Hypo #5 Corn Snake by Bailey & Bailey Reptiles

Hypomelanistic

Type: Recessive

First Produced By: Kathy Love , John Cole

Complex: Complex: Hypo

Aliases: Hypo, Hypo A

Issues: N/A

First Produced In: 1980s

Availability: Common

Last Updated: 2022-07-04

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About

Hypomelanistic (or Hypo for short) – Carry a recessive trait that reduces the dark pigments, causing the reds, whites and oranges to become more vivid. Their eyes remain dark. They range in appearance between amelanistic corn snakes to normal corn snakes with greatly reduced melanin.

History

Kathy and Bill Love saw a corn snake at George Van Horn’s Reptile World in Florida that appeared different than a normal corn. They were able to obtain some offspring from that snake and successfully proved out a new recessive mutation - hypomelanistic. John Cole was working with the same gene mutation around the same time and eventually they joined up.

Appearance

Head

The head of a Hypo corn will follow typical corn snake patterning, but the colors will generally be lighter or brighter due to the reduced melanin. The eyes will typically match the saddle color and have a black pupil.

Body

The body of a Hypo corn typically is lighter or brighter than a normal corn. They are usually shades of orange and red, sometimes with some tan or gray. Although the saddle pattern will be the same as a normal corn, Hypos usually have reduced, narrow borders. Any borders that are still present will usually be gray or brown.

Belly

The belly of a Hypo corn is one of the key methods of distinguishing them from a normal. Whereas normal corns will have true black checkers, hypos will have gray, charcoal, or brown checkers. The saddle color may be present in the checkers as the snake reaches maturity. The pattern will still usually be the same checker pattern.