Dinker project - I'm in hypo mystery hell

[Spiritserpents]

Anyone here happen to have any experience with dilute aneries lacking motley?

Quick and dirty history: Sire (anery het ???) bred to Grandam (ghost het amel) two years in a row, producing 38 babies. No hypo-type or snow babies were produced. I kept back a single daughter. I bred the daughter (anery het hypo ph amel thanks to ghost mum) back to the sire and produced 3 hypo-type animals. Hypo a, christmas, strawberry and ultra have been ruled out.
The babies started out a very odd and very dark cool-gray color but over the last 2 years the male I kept has developed rich brown tones and thick, black-looking saddle borders while keeping very pale gray belly checkers from chin to tail tip. The saddles on the last third are finally starting to gray out as well. He's clearly not sunkissed. It's not lava (too dark as a hatchling, especially the eyes). It's not peach (incomplete dominant, neither parent shows any hypomelanism).

This leaves me with dilute... or new. And gods help me if I end up having found corn snakes a *seventh* hypomelanistic trait.

Hatchling comparison photos:

Myst compared to a (lighter end of the spectrum) anery sibling


Myst with an anery sibling



Myst with a half-aunt ghost




And now, 2 years old:

In shade



In the sun, where he doesn't look hypo at all, but you can see the borders going grey above the tip of my thumb



Belly checkers, showing that he is indeed a hypo still




And finally some comparisons of him with a dilute anery motley (and why I'm not convinced he's a dilute) and a ghost half-uncle


Left: ghost. Top: dilute anery motley. Right: Myst



Left: Myst. Middle: dilute anery motley. Right: ghost



Top: Myst. Middle: ghost. Bottom: dilute anery motley

[Bogertophis]

Can't help ya with your question, sorry, but cool snakes- we do need more corns & other colubrids around here. The only corns I've bred were Okeetee, & I still have a couple, plus 3 carmel corns.