"Classic" cornsnake is a term usually used to describe and normally colored, selectively bred, cornsnake.  It is occasionally used to describe generic Okeetee cornsnakes, but that is not the form of this term that we typically use throughout this website.

Tessera cornsnakes are characterized by heaving distinctive black lines bordering a near perfect striped-motley like pattern and dark colorations indicative of a normal corn (NOT the hypomelanistic-like effect seen in motley and striped cornsnakes), mosaic markings on the sides reminiscent of digital camouflage patterns, ventral scales usually edged in black, and unusually checkered ventral scales.  In general appearances, these remind many people of a "gartersnake."  All of our tessera cornsnakes are the result of breeding the mutation into other genes or selective bred color phases.

Anerythristic cornsnakes (which are sometimes called "black albinos") are a striking black, grey, and white (and some having some dark browns) with varying amounts of yellow as adults. They are great, high contrast snakes with good dispositions. Charcoal is the second form of anerythrism, or Type B anerythrism, available.  In addition to being called "charcoal," it has also been called muted anerythrism and Pine Island anerythrism.  Charcoal cornsnakes are lighter, more "muted," colored anerythristics that commonly lack all, or at least most, yellow coloration leaving just a little yellow in the neck region. 

Hypomelanistic (Type A) cornsnakes can be identified by the fact that the mutation brightens all other cornsnake morphs by removing some - but not all - of the black pigmentation present.  Although similar to Lava, Sunkissed, Ultra, etc.,  this is a different form of hypomelanism - and the original one - than all of those.  As with those and to the best of our knowledge, shed skins from all hypomelanistics lack black pigmentations. 

Lavender (or mocha) is an anerythristic-like mutation that is similar to ghost cornsnakes in appearance, except that lavender cornsnakes are more "lavender" colored as adults, and they have ruby-colored eyes.  Lavender cornsnakes, due to their highly appealing and variable appearance, have stayed near the top of many peoples' "most wanted" list.  Combining lavender with other traits often yields surprisingly beautiful results.  Lavender cornsnakes are also in our colony for what they can contribute to our other projects.  However, their tendencies towards having a zig-zag pattern will be instrumental in increasing the diversity of our ZagTec lines in the years to come. 

Caramel cornsnakes are just what the name describes: yellow to yellowish-brown in coloration.  Generally, we don't work much with straight caramel cornsnakes, but this is one of those sleeping giants type of mutations.  When combined with other mutations, you get a very beautiful snake with unique color combinations.  In other words, caramel is a very important building block - just like amelanism - for building many better looking, higher dollar, and more in demand morphs.

Motley, or "motley mutant," is a simple recessive mutation in cornsnakes that affects the pattern by connecting varying amounts of dorsal blotches into one long line.  The ventral pattern loses all black checkering leaving the belly a clean, white color.  The background coloration forms a circle between where the dorsal blotches connect leaving a "wide striped" look to the top of the cornsnake that is broken up by small circles down the spine.  Many have this pattern on the front parts of their bodies only, but the best motleys have the pattern continue down the dorsal surface all of the way to the tail.  The motley mutation also results in a brighter than normal cornsnake that is frequently brighter in coloration than a hypomelanistic cornsnake with a normal pattern.  A few of our motley cornsnakes produce the "striped motley" look where the circles along the back fuse to form a central stripe, or at least a partial stripe, that runs down the back of the fused dorsal blotches.  Although many people try to claim otherwise, this look can occur in motleys het stripe (but NOT in ALL motleys het stripe) and in motleys that are not het stripe.  Some of ours are also what is called a "hurricane motley" or "banded motley."  Hurricane motleys have a darker colored border around each dorsal circle.  Banded motleys are those in which the dorsal blotches are not completely fused, but extend deep down onto the sides towards the ventral scales so that the snake appears to be a "normal" patterned cornsnake with enlarged, band-like, saddles.

Striped cornsnakes are similar to motley cornsnakes, except that they have 4 stripes that run along the body from the head to the tail.  The stripe allele is allelic and recessive to the motley allele.  Many individuals have the stripe break up and fade to obscurity as you approach the posterior regions of the snake.  Once again, there seem to be many synergetic effects, such as are seen in hypomelanistic and albino striped cornsnakes, resulting in animals that are significantly brighter than you'd expect from hypo or striped cornsnakes alone.  We like the striped cornsnakes, but most of what we deal with is as part, or as a spin-off, to our larger motley and patternless projects.

Ghost cornsnakes are hypomelanistic anerythristic cornsnakes.  Silverqueen ghosts are basically pale grey ghosts with blotches that are only slightly darker than the background coloration.  Although we do work with a few silverqueens in our colony, our main goal is the propagation of a high pink ghost lineage that turns into astounding-looking adults.  We've had many ghosts before, but these are some of the lightest, most pink (low yellow) ghosts that we have ever been able to acquire.  Plus, they tend to have extremely dark borders making the light colorations stand out even more - these are almost "ghost Okeetees!"  They are great feeders with awesome growth rates and excellent pattern definition. 

