Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can anyone tell me if the Hurricane gene is recessive please. Would 2 Hurricane motleys produce Hurricane babies?
Thanks

Regarding the genetics, I have bred hurricane motleys to regular motleys and got no hurricanes in the babies. I haven't done it enough to say this will always be the case since it doesn't make sense. The wide margins of the hurricane appear to be dominant so more breeding trials are necessary.

Let me take this opportunity to type about hurricanes. I've seen lots of advertisements for them lately and though the ad calls them hurricanes, they're not.

If a hurricane was just one with good circles, why would we call it hurricane? If you look at a weather map when they're warning of hurricanes, you'll see the meterological icon looks like a doughnut with a couple of spurs on it. Some breeders in the past have called these donut motleys. I almost wish that had stuck since there would be less confusion.

Basically, as you can see in this image the one on the left is a hurricane and while the one on the right has nice circles, it is only a REGULAR MOTLEY. NOT a hurricane motley. Having good circles does not make it a hurricane. It has to have those broad, concentric margins around the circles to be a hurricane.

Thanks for reading.

Don
www.cornsnake.NET

South Mountain Reptiles

For the awesome eye candy, I am awake now! Pics like that sure remind a gal why she deals with these no legged money sucking slave drivers. What is the one on the right? A sunglow mot? Super snakes!

Carol, sorry. When I said "regular", I should have said non hurricane.

I'm just trying to reverse some misidentification out there. Why would we call them hurricane if they just have good circles? There are so many out there being advertised as hurricanes simply because they have good markings. You may not remember this, but I fought this name from its inception. I had to be told what hurricane had to do with the markings. Being a Kansan, I didn't really associate the meterological icon with a corn. I used to call these bullseye motleys. That one didn't float, but it would have been just as confusing. I think Jim Stelpflug's "donut motley" was the most accurate. Great! Another sweet food name for a corn.

Don
www.cornsnake.NET
South Mountain Reptiles

In fact I was going to tease you by replying, "What's a hurricane?" Then that bueaty of a sunglow distracted my poor sense of humor. Yup, I still have a SMR "bullseye" snow motley in my collection.

....would you consider this a hurricane? I just got her last weekend at the hamburg show as a regular motley but she has the dark cirles around the normal circles. Just curious! Thanks

Lucy, yes that's one of 'em. Nice snake. I like the light blacks and grays.

the ""regular motley""..........on the right.......

wow.,....what red........that is what I wanted when I bought one......sunglow motley actually)......didn't turn out that good.......(not Don's)....sorry...maybe I need to get some of his.......

.......actually I am leaning towards ball pythons..........

???????/got any balls that are that red?......I'll help you make a million$ on them...........

.......nice snakes....both.......

JY

Don, this is my first Motley, so I am completely at a loss to know if he is hurricane or not. I've seen these picture fests that show the darker circle around the inner circle, and understood that to be a hurricane. (good comparison pic by the way).

I got this snow motley just last week. He's a real cutie. I was looking at his pictures (take pictures when they get here, to document condition, then put them in the tank for a week of "settling down".) when I looked at his pictures I noticed what appears to be a darker circle around the inner circle... and to my mind this says "hurricane" ... he wasn't sold to me as hurricane, it won't break my heart if he isn't, but I would like to know if he is. He's only a hatchling, about three months old.

-----
~Sasheena

As you can see, the light patches between the darker ones denotes that there are dark margins around the circles. They're not concentric, but they don't have to be. Also, there are not many of them and they're not consistent. Not all of mine are either. As it is with everything, some will be better than others.

Don
www.cornsnake.NET

South Mountain Reptiles

Here is another dramatization of examples of both. The ones marked "no" are not hurricanes since they lack the "donuts" around the "hole".

South Mountain Reptiles

Those motleys look sweet. Awesome diagram.
-----
-hsuANsTerZ

GREAT examples. I am glad you wrote this. I have also seen adds for "huricane" motleys that had no darker circle (donut) around the spots and always felt like writting something to them and telling them it was not a huricane but just a motley.
Thanks for taking the time to help 'clear this up'.

Yeah, I wish I could have addressed this sooner. I too see lots of folks misrepresenting their motleys. They aren't dishonest folks. They're just advertising them as what they were told they were. It's my fault for not being more reactive when I saw these ads. I've been so busy this time of year, I just haven't been able to post more about hurricanes Vs regular motleys.

Everyone here can help me by bring up my points if/when you see more misinformation about them. I'll try to get some pictures on my site so they can be linked when necessary.

Thanks,

Don
www.cornsnake.NET

I don't think these people are trying to be dishonest either. It appears that there are quite a few people that have/had the impression that a huricane motley was one with nice clean circles that extended down most of the back and didn't understand that the darker 'donut' color around the circles is what makes it huricane.
I think you have a good idea about having an example page on the web that people could be linked to if they are uncertain about different terms. Just describing something doesn't always help people and different people can take a written discription in different ways. You know what they say 'a picture is worth a thousand words!' I know you are bogged down in everything and your time is short, but if you could get something up like that in the future, let us know and we could have a response link available to people. If you can use some help, also, let me know.

. . . when I get that done. Winter is coming and when the snake's are sleeping I'll have time for more web page maintenance.

Thank you for asking a better question than I did. I posted a couple of days ago to figure out exactly what hurricanes were supposed to look like and got zero resonses. This is exactly what I was looking for.

I still don't know though if mine is or not. He is an amel so he is red--has orange border on the circle--then white--with a yellow/orange spot in the middle. Does this qualify since it has 2 colors in the border?

. . sooner. I've been so bogged down with these hatchlings, there hasn't been time to do this more. Better late than never, huh?

Don
www.cornsnake.NET

The hurricanes don't look so obviously different as hatchlings since they tend to fade with age. At least that's what happened with mine (I hope I'm not out of the loop on this). Does anyone know a reliable way to tell them apart as hatchlings? I got mine as a normal anery motley and she turned out to be a hurricane motley. She's just starting to fade enough between the circles to show that hurricane look.

. . . find some time to shoot a regular next to a hurricane.