Lavender Corn Snake: Say Hello To These Pretty Purple Enchanters!

Corn snakes can be found in the wilderness of the south-eastern and central parts of the United States of America. They are gentle and shy and maintain a low profile. They are primarily diurnal and spend most of their waking hours hunting and exploring the nooks and crannies.

There are dozens of corn snake morphs that are captive-bred by mating the wild-types with the already existing morphs. One of these morphs is the lavender corn snake. You would be amazed to see how pretty they look. Without further ado, let’s get to know these snakes more.

Lavender Corn Snake: All About These Lovely Pink-Purple Snakes!

Before we go about our way exploring the life of the gorgeous lavender corn snakes, let’s know a little bit about corn snakes in a jiffy. Why are they called corn snakes, you ask? If you look at their belly, you will see a checkerboard pattern where some squares are orange and some are white resembling corn kernels. Some call corn snakes “rat snakes” because they eat rats.

Corn snakes inhabit the woodlands and grasslands of the south-eastern and central parts of the United States. They are innately docile and completely harmless, because they are non- venomous colubrid snakes. The classic look of corn snakes has different shades of orange, yellow and brown on them, but there are dozens of color and pattern morphs that they exist in.

Source: @snake_feature

What Does Lavender Corn Snake Look Like?

The color lavender has hues of pink and purple in it. There are lavender flowers, lavender grapes, lavender vegetables– who ever thought that lavender snakes could exist?

• Body Color And Crossbands: Lavender corn snakes are mostly white with a beautiful faint purple hue dancing on their body. They may have purple-gray markings here and there to accentuate the background. On certain specimens of lavender corn snakes, the white crossbands are stark white, while in others they may appear to be purplish-white.
• Heads And Ventral: The heads are a deeper shade of purple than the rest of the body. The ventral side of lavender snakes have a not-so-distinctive checkerboard pattern just like their close corn snake relatives. The checkerboard pattern produces squares of light purple over a pinkish-purple background. The tails are quite narrow and have a light purple color mostly.
  Exotic looking corn snakes are often mistaken as different species of corn snakes, but actually they are either a morph, or have genetic conditions like albinism, or are hybrids. They have the same scientific name “Pantherophis guttata” which in Greek and Latin literally translates to “panther-like snakes”. This is because wild-type corn snakes have panther-like splotches.
  However, if the morph belongs to the Great Plains Rat Snake (P. emoryi) or Slowinski’s corn snakes (P. slowinskii), then of course, the species name would differ. Other than just being called lavender corn snakes, there are other variations too with different fun-filled names.

Are There Morphs Of Lavender Corn Snakes?

There are different purple-pink morphs of lavender corn snakes that even have pattern variations. Let’s get introduced to some pattern variations of lavender corn snakes first.

• Lavender Motley: Lavender corn snakes may, in turn, have different pattern morphs. The term “motley” in the snake world generally refers to varied markings on a snake’s body that are unique and incomparable with another snake’s body markings. Lavender corn snakes that have dots, spots, or horizontal crossbands on their body are called lavender motley morphs. They are produced by breeding a motley morph with a lavender morph.
• Lavender Pinstripe Motley: Not only are motley patterns horizontal, but longitudinal stripes of motley markings may also be present in lavender corn snakes. Lavender corn snakes that have long stripes running from their neck to tail-tips are named lavender pinstripe motley morphs.
• Lavender Tessera Corn Snake: To produce these morphs of corn snakes, one needs to breed a lavender and a tessera corn snake. The gene that controls the expression of tessera pattern, that looks like a computer generated pattern, is dominant, meaning it expresses more than lavender color. So the base color is not exactly lavender, but dull pink, and the whole snake is adorned with a beautiful tessellated pattern.
  Now let’s take a look at some color morphs of lavender corn snakes: The different lavender corn snake morphs that are extremely popular as pets are named “Ghost”, “Pewter”, “Anery”, “Plasma’ and “Opal”. Besides other colors, each has purple to pink tones present on them. Many morphs are intra-bred to produce more morphs. Some have been discussed below.
• Ghost And Pewter: In the ghost morphs, different shades of gray and brown reflect on their body and create illusions of pastel shades such as lavender or light pink. The pewter morphs have a mesmerizing silvery-purple tint on their curvy exterior.
• Plasma, Opal And Anery: The plasma and opal morphs radiate different shades of gray, purple and pink as they dart around playing hide-and-seek with light. Anery morphs are super cool with a condition where they fail to produce enough “erythrin” so they appear totally black, gray or brown. Among other colors, faint purple hues are also visible.
• Scaleless Lavender: This morphs is produced when a lavender corn snake is bred with a scaleless corn snake. Though at first, selective breeding experiments were not producing preferred outcomes, after years of trial and error, scaleless lavender corn snakes were produced. Hatchlings look light purple overall with subdued orange crossbands, while adults look more orange with light-purple to tan highlights.
• Red-Factor Ultramel Lavender Hurricane Motley: These morphs of lavender corn snakes have no red pigment on them because they have a genetic condition. They possess an attractive lavender color overall with light-orange oval markings intermittently spread out over their whole body. The same markings are present on their heads as well.
• Lavender Motley Hypomelanistic: These lavender morphs have a condition that prevents them from producing adequate amounts of melanin, and as a result, they do not have much dark coloration on their body. They look maroon red and become pale pink as they grow older, and fade even more in the later stages of their life. They blink at humans with beady, gray eyes.