The dilute gene is a relatively new gene to be isolated even though it has been around for a while in the form of "blue motleys."  The dilute gene acts similar to a hypomelanistic-like gene or similar to the blue, or dilute, gene in some breeds of dogs.  Although it was once believed that expression of the dilute gene was linked to anerythrism and/or motley, new evidence is implying that this is not the case.  As this is proven out in more detail, expect more and more new, unique, combinations with the dilute gene to begin showing up.

Coral snows are snow corns that are also homozygous hypomelanistic.  In other words, these are albino ghost (or hypo snow) cornsnakes.  Until recently, the hypomelistic trait was believed to greatly increase the pink coloration in a snow corn resulting in a "coral" colored snow.  Regretfully, this is being proven false.  For example, our best breeder hypo snow is a perfect example of the old "bone white" snow morph - there is no pink on her at all.  Conversely, our most astoundingly pink snow corn is not even heterozygous for hypomelanism.  Whatever causes some cornsnakes to become extremely pink is still unknown, but it doesn't seem to be directly caused by the hypomelanistic gene - as was believed until relatively recently.  Because of this, we believe that the term "coral snow" should only be applied to snakes that are both hypomelanistic snows and are pink as adults (since the pink is never really present in hatchlings).  Additionally, there is a problem where many people sell snows that are only possible hypomelanistics as "coral snows."  This is misleading and dishonest.  Thankfully, our coral snows originate from our high pink ghosts, so they do typically grow into beautiful, pink, adults that are definitely homozygous for hypomelanism! 

Pied-sided bloodreds are sold in categories based on the amount of white they are expected to display as adults.  Although the inheritance mechanism for the pied-sided bloodred phenotyope isn't fully known yet and exceptions have been observed, we do know that low expression pied-sideds have produced some really nice pied-sideds and ones with more white tend do seem to produce offspring with lots of white (so far).  Low expression pied-sided bloodreds are ones with apparent patches of white, but they are greatly limited in size and quantity.  Medium expression pied-sideds are bloodreds with readily visible patches of white that are not considered extensive in quantity or size.  High expression pied-sideds have obvious patches of white that are common in terms of quantity, are readily visible even as hatchlings, and may have redimentary amounts of connecting among the white patches.  Extreme espression pied-sided bloodreds are ones that are still very rare, have extensive white areas, and often have contiguous patches of white. 

Bloodred cornsnakes, or "bloods" aka "diffused," start off looking like a pretty normal baby cornsnake, but they lose more and more of their pattern as they age.  With the loss of the pattern, the background coloration and blotch coloration move towards the same color, deep red or dark red-orange, to result in a "blood" colored cornsnake with little to no black separating the blotches from a similarly colored background!  The best looking adult bloodreds usually start out as babies with a nearly patternless grey head and very little lateral pattern even as hatchlings.  Bloodred cornsnakes have a suite of mutations that are inherited in a peculiar manner.  Bloodreds breed true when bred together, but hets from outcrossed bloodreds are often very red colored snakes with some tendencies toward being bloodred-like.  However, for a cornsnake to be considered bloodred, it must have the dorsal coloration and the complete lack of ventral checkering.  Bloodred cornsnakes have a historic reputation of being picky feeders and small babies, but this reputation is very undeserved today thanks to decades of outcrossing efforts.  The results are bloodreds that aren't quite as deep red in coloration as they were in the late 1980's, but the babies are much more robust. 

Pied-sided bloodreds (created by Don Soderberg) are the newest morph - and one of the most original - to pop up in cornsnakes in a while.  This mutation results in a bloodred-colored adult cornsnake with patches of bright, clean, white scales over the lower sides of the snake.  Inheritance seems to be somewhat similar to simple recessive, but it might actually be a type of "leaky" gene where hets are sometimes phenotypically different from non-carriers.  To date, however, it is not even known if this pattern is inherited in a Mendelian manner or not, and it is unknown if the pied-sided trait is allelic with bloodred, linked to bloodred, or unrelated to the bloodred mutation if it is Mendelian in nature. 

Amelanistic bloodreds are intense, even-colored, bright red cornsnakes with red eyes.  Like bright red?  Nothing is brighter except a striped amelanistic bloodred!  This is even being improved into a redder, more brightly colored, bloodred with the creation of ultramel bloodreds.  Anerythristic A Bloodreds are also called "Granite" or "Pepper" cornsnakes.  These, as the name implies, are light to dark grey, relatively even colored cornsnakes with specks of white to pink.  Lavender bloodreds (called "plasma") and hypomelanistic lavender bloodreds are one of those big surprises in morph production.  These can grow into actual purple-colored snakes!  Hypo lavender bloodreds are a true light, lavender-purple, in coloration.

As babies, striped bloodreds and stripeds look almost identical.  Many breeders sell striped bloodreds produced from normal patterned parents that are het for both traits, but this means they are only POSSIBLY striped bloodreds.  In our opinion, that is highly misleading, and we will not do it.  All of our striped bloodreds, regardless of the color morph, are produced by definite bloodred parents.  This means that 100% of the babies are bloodreds whether they are striped or not!  Bloodreds carrying the stripe gene are the ONLY way to produce a striped corn that one can prove is definitely a bloodred!  In striped bloodreds, the stripe tends to fade out as adults resulting in a brightly colored, evenly patterned, "super" bloodred cornsnake. 

