Tequila Sunrise Cornsnake

Tequila Sunrise Corn Snake

Genotype: m^sm^s

Mutation: Selectively Bred

Genetics:

Unknown:
Unknown

Notes:

With thanks to Chris Moeller for the history behind the Tequila Sunrise... From Sean Niland (VMS Professional Herpeteculture): "Many many years ago, we acquired a very unusual looking corn from a Denver area pet shop. This animal was nick-named the Tequila Sunrise corn, as sort of an inside joke following my inability to push the margarita pitcher to the far side of the table the night before. But that's another story. We immediately set about trying to produce more corns with the unique look, as well as determine what was causing it. But this proved more difficult than one would think. Obviously, part of the look was being caused by a hypo-like mutation, but at the time the only known mutation of that sort was regular old Hypomelanism. Since that time, other mutations have been identified that can cause a hypoish appearance, including Lava, Sunkissed, and Ultra, plus different alleles at the original hypo locus have appeared, such as Strawberry and Christmas. Over the years and generations, we've determined the original snake to have been an Ultramel Anery, heterozygous for Hypo, Motley, and Bloodred." (my edit, the het bloodred has been proven NOT to be true) "But all of these failed to account for the entire look, especially the yellowing of the head and overall speckled look, so some as yet unidentified mutation or mutations is still at work here. To further muddy the waters, the original crossing to a Pink Pastel Ghost evidently added Strawberry, as bright pink snakes now frequently appear in the mix of F2 generations and beyond. All of this at a time before many of these mutations had even been identified. Thus sorting it out back in the days proved to be the devil's own as they say. So after so many years of trying, and a thousand or more offspring produced, we still really don't know what these are genetically speaking. And I've grown weary of the entire project. So, as Clark Gable so eloquently put it "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn", they're just really cool looking snakes" Sean Niland I started seeing these for sale around 2003 on VMS website. At the time ultramels were the latest "thing", and I gambled thinking the I could get into the gene via what I thought may have been an ultramel anery. Turned out it was a snow. Breeding the F1 siblings I acquired (the snow het hypo and two anery A's het amel, hypo) gave me an unusual looking mix of anery A's, snows, and ghosts that all shared the "frosting" of the saddles, which only takes a few sheds to become obvious. Even back then it was a suspect hybrid line, with folks pointing to the frosting and the sometimes excessive amounts of yellow in the snows (not all get it tho). I produced a couple clutches for a few years; the only thing I could find online even close to appearance to them was on Don Soderburgs South Mountain website, under "Frosted Creamsicle", nomenclature for gray rat/corns mixes. The pics were close, but more "extreme" looking (aka look more like a hybrid) then mine. But one day it clicked; those were what mine would look like with a generation (or two) of corn added to "tone down" the hybrid look. I found that Dons "frosted creams" were a line he acquired from Rich Zuchowski, who acquired them from Andy Barr and/or Mike Falcon. Both those breeders were the founders of the whole Ultramel debacle we now know today. Putting it all together, adding conversations I've had over the years with folks such as Sean Niland of VMS, Don Soderburg, Chuck Pritzel, and John Finsterwald of Colorado Corns who also works with the TS line, coupled with the fact the these two original breeders were selling a line called "Gray Snows", morph combo's of gray rat/corns that had ultra in the mix, I really suspect the original "Tequila Sunrise" female, an ultramel anery A het hypo, motley is a direct desendant of this "Gray Snow" line. The orifginal F1's father was a "pastel" ghost het amel. Some of the F2's can be very pink, we are testing the theory that "strawberry" was added to the line via this male. Chris Moeller

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Tequila Sunrise Hatchling

Photo © CHris68

Tequila Sunrise Adult

Photo © CHris68

Tequila Sunrise Eye

Photo © hypnoctopus

Tequila Sunrise Ventral

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