What Do The Eyes Of Lavender Corn Snake Look Like?

The original lavender corn snakes usually have burgundy eyes that look deep-brown from a distance. Other morphs may have gray, blue, pink or red eyes. The reasons for this depend upon the different genetic conditions that they may have, like albinism or leucism.

Source: @sl1pping_cr0wn_7

What Do Baby Lavender Corn Snakes Look Like?

Believe it or not, but hatchlings of lavender corn snakes look extremely different from their adult forms. In fact, they look like the classic corn snakes with deep orange and brown hues.

However, the rings on their body are grayish-purple, and by the time they are mature, they are fully light purple-gray. Baby lavenders aso have beautiful purple gray markings on their head.

Amery lavender corn snake hatchlings, however, look exactly like their adult versions. They look basically light purple overall, with light gray or brown markings over their body.

Why Does Lavender Corn Snake Look Like That?

Lavender corn snakes owe their magical lavender hue to their parents. In order to produce a lavender corn snake, two lavender alleles must have to be present from the two parent snakes. The lavender color is the result of a recessive gene mutation.

Lavender corn snakes are not contemporary morphs. In fact, they have been bred since the 1980s. During that time, a wild-caught (common corn snake) female was mated with a snow morph male which resulted in the production of the first lavender corn snake. Back then, due to their more chocolaty appearance, they were called “mocha” or “coco”. However, repeated selective breeding over the years led to the generation of deeper lavender hues.

Such beautiful coloration on snakes is actually due to some genetic conditions, like albinism, leucism or hypomelanism. For instance, in the anery lavender morph of corn snake, the word “anery” comes from the condition “anerythristic”. Recessive gene mutation in these snakes results in the absence of erythrin which is responsible for the colors yellow, red and orange in snakes. As a result, the snakes appear mostly black or gray with purple hues.

In lavender motley hypomelanistic morph, the snake has a condition called “hypomelanism” where an adequate amount of melanin is not produced, resulting in the red color being more pronounced. They look red as hatchlings but fade to almost whitish-purple as they age.

What Does Lavender Corn Snake Eat?

Lavender corn snakes would prefer pre-killed, thawed baby mice or fuzzy (adult) mice that can be readily bought from pet-stores or other kinds of retail stores. There is no need to cut the food item into pieces. Snakes swallow prey whole so that they can get all the nutrients from it.

How Does Lavender Corn Snake Behave?

Lavender corn snakes are not only easy on the eyes, but they are also quite manageable. The first few times, it might hiss at you or shake its tail to intimidate you. But as it slowly grows on you, all animosity will disappear. However, they are great escape artists and will try to wriggle their way out of the tank or terrarium. A screened lid will help in this case.

Where Can We Find Lavender Corn Snake?

As lavender corn snakes are bred by making the wild-types breed with other morphs, so you should have an idea where corn snakes usually reside. The wilderness and waterbodies of the central and south-eastern parts of the United States is where corn snakes are found.

They like open places more, like forest clearings or edges, open fields, and man-made outbuildings like granary or sheds. They can also be found on cliffs and other elevated places above 6000 feet. During winter brumation, they hide themselves within rock crevices.

How Does Lavender Corn Snake Produce Babies?

Lavender corn snakes can breed only in captivity since they are not available in the wild. They breed between March and May, with the females laying about 10 to 30 eggs.

Eggs are laid in warm, earth-covered areas that are far away from predators. Humidity is crucial during the egg-laying time. Eggs are incubated for 2 months after which the eggs hatch. Hatchlings are each 9 to 14 inches.

Lavender Corn Snake: How Will I Take Care Of One?

Source: @kirafeara

Lavender corn snakes are one of the most beautiful corn snakes to have as a pet. Their exterior coloration is almost dreamlike. Taking care of corn snakes is not that big of a deal. A 10 gallon tank would be amazing for hatchlings, whereas a 20 to 30 gallon tank would be suitable for an adult. Hatchlings tend to be a bit feisty so you would want a screen lid with the tanks.

Keep them active and curious because that suits their natural temperament. Place artificial ornaments like caves and plants so that they can move about. The substrate should be quite thick, and could be made with aspen shavings or leaf litter/mulch, so that the snake can remain hidden especially in the summers or when they are not feeling up to the mark to face the world.

For temperature control, you may use a ceramic heater or heating lamps. There should be a basking spot and a cool side. The warm area should be between 75 and 85°F, while the cool zone could be around 70°F. For humidity maintenance, a hygrometer could be used, and do not forget to place a large water bowl. Humidity of 65% to 75% would be quite sufficient.

Always try to feed pre-killed, thawed (can be bought frozen from retail stores) pinky and fuzzy mice to your lavender corn snakes. Feeding live mice bears the potential risk of transmission of parasites from the rodent to the snake. Humidity maintenance is crucial for lavender snakes or else a disrupted molting process could lead to skin infection or even blindness.

Thoughts

Lavender corn snakes look amazing with their pinkish-purple hue. They are not a separate species of corn snakes, but a morph or a variation as a result of a recessive gene mutation. The mutation gives rise to certain conditions like albinism or leucism that results in the coloration.

Corn snakes are highly docile creatures and are non-venomous colubrid snakes. They rarely ever bite and are quite manageable. For this reason, they are popular as pets in people’s households or in reserves. If properly taken care of, they can live for about 20 years!