Reptile Morphs Cornsnake Morphs

Introduction
There are literally hundreds of colour and pattern combinations of the cornsnake. The cornsnake must be the singularly most popular/bred snake in the herpetcultural world. Its popularity is down to the ease of keeping and breeding of this snake and the array of colour and patterns available. This article will briefly outline the most popular colour and pattern morphs, for to list every single available mutation would be an impossible task. For every colour mutation that exists that morph is then bred into every pattern mutation that exists.

Wild Type

Carolina
Most normal looking cornsnakes today are sold as Carolina, they have an orange background with deep red/orange saddles, very little black outlines the saddles.

Okeetee
Okeetee corns are generally considered to be the most beautiful of the wild type. Okeetee originally meant corn snakes collected at the Okeetee Hunt Club in Okeetee South Carolina, but the club is closed to snake collecting now so Okeetee now just describes the appearance of the snake. The background colour is orange. The blotches are large and very red, the black borders around the blotches are very thick and well-defined,

Miami
Miami phase corn snake as the name implies come from the Miami area. They have a grey/silver background, with deep red saddles. The “milksnake” phase of the Miami cornsnake have larger than average blotches and a high contrast between the background colour and the blotches, these snakes were named by Rich Zuchowski of Serpenco Florida. Who is developing this phase through selective breeding to produce a banded cornsnake.

Rosy
The Rosy rat snake comes from the Florida Keys. They tend to be smaller than most corn snakes and the black coloration is greatly reduced on both the dorsal and ventral surfaces. Once a sub species Elaphe guttata rosacea it is now classified as Elaphe guttata guttata.

Great Plains
A subspecies of the Cornsnake Elaphe guttata emoryi. Great Plains Ratsnakes are typically shades of brown. They have been used in the creation of the Creamsicle corn to produce a very yellow amelanistic corn. Great Plains ratsnakes intergrade with Cornsnakes in the wild in Louisiana where there ranges over lap. Great Plains are some what smaller and fatter than Cornsnakes and produce smaller clutch sizes. Some people think that the Great Plains Ratsnake is not a subspecies and should be called just Elaphe emoryi

Inter Mountain
Elaphe guttata intermontana, An isolated population of the Great Plains Ratsnake, these animals are alot smaller rarely reaching more than three foot and have narrower and more blotches. The blotches also tend to be a greeny colour in many specimens. Classification is uncertain and it may indeed be a valid species Elaphe intermontana

Single Recessive Colour Morphs

Amelanistic
One of the most popular colour morphs. Also referred to as Albino or Red Albino. All black & brown pigments are missing. Amels typically have a pale orange background with deeper orange blotches. The first Amelanistic Cornsnake was a male and collected in North Carolina in 1959. It was first reproduced in captivity in 1961, the first Amelanistic cornsnakes were offered for sale at around $500 a considerable amount of money that many years back.

Anerythristic Type A
Typically a black and white snake with shades of grey, the Anerythristic gene stops the red and yellow pigments from showing. Saying that this gene is a bit more complicated as certain individuals have yellow pigment around the neck area, which maybe due to another yellow pigment gene being present. Wild populations of this Anerythristic snake occur in an area known locally as the Immokalee Triangle, this area is roughly between Immokalee, Ft. Myers and Moore Haven in SW Florida.

Charcoal or Anerythristic Type B ( Pine Island )
This Anerythristic gene gives the snake a bluish tinge around the head and eye area, they are paler than the Type A and have no yellow pigment around the throat and neck area. Breeding a Type A to a Type B will give you Anerythristic and Normal looking babies in a clutch, concluding that the Type B Anerythristic is also carrying the Type A gene. These snakes come from Pine Island off the coast of Lee County Florida. First discovered in 1984 through selective breeding by Bill & Kathy Love.

Hypomelanistic
Hypomelanistic snakes have a reduced amount of black, giving the snake a really bright appearance the eyes are dark ruby red. First seen in captivity in the mid 80’s the first Hypomelanistic cornsnakes were reproduced by George Van Horn’s Reptile World Serpentarium in St. Cloud Florida

Caramel
First bred by Rich Zuchowski who obtained a wild corn captured in Cape Coral Florida, who had an unusual amount of yellow pigment. He then bred this animal to a snow corn the resulting clutch were all normal looking breeding the siblings back to one another produced some Anerythristic looking corns which are the caramel corns and some snow looking corns which are the Buttercorns ( Amelanistic Caramels ). The background colour of Caramels can vary from a light yellowish brown to a light brownish grey colour. The dorsal blotches can vary from caramel-yellow-brown to a rich chocolate brown. This could be responsible by the Xanthic gene or possibly a third type of Anerythrisism. Caramels were first produced by Rich Zuchowski in 1991

Blood Red
In adults the snakes are a deep orange/red colour the underside has no black markings, these are replaced with orange. Hatchlings can also be identified by this trait but they have broad blotches along there backs and a near pattern less head. As the young snake grows the orange/red colour develops all over the body. The first Blood reds were selectively bred from stock from the Hastings, Palatka, and St. Augustine areas in northeast Florida, by Eddie Leach. These were then sold on to Bill & Kathy Love who marketed these snakes as Blood Reds in the early 80’s.

