Last year I purchased my first corn off of MorphMarket . At the time, she was listed as Ultra, ph Palmetto, Sunkissed, but with a note that as she was growing, the ultra bit was questionable. This is no bother to me, but as she has grown, I’ve become curious as to what genes she’s truly displaying.
Her parents were Ultramel het Palmetto x Het Palmetto/Sunkissed/Ultra. To me, she just looks like a rather stunning het Palmetto with other possible hets, but I could totally be wrong. Too young yet to prove out.
Her colors are certainly brighter than would usually be expected for a classic. It’s true that hets for Palmetto and for Sunkissed are often brighter as well. Ultras are definitely brighter, and their borders and belly checkers usually lack true black. It’s hard to tell from the photos but it looks like her borders are light enough to be an Ultra to me. This is one of those things where a young hatchling can be easier to ID than an older snake. Hypo-type variants are visible in young babies. Adults can have such wide variation, it can be hard to tell.
I doubt she’s an Ultra, because while she has reduced borders, the black is very pronounced and not towards the brown side. I do have some baby photos from when I first got her for comparison:
Edited to add: I took her out for a closer look and she does have some places where the black is more muddy brown, it’s just very difficult to tell due to the reduced borders on her back. Belly scales are more brown-grey than black, however, so you might be right.
Hopefully next year she’ll be big enough to breed and I can actually try to prove some things out.
Yeah, that was my thought. I actually chose her based on the possibility she was female (later DNA confirmed) and the fact that she looked more like a het Palmetto and not a “typical” normal. The Palmetto is what I hope to prove out. I have a more standard wild type male rescue about the same age, and the difference in colouration is pretty striking. I should try to get a picture of both, the only ones I have at the moment are from last year and she was in blue.
