Corn Snakes
Fall is Corn Snake season, and we are already seeing new batches of beautifully colored hatchlings coming into the store!
According to Wikipedia, the Corn Snake was one of the first snakes to be kept in captivity, and remains one of the most popular. Corn snakes are bred in large numbers, so there is little need to collect specimens from the wild.
The common Corn Snake (Elaphe guttata guttata) is native to the southeastern U.S., and has a brownish-orange background color with an orange to red saddle pattern; the saddles have black borders, and the snake usually a black and white underbelly. Some people say this Indian corn-like belly pattern is the root of the snake's common name; others say it was because they were often found hunting in corn fields.
After generations of selective breeding, captive-bred corn snakes are available in a wide variety of colors and patterns, called "morphs." Some of these morphs refer to coloration, others are a combination of color and pattern. Popular morphs include normal, creamsicle, butter, snow, and bloodred.
The Normal (wild-type) Corn Snake has a brown to orange background color with black outlined red saddle markings going down the dorsal surface, and black & white checkered ventral surface. Wild corn snakes show regional variability in coloration. The most popular colorations among breeders are the "Miami" and "Okeetee" phases.
The Creamsicle Corn Snake Morph is an intergrade between an albino corn snake and an Emory’s rat snake/common corn hybrid. These snakes feature more yellow than red coloration. Most are varying shades of yellow with darker yellow to orange blotches.
The Butter Corn Snake Morph (Amelanistic + Caramel) is a two-tone yellow Corn Snake with white between markings.
The Bloodred corn snake carries a recessive trait that creates a solid colored ventral surface. These are said to have originated from a strain of corn snake found in the wild near Jacksonville Florida. Hatchlings have a visible pattern that usually fades as the snake matures into a solid orange red to ash red color.
The Snow Corn Snake Morph, (Amelanistic + Anerythristic) hatchlings feature a pattern of white and pink blotches. These mostly white snakes may have yellow neck and throat regions when mature. Light blotches and background colors have subtle shades of beige, ivory, pink, green, or yellow.
Selective breeding has also created different patterns in corn snakes.
The Motley pattern on a snake will show a solid ventral surface and a spotted pattern that is light on a darker background, the opposite of wild-type snakes. These light saddles may be elongated into wide stripes or dashes.
The Stripe patterned snake also has a solid ventral surface color but features a striped rather than saddled pattern. Where the Motley pattern sometimes features stripes, they are the full width of the original saddle. On a Stripe patterned snake the longitudinal stripes are narrow and will not connect, but may sometimes break up and take on a “cubed” appearance. The spots or stripes on a Stripe corn are the same as the saddle color on a similar normal corn, the reverse of Motley snakes.
The Diffusion pattern on a Corn Snake lessens patterning on the sides and eliminates the ventral pattern.
Please stop by and see us. We're just a mile east of the I-96 interchange, at 6248 28th St. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546. Or, we offer free delivery of items purchased on-line to any of the shows.
We have a wide variety of exotic pets, featuring - of course - the largest selection of poison dart frogs, tree frogs and terrestrial frogs you'll find in a retail store in the Midwest. You'll also find leopard, crested, gargoyle, and other gecko species; bearded dragons and other lizards (currently featuring baby savannah monitors, baby blue-tongued skinks, Asian water dragons, brown anoles, red and green iguanas), corn snakes, an assortment of tarantulas, and even some amphibians with tails: tiger salamanders, spotted salamanders, Spanish (Iberia) ribbed newts, California newts, and greater sirens.
If you're into tarantulas, we have everything from beginner species, such as the Chilean Red Rose-Hair to advanced species such as the Sri Lanka Ornamental Tarantula.
If you are looking for any other species, please drop us a line and we'll do our best to track it down. And, of course, we have more roaches, crickets, wax worms, fruit flies, and bean beetles than you can shake a stick at.
We also carry a full line of products from manufacturers such as, Exo Terra, Zoo Med, Zilla, Flukers, Tetra, as well as an indoor greenhouse with a wide variety of tropical plants to furnish your naturalistic terrariums and vivariums.
We're looking forward to seeing you,
Jim and Marcia Hitchcock
