Mystic vs mojave?

I think ima let someone who actually has mystics to chime in on this one. The comparison I was thinking about in my privious posts were not mystic vs mojave. It was phantom vs mojave, my bad.

I respectfully disagree a bit with Nick. Not all mojaves are dark - mine is very blushed out (the dark ones are gorgeous though!) I identify by overall color; mojaves tend to be more greenish/grey in color while mystics have warmer brown tones. Going by your pictures, OP, I'd say the curled BP is a mojave and the one on top/stretched out could be a mystic. That said, there is a good bit of variation in these genes, so when the seller said it exhibits a "mystic trait" they may have meant "this is said to be a mojave, but it looks more like a mystic to me." It could be that the breeder wasn't entirely sure themselves.

Here are mine for comparison (apologies for the screenshot, the individual pics wouldn't load - might be too big to add via tapatalk).



In retrospect, my mojave is sort of dark looking in that picture, but his blushing extends over his dorsal in most areas and he does usually look more pale than you see there. My mystic has much "sharper" darks on her, though her side patterns (rosettes? Alien heads?) are a lot brighter than his by comparison.

Originally Posted by chkadii

I respectfully disagree a bit with Nick. Not all mojaves are dark

there is a good bit of variation in these genes

I agree, there is some variation. Differentiating between a mojave and mystic is pretty easy though. The pictures the OP posted are both mojave, mystics are always a lot lighter in color.

The mojave I posted is a pretty ballin' example, that's why we bought him. I've seen a lot that are lighter and more blushed out, but I've never seen one as light colored as a mystic. My vote is on both being mojave and having some variation.

You have to figure, even with pastels you can have two snakes that look completely different. Just because the two show some color and blushing differences doesn't mean they're different morphs.

That's fair, Nick. I think we may be arguing the same point with different terms - I'm referring to the base color (not pattern color) and think mojaves can be about as light/pale (opacity) as mystics. To your point, mystics are much BRIGHTER (vibrancy) than mojaves and generally have higher contrast. Are we on the same page or am I still misinterpreting?

The second snake I'm not confident about. Your opinion is in line with the seller's, though - that it's a mojave that is closer to the mystic side of the spectrum (as far as mojaves go) in appearance. I think the seller meant "traits" in a visual sense rather than a genetic sense. While it doesn't look exactly like a mystic, it has a tanner tint than most mojaves have.

Originally Posted by chkadii

I think we may be arguing the same point with different terms - I'm referring to the base color (not pattern color) and think mojaves can be about as light/pale (opacity) as mystics. To your point, mystics are much BRIGHTER (vibrancy) than mojaves and generally have higher contrast. Are we on the same page or am I still misinterpreting? .

No you're exactly right, by lighter I mean brighter. They just have kind of a light glow to them while mojaves have more of a muddled dark tint. I'm pretty confident that they're both mojaves, I've seen some that are even more blushed out than that one. But yea, I think we're arguing the same thing using different words