Pink Alien Heads & Enchi???

OK, I'll admit it--I was looking at bps in the pet store today. All three looked like they're in good health.

One looked similar to a normal, but from about midway down to the belly it was lighter and sort of gray, with pink alien heads. This animal was in shed.

Another one looked similar to a normal, but the pattern met over the spine in three places. There was a lot of black little pattern spots over the alien heads. Would this be an enchi?

The third looked like a normal, and was very dark, almost black.

I'm tempted, and have a coupon for 10% off anything in the store. Can anyone comment on these descriptions and possible morphs?

Pictures are worth a thousand words, can't tell you what it may or may not be based on YOUR description.

OK, thanks. I don't know if the pet store would let me take a picture of the one with the pink alien heads, they tend to not like people taking pictures.

I looked at the morph guide, and enchis have to have reduced pattern in addition to the pattern meeting over the spine, so the one I saw couldn't have been an enchi.

I'm still curious about the pink alien heads.

I would snap up the one with pink even in shed just out of curiosity. That sounds like something fun and new. Although my pied gets pinkish when she sheds on her white I've not seen anything else on her turn pink.

I'm sharing your thoughts on this. I'm setting up another tank now, and will head back there in a few minutes. :)

Why do they care if you take a snakes picture? Could it be burned maybe?

Pictures yet?

OK, here's the update....

I called the pet store and asked them to hold the snake that's in shed for me. When I got there, I showed the man the pink and we compared it to the other two. He saw the pink too, and said he hadn't noticed it before, but these snakes just came in today and he hadn't had a chance to take a good look at them. The alien heads on the other two were definitely goldish colored all the way down, and on this one, they were goldish closer to the spine and pinkish further down, with more pink on some than others. It also has more fading of the dark color in between the alien heads than the other two. When I told him I wanted this snake for the coloring, he said that I have 30 days to return it if I'm not happy with it, and that if the pink goes away after the shed, he will take the snake back and refund my money if I want to return it.

I took the snake to someone who knows snakes more than I do, which is pretty much anybody with herps. Under the light there, there was very little pink. Almost nothing. I swore to her that I'm not insane. I asked her if it's a male or a female, and she said based on the spurs she'd guess female. Then she popped it and said female, but to be positive I'd need to check with someone we both know who is experienced in probing snakes. She said the snake is a "very pretty normal." She noticed a mostly healed scratch under the snake that she said looks like it may have come from rubbing shed, but should be OK and is nothing to worry about.

I took her home, and under the light in my house it looks sort of between what it was at the store and where I took the snake to be sexed, pink-wise. After the shed, if I'm still seeing some pink, maybe I should look around for a normal with the same coloring and try breeding them for a project.

Right now she's in a very snarky mood because she's about to shed, maybe tonight. I am about halfway through setting up a cage for her, and I've figured out that if I run a cord under the door to the laundry room I can put her cage on the same thermostat as my bearded dragon's enclosure. Then by fine tuning where the probe is in the beardie's cage, I should be able to control the heat in both cages on the same thermostat. I can use the point and click thermometer to monitor things.

So that's my adventure for today. I'll get pictures and post them when I can. She is in one whale of a bad mood and getting her out of the box and into the new tank might be another adventure.

Here's a picture that I took at the store. I'm using an old camera and a vintage Mac desktop, so it's not the greatest. She's the one in front. This doesn't look as pinky as it did in person, but if you look at the bottom of the alien heads on her side and tail you can see that they are more pink than the other snake. This is what I was trying to describe. It's a dark photo and looked more pink/salmon colored in person.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...pst0vbb9uh.jpg


What do you think? A keeper or not?

I see what you are talking about and it is a very nice looking normal. What really counts is what you see in her and for her. :gj:

Thank you.

Maybe it would be possible to breed her to a male with more of that salmon/pinky color on the alien heads to see if that could be enhanced?? She's still small, so it'll be a while before she's ready to breed. Hopefully the person who knows how to probe will be available to check her this afternoon.

An update--I took her to be probed, and he said it's 99.9% certain that she's a girl, and she looks like she's het for something, although there's no way to know what that something is. If I ever breed her, I might be in for a surprise.

You would have to breed it to a visual or het of the same recessive to see any offspring visual recessives. Also, it can't look het for something.

OK, I was just repeating what I was told.

The next time they hold a reptile show in Phoenix, I plan to go and look for a normal male with pinkish alien heads. Normal males aren't that hard to come by, there should be plenty to look through at a show. Then if I find one, maybe in the future I could see what they produce. It would be fun to see if that feature could be brought out more.

The chances of my finding a jewel in the rough in a tank of normals at a pet store is probably about he same as winning the lottery, but it's that tiny chance that makes things fun.

She's losing that pre-shed haze and looking just a bit pinker.

Looks like just a nice normal to me. A lot of snakes get very "pink" when theyre about to shed. The pink may go away when she sheds. But, like someone else said..as long as you love your pet, who cares what she is.

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I wish she would hurry up and shed, because she doesn't smell too good. :(

She's been doing some soaking in her water dish. I hope that's from shedding and not a sign that there might be mites.

Well, the pink coloring stayed! :D

She's currently at 93 grams, and I rubbed her over a piece of paper to check for mites. All I got was cypress mulch pieces. And I had to clean her cage because she did her business in the warm hide, and was lying on top of it. Still nice and fresh. Eeeww.

that sounds great!

give her a name and post fresh shed pix. :)

Here she is, just before striking the camera lens.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ps2s1odsts.jpg

She smells better now, but the smell hasn't totally gone away. Hopefully it'll go away with the next shed. My other two snakes don't smell bad.

Just a heads up. Based on that picture, I would be willing to bet that the snake is in shed, and the pink you are seeing is a mostly result of that. Wait and go back in a few days, after it has shed its old skin, and see if the snake still looks like it has extra pink. I also notice that recent hatchlings and juveniles get slightly more pink/red before they shed than most adults that I have. One of my juvenile girls gets strawberry red on the belly during a shed cycle. It looks amazing, but it only lasts one to three days.

She has shed, and it all came off except for a little piece on her back. I picked up the pieces and threw them away. There's still some pinkness there.