the previous owner referred to her as a 'red rat'
A red rat is a cornsnake. Two common names for the same species.
I thought she looked 'normal' untill I compared her to my friends corn. She deffinately has less dark markings than the 'normal' one we compared her to.
She still looks normal...
This is something that cropped up quite a few times in some of the forums supporting pictures considering the short time these extra boards have been up but I'll address it here...
"What morph is this" is one of the most negligent and generally foolish things anyone can possibly ask. Outside of demonstrating a lack of experience with the animals (not inherently negative itself), it shows a very negligent attitude towards the individual animals involved. How many ludicrous adds for normal ball pythons do we need to see labeled as something other than what they are? How many false "high yellow leopard geckos" (I know there are real ones but the term is abused)?
This new drive for the neophyte keeper to need to ascribe morphs and names and traits that don't exist to animals that are just normal... beautiful and NORMAL... is reaching a fever peak, it seems nothing can be sold or even just represented in a picture as what it is these days, the need for every animal to somehow be a mutant encompasses otherwise rational people.
The corn in the picture looks normal... just normal. It does not have to look
exactly like every other normal cornsnake to be a normal corn snake. There is a concept known as "phenotypal elasticity", that is to say, there's a natural and normal slight deviation in appearance between even members of the same species. Deciding that every animal that isn't completely identical to another is some new and exciting morph is bad for the hobby as a whole and needs to be stopped.
Most herpers are scientists, even without the degrees, they have the mentality, ask one of them to make a statement that universally rules out a possibility and they will balk and backpeddal and stretch their brains to come up with any possible situation that represents a second or third possibility, I do it myself most the time... In this instance though, fueled by some irritation over a situation that has come to a head in my own mind at this time, I will speak in an absolute...
That corn is normal.
Discounting any recessive traits it might be carrying that corn is a <explitive> normal.
The seeming need to attribute something else to it in order to add to it's worth is inappropriate and false.
I understand I'm probably coming off a bit stronger than this situation warrants, it was an innocent question and most of that was not directed at the person who asked, I'm just getting a bit frustrated with the constant need to decide animals are something other than what they are, as marketing gimicks, as things to brag about, whatever the root cause may be, I'm getting a bit sick of it as a personal matter.
The above post is mostly a personal rant, if it causes any offense, I would ask that the reader simply discount me as an angry person rambling and not attribute any importance to the words which may cause any future unpleasantness.