Combining ultramel with anerythristic results in a unique looking ghost-like cornsnake.  Surprisingly, there seem to be two color phases in this morph: a dark phase and a light phase.  It is likely that time will show males to be lighter than females, but this is just a hypothesis at this time.  We were able to produce 3 of the first ultramel anerythristic motleys in 2007, and these have turned out to be a very good looking new morph.  The male is turning into something similar to a "super muted pastel motley" in coloration, and the female we kept for ourselves is quickly turning into what I would describe as a "super ghost motley."  Colors are faded, and there is a lot of golden-yellow coloration, but it is not infused over the entire body as is seen in most pastel motley cornsnakes.  We were able to produce some of the first ultramel charcoals in 2008.  Surprisingly, they have glowing ruby-colored eyes to go with the expectedly beautiful light charcoal-grey colored body. 

Ultramel motleys and stripeds are just what the name implies.  Ultramel motleys are just starting to become more common, and they tend to look like a richly colored albino motley with dark eyes.  Striped ultramels are still extremely rare.  Golddusts are the result of combining caramel and ultramel.  These are a gold colored cornsnake with dark eyes.  In appearance, they are very similar to amber cornsnake, but many of them tend to be more richly, brightly, colored as adults.

It is important to note that there is still some debate over the origin of the ultra gene in cornsnakes.  Although there is no doubt that ultramels have been bred into grey ratsnakes by some people, there is still debate over if all ultramels are hybrids or if some were just bred into grey rats to produce hybrids.  Regardless, there seems little doubt that some are hybrids, and these hybrids have leaked out (in the form of ultramels and the albino by-products)  to pollute the captive cornsnake population as a whole.  Thanks to this problem (combined with the creamsicle and Jungle "corn" fiascos), one can no longer know for sure if any modern cornsnakes are pure or not.  We do, however, still avoid ones with known hybrid markers. 

This mutation has been combined with many of the available color phases resulting in excitingly novel color and pattern combinations.  Surprisingly, the motley mutation tends to have a synergetic effect with other color mutations, such as albino and hypomelanism, resulting in blindingly bright cornsnakes that are brighter than motley or hypo (or albino) cornsnakes can be on their own!  For the price, hypo motley cornsnakes and albino motley cornsnakes have to be one of the prettiest cultivars of cornsnakes available to hobbyists to date.

A few of our motley cornsnakes produce the "striped motley" look where the circles along the back fuse to form a central strip, or at least a partial stripe, that runs down the back of the fused dorsal blotches.  Although many people try to claim otherwise, this look can occur in motleys het stripe (but NOT in ALL motleys het stripe) and in motleys that are not het stripe. 

Many of our breeders are what is called a "hurricane motley" by many people.  Although we don't have hurricane motleys as a target in our breeding project, we do produce a fair number of nice ones each year.  Hurricane motleys have a darker colored border around each dorsal circle.

Banded motleys, which also pop out of our lines even though we don't selectively breed for them, are those in which the dorsal blotches are not completely fused, but extend deep down on the sides towards the ventral scales so that the snake appears to be a "normal" patterned cornsnake with enlarged, band-like, saddles.

The terrazzo mutation has been around for a long time, but it is just getting established in various colonies.  Until recently, it has not been combined with any other mutatiuons.  In 2007, Don Soderberg produced what may have been the very first terrazzo color mutation: a nearly patternless charcoal terrazzo.  Sibling to that snake is another terrazzo that may be homozygous for bloodred, too.  Only time will tell for sure, but both animals are destined to be the founding blood for many new morphs centering around the new terrazzo gene!

We truly believe that strawberry is a new gene (not allelic with any other forms of hypomelanism), but confusion has arisen since hypomelanism is mixed into the founding colony (i.e., Jim Stepflug) of strawberries.  This means that some strawberries (but not all of them) are carrying the hypo gene while some hypos have inadvertently been misrepresented as strawberries.  After two years of working intensively with a rather large group of strawberry cornsnakes, we have finally reached a point where we were able to produce - and isolate - what we believe is the strawberry gene.  Unlike some people, we started with a large colony of strawberries - not just one or two to toy around with.  Over the next 2 years, we expect to use these supposed strawberries (produced here) to finally give conclusive evidence: is strawberry allelic to hypomelanism type A or is it a new gene all together?  If a new gene all together, is it definitely a simple recessive trait?

Strawberry corns - regardless of the actual mode of inheritance - are unique looking cornsnakes with clean to whitish backgrounds and deep red blotches.  Especially as subadults, they tend towards having a strawberry-red and strawberry-orange overall color scheme.  Even if this morph does turn out to be a new look to an old mutation, the look is so distinctive that it certainly deserves its own name, description, and personal spotlight!