Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My husband and I have kept many snakes before, but not corn snakes and not for a few years. We recently got 2 corn snakes. One is an albino. I was hoping for some help identifying what morph the other is. Thanks all!

That's known as a "motley" cornsnake. It is a simple recessive genetic trait that effects the dorsal pattern as well as muting virtually all the checkered pattern on the belly, leaving it basically solid white on most of the length, especially the first 2/3rd's.

It could be a heterozygous gene carrier(het) for other traits as well, but there is no way on earth to know which ones without doing extensive test breeding with other known genetic morphs.

The motley gene basically changes the background coloration into the saddle blotching by fusing the corners of them to one another.

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

my website -Serpentine Specialties

The "motley" gene greatly reduces the dark pigment(melanin) displayed in the animal too, so some people figure they may have a hypomelanistic motley if they do not know it's genetic origin, when in fact it is simply a characteristic of the gene itself that is responsible for the reduced or absent black pigment.

To know any more than it just being a visual motley, you would have to ask whoever bred the parents and exactly what their genetic lineage was.

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

my website -Serpentine Specialties

Thanks!!! Super helpful! He's a petshop snake so we'll never know about his parents. He appears to have a super long tail, thus why I am refering to it as "he". I tried to get pctures of our albino but it's so fast and squirely all i got was a glowing blur... lol...

I forgot how cool the genetic side of the reptile hobby was. So fun!!!

"I forgot how cool the genetic side of the reptile hobby was. So fun!!!"

Heck yeah, I couldn't agree with you more there!

You are very welcome

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

my website -Serpentine Specialties