Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Further down I posted a picture of my two normals and draybar made a good observation...my female looks anything but normal.

This is her....

I have always called her a normal because she was sold to me as such but even as a hatchling she looked different than the rest of the clutch that I saw. She was considerably brighter, with a lot of deep bright red and bright orange compared to the darker almost mahogony color of her brother at the time, who I also purchased.

Here's where it comes to my question. I've always described her as 'hypoish' but didn't outright classify her as a hypo because she has the regular black checkered belly of a normal. It was my understanding that a true hypo would not have the black-checkered belly. Is this correct or is she actually a hypo?

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks!
Raven

Definitely looks like a hypo to me.

I have one and his belly is heavily infused with orange, especially the last half of him, but he still has the typical belly checkers that a normal would have.

Here's a photo of him:

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alstiver@hotmail.com

1.0 2001 Coral snow cornsnake
0.1 2002 Pastel Ghost poss Het Amelanistic cornsnake
1.1 2002 Bloodred cornsnakes
0.1 1998 Het Hypo, Het Caramel cornsnake
1.0 2000 Hypo Het Caramel cornsnake
0.0.13 2004 Eggs (potentially normals, hypos, caramels, and ambers)

The belly of a hypo MAY show some solid black checkers but it is much more common to see that the black checkers are faded or washed out. They have a grayish look to them. The checkers are also fused with another color such as orange or yellow. The few hypos that I have show the faded, washed out, gray checkers with orange or yellow color showing in the check marks. The dorsal area may be completely void of black or show greatly reduced and incomplete borders. Also when you look closely at the borders, some of the scales will have a gray look to them that is very different from black.
Your female looks hypo but it's always best to prove out the genetics.

Hi raven,
I have a bunch of different Hypos from my different lines and Two things that they all common is that they are all genetic and they all have different looking bellies LOL. I have some with no checks and just some bleed over (Like my Crimson Hypos) See 1st Picture

And I have normal Hypos that show a good amount of black Checks on the bottom. See picture #2, this one looks similar to yours.

The I get ones like this that are brighter then normal hypos at birth and have a very low number of belly checks. They grown up to be super red and orange babies with no visable black on top, just the few checks on the bottom. see pictures number 3

Then when you through the Striped gene into the mix, the start out like this see pic #4

and they turn into beautiful Striped Hypos that are almost a uniform red-orange all they way down with only a hint of any pattern at all, these have no checks on the belly! See pic#5

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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

Your hatchlings in picture #3 could almost double for my pair when I bought them in 2002. The male is a normal, complete with black borders. The female is his sibling and looked very much like the one in your picture, with the exception that she actually had neon orange dots between her saddles...she really stood out in the litter of dark hatchlings to say the least.

Here's a couple of belly shots I just took of her. The first one is using a flash, the second is just holding the container near the ceiling light for illumination.

And one more top view of her, also taken just a few minutes ago. Yes, that's her true color; and no, I didn't enhance the photo in any way.

Raven

Hey Rav,
yeah that is no doubt a Hypo and also a lot of bleed over on the belly with the orange to, you can see it in the checks and the last half of the belly. I am sure she will breed out true and with each generation there after the color will only get better. The Hypo line seems to improve (much like the Salmon line in Boas) with each generation.
Beautiful snake!
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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

>>Hey Rav,
>>yeah that is no doubt a Hypo and also a lot of bleed over on the belly with the orange to, you can see it in the checks and the last half of the belly. I am sure she will breed out true and with each generation there after the color will only get better. The Hypo line seems to improve (much like the Salmon line in Boas) with each generation.
>>Beautiful snake!
>>-----
>>Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
>>Hopkins Holesale Herps
>>Hopfam1@aol.com