# White corn snake morph - please help identify



## TarquinWJ (May 14, 2012)

Hi folks, I have recently been handed a rescued corn snake, which had been living wild, and had been attacked by an animal (he is now most of the way to healed). From his length and weight, he appears to be about 2 years old. From his tail shape he appears to be male (he will be left to recover for a while longer before using probing). From scale counts, he appears to be a pure corn, not a hybrid. I am now trying to work out what morph he is.

Mainly white with a slight pink tint under certain light. Faint white saddle markings just before the vent. Orange tinted saddle markings on the tail. Orange markings on the lower sides of the body.
Photo in natural light on supposedly white towel:








Photo with diffused, indirect flash:








Obvious yellow belly checkers. Photo in natural light:








Pink-red iris without any speckling. Pink-red pupil. Photo with direct flash:









From Ian's Vivarium, it appears to be an opal. Some have orange saddles when they are adolescent, and then lose them as they mature. However, I have not found any with such strong belly (ventral) checkers. These are the other morphs that make white, and my reasons for not thinking it is one of those:


Snow; dorsal saddle markings should be visible (colour depending on line breeding). Iris contains speckling. Plus I have seen a lot of snows from different lines, and this boy doesn't look like any of them.
Snopal; belly and chin markings are almost invisible, never orange, sometimes yellow. Belly almost always pure white.
Blizzard; usually pure white but can rarely have faint yellow saddle markings or bright yellow sides. Belly almost always pure white or with faint yellow checkers.
Coral; usually has obvious yellow or orange saddles.
Lava lavender; tinted purple, saddles usually visible.
Powder; usually pure white but can have faint yellow saddle markings. Belly almost always pure white.
Xanthic snow; not seen enough pictures to be sure about this, but Ian's Vivarium shows a pure white one - I would have expected more yellow.

Could someone help clarify which morph it is likely to be - remember that he is 2 years old, so has not completed his change to adult colours yet. If I am wrong, I am happy to be wrong, so please correct any misunderstandings.


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## TarquinWJ (May 14, 2012)

Additional picture; the pink tint he gets under normal household fluorescent lighting:









While I am here, I should maybe mention two more possible morphs that can increase the amount of yellow:

Hypo opal
Lava opal
I don't know if either of these can make the belly checkers show up though. And I don't know if they are likely to have other side effects. Lava opal does seem pretty close, but not many breeders seem to have been producing it in 2013, and what are the chances that one would be living wild here?


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## Athravan (Dec 28, 2006)

The odds of it being very high end are almost non existent; even if one of the few breeders in the UK lost one, you'd most likely know who they were / if they were local.

To be honest the white morphs can be very hard to identify sometimes and are very variable. I would say it is a snow myself. There are some high yellow / high pink snows out there, take for example this one - this is just a line bred anery + amel.










It's one of those things where you will never know for absolute sure unless you breed it.


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## TarquinWJ (May 14, 2012)

Athravan said:


> The odds of it being very high end are almost non existent


Agreed. But I have seen opals of the right age being sold in the area so an opal is not out of the question. One of the major shop suppliers sold a bunch over the winter, with several hets as well. Some were 3 gene visuals (based on opal, but I can't remember the actual morphs, sadly).


Athravan said:


> I would say it is a snow myself. There are some high yellow / high pink snows out there


From the belly alone, I would say the same. But so far I have never knowingly seen a snow with invisible saddles. The more colouration and pattern they have, the stronger the saddles appear on the back. This guy has none. Did someone produce snows with invisible saddles? If so, great, I have my answer


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## Athravan (Dec 28, 2006)

TarquinWJ said:


> Agreed. But I have seen opals of the right age being sold in the area so an opal is not out of the question. One of the major shop suppliers sold a bunch over the winter, with several hets as well. Some were 3 gene visuals (based on opal, but I can't remember the actual morphs, sadly).
> 
> From the belly alone, I would say the same. But so far I have never knowingly seen a snow with invisible saddles. The more colouration and pattern they have, the stronger the saddles appear on the back. This guy has none. Did someone produce snows with invisible saddles? If so, great, I have my answer


I have an adult female snow that has almost no visible saddles, to the point where everyone who has seen her says she is a blizzard - she is not, she is definitely anery type A and not B. She does not however have any colour on her either, so is easily mistaken for a blizzard.


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## TarquinWJ (May 14, 2012)

Athravan said:


> I have an adult female snow that has almost no visible saddles, to the point where everyone who has seen her says she is a blizzard - she is not, she is definitely anery type A and not B. She does not however have any colour on her either, so is easily mistaken for a blizzard.


Excellent, thanks for that info! (I am in the same area as you, so if you have a basic snow with invisible saddles, maybe this one is related to yours.)

A separate question, do you know by any chance if xanthic snow (anery A, amel, caramel) produces a similar effect with the loss of saddles, while still retaining belly checkers?
I found quite a few pictures showing lack of saddles (compared with 0 pictures of snows), but none showing the ventral view at all on those same snakes (grrr!):
























I know a bunch of Xanthic snows were sold in this area over the last couple of years, so it could possibly be one of those.


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## hello1105 (Apr 27, 2015)

i would say this is definatly a snow, the often have yellow or/and pink scales or patches on there sides and belly.


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## TarquinWJ (May 14, 2012)

Thought there might be some folks who would like some followup.

As stated previously, the snake was found living wild. Over the last couple of months, his skin has evidently still been repairing itself, and coloured saddles have been appearing, initially seen under bright light, now visible always. The saddles have a green tint to them.

So it seems that his skin had been so badly damaged by the British climate and repeated shedding to fix his injuries, that it had lost the ability to produce the microstructures that give a green tint. Now that his skin has fully repaired, it is able to produce the microstructures again, and the saddles appear. It has been interesting to see the process first hand.

He is very clearly just a snow corn, possibly with an ancestor coming from a green spot or bubblegum line (though he is of course not good enough to be a green spot or a bubblegum himself). So there we go, case closed. Congrats to everyone who correctly identified him as a snow.








(And yes, this really is the same snake as in the initial post. Pictures were taken about 2 months apart.)


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