Creamsicles, rootbeers and more - pics

[vanderkm]

Did a ton of update shots this weekend and thought I would share a few of some 2004 hatchlings from different clutches to show the variation.

Female with light background
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/509/63Chowder_77_reduced.jpg

Male from same clutch
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/509/63Raoul_109_reduced.jpg

Male from a different clutch with less contrast between saddles and background color - overall orange and reduced white (this guy is het striped and definitely my favorite creamsicle from this years batches)
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/509/63Spike_92_reduced.jpg

A rootbeer (het creamsicle) from a great plains ratsnake mother - these babies remain huge, much more active than creamsicles and very aggressive feeders -
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/509/63Alba_80_reduced.jpg

And a couple pure corns - my favorite normal - she has as much personality as any corn baby I have even handled - endlessly curious!
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/509/63Tiki_144_reduced.jpg

and her amel sister

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/509/63Crinkle_161_reduced.jpg

Corns are such a pleasure to work with - these babies eat every time offered and are just so easy -

thanks for looking,

mary v.

[Tim_Cranwill]

Wow! Nice babies! :)

I think I like the 2nd one the best but the normal is a real beauty too! :D

[Simon]

Very nice looking creams~~
and that rootbear looks nice too!!

Great looking babies!!!

[MouseKilla]

Oh man, those are all just too sweet Mary. Any plans for more of the same in the new year?

Hopefully my male GPR is feeling naughtier this time around, if not maybe I'll just send him out to you since you've had such wonderful success with your rootbeers.

I have a suspicion that he may be more interested in a female GPR than he's been with a female corn but I don't happen to have one of them unfortunately and as you know, they aren't the easiest snakes to find.

[vanderkm]

Thanks for comments - as much as these babies look alike when they hatch - it amazes me how there are differences as they develop. Hard to know which ones to keep - beyond keeping those that feed best - nice to keep a group back and watch the development.

Originally posted by MouseKilla
Oh man, those are all just too sweet Mary. Any plans for more of the same in the new year?

Hopefully my male GPR is feeling naughtier this time around, if not maybe I'll just send him out to you since you've had such wonderful success with your rootbeers.

I have a suspicion that he may be more interested in a female GPR than he's been with a female corn but I don't happen to have one of them unfortunately and as you know, they aren't the easiest snakes to find.

Sure wish we could have worked shipping out to send some of these guys your way this year - they have turned out quite nice.

Won't be repeating any breedings that I did last year but the great plains rat is likely going to be bred by a friend to one of my ghost males this spring. I am sure she would love to have your GPRat male come for a visit - they are impressive snakes in the pure GPRat form and I am pretty impressed with the rootbeers so far. Will see how she makes out with this attempt.

My smaller creamsicle male will have his chance this year and the butter female that produced the top two babies as well as my new butter girl will be going to pure corns this time around - a striped and an amel motely. Too many corns - too little time!

mary v.

[Asian Jon]

Awesome, they all look great. I have to agree with Tim though, the 2nd cream and the normal look amazing. Hmmm those pictures make me want to eat an orange.

[Manitoban Herps]

I love the last two.... :)

[bighillreptiles]

they are all beautiful Mary keep us posted on how things turn out : Paul,and Killer im still looking for that girl GPR for ya brother

[paulsreef]

They're all so nice. Is the root beer a new phase?
Paul.

[vanderkm]

Paulsreef - rootbeer is the common name given to the normal phase of creamsicles. Creamsicles are a hybrid or intergrade (depending on what classification system you adhere to) between cornsnakes and the closely related western relative the Great Plains Ratsnake. Originally the cross was to enhance the orange/yellow color and reduce the reddness of corns (before the caramel/butter gene was uncovered in corns).

The original crosses to produce creamsicles were between amel corns and normal colored great plains ratsnakes - these produced babies with melanin het for amel, but without the red color of corns. They are quite brownish/golden at maturity and were called rootbeers because of the brown color. When bred together these produced the amel version - called creamsicles because they tend to be quite orange rather than red like corn amels.

Both creamsicles and rootbeers have been around for a long time but creams are more popular so most are produced now from breeding cream to cream so fewer rootbeers result and the name is not as well known.

In either case, it is important to remember that both creamsicles and rootbeers as well as any snakes that descend from them contain a mixture of corn snake (guttata) and great plains ratsnake (emoryi) genetics and should not be represented as pure cornsnake.

mary v.

[Katt]

Wow, those rootbeers look awesome!!!

Way better than those amel cremes!

[MouseKilla]

Originally posted by vanderkm

Sure wish we could have worked shipping out to send some of these guys your way this year - they have turned out quite nice.

... I am sure she would love to have your GPRat male come for a visit - they are impressive snakes in the pure GPRat form and I am pretty impressed with the rootbeers so far.

mary v.

Yes, they certainly have turned out quite nicely, it's really too bad that circumstances conspired against us on that one.

I don't know how GPRats got spread out so thin (no one seems to have more than one) but it would be good to have more of them out there to infuse with the creams and to enjoy in their pure form as well.


Paul,

Thanks man, let me know. Maybe if I get some cash together in the new year I'll have to talk to Simon about his albino Emoryi...

[vanderkm]

Right Katt - we all know how much you 'love' amels!! I agree the rootbeers are quite neat looking - can hardly wait to see how they look as they grow up - they are getting some nice caramel tones now.

Killa - there seemed to be quite a few GPRat hatchlings for sale this year out at the shows here though most I saw seemed small to me and I decided I didn't need another one.

I had been considering using the albino emoryi in my creamsicle mix at some point but comments from Don Soderberg, who is one of the few I know of that did these crosses, that the results were definitely not as nice as standard creamsicles and not even as nice as amel emoryi - have sort of changed my mind on that one. His impression was that amel emoryi didn't have anything to enhance the creamsicle and he abandoned that project. Maybe if it was taken to another couple generations - who knows?!

mary v.

[Scales Zoo]

Very nice snakes Mary.

I think an albino emoryi x amel (or snow) corn - and then F2'd - could produce an amazing variety of babies. Would be interesting to try to see the difference in the F2's from the amel influence in the emoryi, or the corns. And some should have both, which might be really wild.

Ryan