Lavender
Lavender corns have pinkish-purplish blotches on an orange/cream background. First bred in 1985 by Rich Zuchowski. The F2's grandparents were  a snow corn bred to a wild caught normal corn from Sarasota-Punta Gorda area of Florida. The first generation from this cross appeared normal, it wasn't until siblings were bred to one another that the Lavender gene surfaced.

Double Recessive Colour Morphs

Butter
Amelanistic Caramel corn. Butter Corns are yellow corn snakes. They still retain the typical corn snake pattern both dorsally and on the abdomen, but everything is in shades of yellows and white. In some individuals the yellow ground colour can almost fuse with the blotch coloration giving you an almost uniformly yellow colour snake. Buttercorns were first produced by Rich Zuchowski in 1991

Amber
Hypomelanistic Caramel Corn. They are golden amber to a light greenish brown with highlights of yellow. Shades of gray and some white may appear in the background colour as well, with the blotches generally being a darker colour than the ground colour and often flecked with white. The blotches are sometimes strongly bordered with black, giving it a rather unusual look about it. Amber corns were first produced by Rich Zuchowski in 1995, and first offered for sale in 1997.

Pewter
A combination of the Blood Red gene & the Charcoal gene. These snakes are varying shades of grey, as they mature the pattern becomes less visible. Some develop a black speckling over the body, giving rise to the alternative name, The Pepper Corn.

Snow
Snow Corns are a combination of the Anerythristic gene & the Amelanistic gene. They typically have a white background with pinkish saddles. First bred in the mid 1970's by Glen Slemmer.

Ghost
A combination of the Anerythristic type A gene & the Hypomelanistic gene produces a pale snake in shades of grey, lavender, pinks and yellows. Originally produced by Bill & Kathy Love in the mid 90's.

Blizzard
A combination of the Anerythristic Type B gene & the Amelanistic gene produces a snake that as an adult is completely white and patternless. Hatchlings may show traces of blotches but these fade as it matures. First produced by Art Meyer and Jack Cole from normal coloured hatchlings originating from Bill & Kathy love who had bred an Anerythristic Type B snake to a Snow corn to determine whether or not the Type B Anerythristic corns were different from the Type A.

Intergrade/Hybrid Colour Morphs

Creamsicle
An albino intergrade/hybrid of the Great Plains Ratsnake Elaphe emoryi & the Cornsnake Elaphe g.guttata. Adults are typically shades of yellow and cream. Babies are larger and easier to start than normal corns. This strain was originally started by Glen Slemmer, who's aim was to decrease the red pigment in the amel strain and increase the yellow.

Fantasy/Frosted
An Amelanistic hybrid of the Cornsnake Elaphe g.guttata with a Grey Ratsnake Elaphe .o.spilodies. In the USA they are marketed as Frosted Corns here in the UK they show up on pricelists as the Fantasy Corn. The background is white and they have orangey/brown broken up blotches running down there back.

Pattern Morphs

Striped
A simple recessive gene that replaces the usual saddles with four longitudinal stripes. It also eliminates the checkered pattern on the ventral scales. The first striped corns were hatched by Mike Nolan an English breeder in the mid 1980's. Originally male striped corns had problems with low fertility and very few hatchlings did well. Outcrossing to various other morphs has renewed vigor to this morph.

Hurricane
A combination of the striped gene & the motley gene where the blotches are joined by striping giving a pattern that consists of a series of circles that run down the back of the snake, not all combinations of the stripe/motley gene give this pattern, some look intermediate between the two, others have well defined square blotches this morph has been coined the "Cubed" corn. By crossing back snakes exhibiting the same pattern it is possible to fix the pattern.

ZigZag
The dorsal blotches connect forming a "zigzag" type pattern, ZigZag corns can be quiet variable,some have the pattern from top to bottom whilst others only show partial zigzagging. It is thought to be a recessive gene but the mode of inheritance is not yet fully understood. The zigzag corn was developed by Bill and Kathy Love by inbreeding animals related to Type B anerythristic corns.