My first clutch of the year has hatched.

[Andybill]

Vanilla's are subtle. And there are poor examples out there, which makes it even harder. The two main things I look for is the lightness and the head stamp. Vanillas, good ones anyway, are a different color than most normals. They tend to be lighter that's true, but a good example will also have a distinct yellowish hue to their body. Of course, there are a lot of normals who have that as well, but it's a good place to start.

The second feature is the very distinct light head stamp. The brighter the better. If you look at the picture of the second baby, you can tell it is not only much lighter than the two normals, but has a very light head. Once you've see a good example in person, it's fairly easy to pick one out. Well, a good one anyway. I've seen several from breeders that I trust to know what they have, but honestly even holding them in my hand I couldn't swear they were Vanilla's.

My goal in breeding is to start with the best parent stock I can find, then try to breed them to produce babies that are even nicer than they are. This little Vanilla came from my Mojave female, but he still looks a lot nicer than many I have seen. The two I got from my super light normal female last year were even brighter.

Gale

Ok I was thinking something along those lines! When I saw the second pic I noticed the headstamp and now looking at the pics again can see a very distinct difference compared to the two normals! Thanks for the morph ID lesson! And congrats again on this clutch!