altered markings on skin is the biggest indicator of morphs. poppy is hypomelanistic. that means she lacks black pigment. take away the melanine, and your find out what's underneath. in poppys case, a whole lot of red chromatophores, as well as some yellow and blue mixed together to make green. these pigments are probably present in normal rubriventris, but you can't see them because they are covered by black melanine. when you look at poppy and egg's patterning, you are seeing juvenile patterning. they still have the same patterns as new born hatchlings because the melanine never developed to cover it up as it does in normal turtles.
as for them being hybrids, I doubt it. firstly they are both a bit undersized, typical of morphs, but not hybrids. secondly they have the distinctly low carapace of the rubriventris, and have markings appropriate to juveniles of that species. further, hybrids with any of the other cooters or sliders would NOT produce hypomelanistic animals, especially MATURE hybrids of two species that darken with age will become dark with age. Also when you compare the two of them, Poppy and Egg, their markings are a perfect match. Egg has slightly more melanine that poppy, but other than that, they are clearly the same creatures
