the same thing at ALL??. I mean, one is a very noticeable darker shade with dark eyes, and the other is far lighter with very noticeable pale pink eyes.

That original snake could actually be a double recessive morph, and now you have a combination of these morphs in this newly produced generation.

You could easily designate a name for BOTH at this stage of the game, then refine things based on later breedings to see if these are both totally separate traits involved there.

Maybe just for now.......

Moonshine(type 1)

Moonshine(type 2)

Just a thought, unless this thing behaves like the "extreme" hypo gene in Hondurans and you get VERY noticeable variations of hypomelanism in the clutches. And even when you breed two extreme adults together, they can easily throw very different degrees of hypomelanism even though they are all usually well beyond a typical looking hypo. For example, some can have dark eyes, and some have very noticeable ruby-red eyes.

That "extreme" gene is certainly yet another one that nobody fully undrstands yet(including me), and I have been studying these and breeding them for years now, as well as many other very dedicated milk aficionados I know.

Anyway, those are simply outstanding snakes, and you certainly deserve good credit for getting that cool project up and going, but for those two snakes to be the exact same morph is going out on the limb just a bit I think.

Again, congrats on those cool critters!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Agreed, Doug. I think I'll go with Dark Phase Moonshine and Light Phase Moonshine for now. In fact the different phases of the moon and the different phases of this morph(s) partially inspired the name. I should have known this was not going to be easy (figuring out this mutation). It has been and will be fun, though.

"I think I'll go with Dark Phase Moonshine and Light Phase Moonshine for now"

LOL!, yes, probably your best bet at this point in the game until further test breedings.

At least the two different names are very descriptive and can't be confused.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

I love the name-has a great ring to it. They all look great, but I'm especially partial to those darker ones right now.