Cinder

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Cinder ( aka: Ashy or Z or Anery C )
Most Commonly Used Name: Cinder
Mode of Genetic Inheritance: Recessive
Morph Type: Single Recessive Mutation
Eye Color: Black pupil & body ground-colored iris


The third and newest Anery-type mutation to be discovered in corns, Cinder mutants are also marketed as Ashy and sometimes Z or Anery C. Cinder features that distinguish it from other mutations (other than being a unique genetic allele) include — but are not restricted to — body shape, general coloration, atypical belly pattern, and head shape.  Relative to most corn snakes; the snout profile is more pointed, belly pattern is less definied, cluttered, and less-orderly checkered, and on most Cinders, a crosscut-view of the body is somewhat “tent” shaped (spinal keel is highly pronounced – compared to most corns). That uniquely remarkable (and immediately obvious) anatomical feature has never previously been genetically demonstrated in a corn snake mutation or in wild-types.  Most corns have the general cross-section shape of a loaf of bread (the scientific name of the Corn Snake, Pantherophis guttatus derives from the Greek translation for Pan-ther-ophis loosely means: Pan = bread (as if you looked at the crosscut-section of a bread loaf), thero = beast, and ophis = snake, but the Cinder’s dorsum is peaked, compared to the more flattened dorsum of virtually all other corns.  Hence — compared to other corns — the overall number of atypical characteristics of this mutation rival any other mutant or wild-type corns at this time.

Here is a cross-cut section comparative of a typical corn and a typical Cinder corn.

loafcinder copy

What to expect:
As neonates, many Cinders have brown or predominantly reddish markings on a gray or silver background.  As adults, some will mature to have gray markings on gray background color zones, but some will retain the reddish-brown markings upon a gray background.  Of those that change from reddish-brown to gray, some of the peripheral scales of the markings have red or pink coloration in them, but most of the Cinder corns I’ve seen mature to be two shades of gray with pink or red highlights inside the markings or at the edges of the markings. Those pink or red scale highlights often appear to be red skin beneath the scales, but I have not personally owned one like that. The peaked dorsal keel on most Cinders does not become prominent until they are over a year old. 

Don’t let the list of unusual features deter your interest in acquiring one of these beautiful corn snake mutants, since “atypical” is the very nature of mutations.  If not for the variety offered by mutations, keeping corns would be a very boring hobby.  All the Cinders we’ve had will eat you outta mouse and home, and never had any health issues.  In another 20 years, the corn snake hobby is going to see many more unusual looking features than this one.


Important Note:
The advertising images on our web site are representations of the average adult example of each morph.  These images are not renderings of the actual animals being offered, (except for uniquely offered snakes found in the SURPLUS section of this web site).  We do not provide pictures of individual hatchling snakes for sale, nor do we recommend that you ever choose a new pet based on an image of its neonatal form.  Corns change so dramatically from hatchling to adult, they will NEVER have the same colors or contrasts throughout maturity. While most of the snakes we produce will mature to resemble the featured adult image(s) on our web site, unlike manufactured products that are respectively clones of each other, the nature of polygenic variation results in each animal being similar but not identical to others of its morph. The snake we select for you may not mature to be identical to the pictured examples, but will be chosen based on our experience of observing which neonates will mature to properly represent their respective morph.  We take this responsibility very seriously, and therefore publish the guarantee that we will exchange your SMR snake if it does not mature to be like our advertised examples.