Okeetee corn snakes originated in South Carolina, and have been captive bred ever since they were first discovered to preserve their beauty against the wear and tear of time. They captivate the soul with their vibrant orange and red hues. They truly look like droplets of sun-stream!
Okeetee corn snakes are a hybrid morph of corn snakes. Inbreeding, crossbreeding and gene mutation hold the infinite possibility of creating thousands of morphs that are each more scintillating than the other. Without further ado, let’s explore more about them.
Okeetee Corn Snake: Bask In The Sunny Hues Of These Serpents!
Corn snakes are these flame-colored snakes with bright orange and red tones that seem to mesmerize anyone who lays their eyes on them. They are non-venomous Colubrids that inhabit the wilderness of the central and south-eastern United States.
These snakes love open spaces and can usually be spotted in forest clearings or edges, flatwoods or even in outbuildings close to humans. Because of their color resemblance, they are often confused with the venomous copperheads which are also a bright orange. There are hundreds of thousands of corn snake morphs and we will be discussing one of them here.
What Do Okeetee Corn Snakes Look Like?
Okeetee corn snakes keep the family tradition alive. They maintain the classic look of corn snakes to a large extent and look phenomenal. They are often confused with red milk snakes because milk snakes have similar colors. Keep reading to discover more about them.
Source:@djmreptiles
- Body Adult: In Okeetee corn snakes, the colors orange and red are predominant. The elongated body is orange overall, with blood-red saddles dancing on them, edged in black.
The black edges around the saddles are quite thick, filled in with the darkest shade of black. However, though the saddles appear to be red in the first two-thirds of the body, they look more orange in the remaining segments of their curvy exterior.
There is a Lee Abbott line of Okeetee corn snakes that are quite similar in appearance, but the sides and bellies have a stronger shade of yellow. The saddles have strong black outlines. - Body Hatchling: Babies that hatch out resemble their parents to a great extent. However, they definitely look a lot brighter in appearance. The body is bright orange, decorated with crimson saddles outlined in thick black. They have bright red spearhead markings on their head with an orange snout. There are red bars running across their eyes, and the eyes are shiny black.
- Belly: The common corn snakes are famous for the checkerboard pattern on their belly, and the Okeetee corn snakes are no exception. However, in the ordinary corn snake the black and white crisscrosses produce orange and white corn-kernel looking squares. In the Okeetee corn snake, the checkerboard pattern makes bright orange and deep black corn kernels.
- Head: the head of an adult Okeetee has the same patterns and markings present on a baby Okeetee. The only difference being the colors in the adults look slightly subdued– some of the bright red parts have been replaced by bright orange. The black outlines around the markings are more pronounced than in the babies. There are bright orange stripes stretching from their eyes to their cheeks outlined in black. The snout is yellowish-orange and the chin is white.
- Eyes: The eyes are wide and round. The pupils are perfectly circular, and not slit, as you would expect to see in some nocturnal snakes. The black eyes are surrounded by golden brown eye-rings or transparent scales that accentuates their beautiful beady eyes.
- Tail: The tails are quite thin and tapers off at the end. They have the same orange and red coloration as in the rest of the body, with the tail-tips being mostly black. The coloration on a hatchling’s tail is slightly brighter and more glossy.
- Size: Okeetee corn snake hatchlings are each 8 to 12 inches long. When they are about 6 months old, they grow between 2 and 2.5 feet. By the time they are 2 to 3 years old, they are about 5 to 6 feet in body length. An adult Okeetee corn snake may weigh up to 900 g or more.
There are hundreds of Okeetee corn snake morphs, each with a more phenomenal pattern and hues to die for. There are red, yellow, black-and-white, brown, maroon and albino morphs of Okeetee corn snakes that you will have to look twice to believe because they look surreal!
Why Do Okeetee Corn Snakes Look Like They Do?
Source:@miss_mars_okeetee
The first line of Okeetees were introduced by Kathy and Bill Love, and they named their morphs the Love-line Okeetees for obvious reasons. The snakes were selectively bred for qualities like the bright orange body, blood-red saddles, and the distinct black borders on the saddles. Later, many other breeders came into the scene, among which the Lee Abbott line is remarkable.
Okeetee snake morphs (other than the classic orange ones) may look black-and-white, subdued or pink due to genetic conditions brought about by recessive gene mutation. Conditions like albinism, hypomelanism, axanthism, and anerythrism, among others, manifest some beautiful hues on the snake’s body. However, the conditions do not make them unhealthy in any way. These beautiful morphs can be looked after in the same way as other corn snakes can be.
Okeetee corn snakes originated in the Okeetee Hunt Club, South Carolina, as a result of selective breeding. They resemble the classic corn snakes a lot in the sense that they possess intense orange and red coloration on their body. In order to achieve a lot of Okeetee hatchlings, the breeder has to ensure that both the parents are true Okeetees.
Do Okeetee Corn Snakes Have Varieties?
You will be amazed at the sheer variations of patterns and colors that a breeder gets after breeding Okeetee parent snakes together. Some of the variations are discussed below.
- Love-Line And Abbott-Line Okeetee: As already discussed, these two lines of Okeetee corn snakes produce some of the brightest Okeetee morphs ever and are quite popular as pets. The snakes from this line look bright orange with intense red saddles, and the saddles have black outlines, characteristics that make them appear as if they are glowing like shards of hot lava.
- Okeetee Lava: Okeetee lava has a well-deserved name since the body color of this snake will remind you of the flaming hot, red and orange colors of molten lava. The saddles are the characteristic red, however, the black borders are either quite thin or not present, creating the impression as if all the colors of the snake are mixed together.
- Extreme Okeetee: They resemble the buckskin Oketees to a large extent. However, the black borders outlining the red saddles are so thick and intense, you can call them “extreme”, and that’s how they got their name. The saddles get darker and darker until they become completely black in the final one-third of the snake’s elongated body.
There are amelanistic extreme reverse Okeetee versions where the black color almost disappears. Amelanism is a genetic condition where the pigment melanin is absent so dark colorations of the skin are missing. These amelanistic Okeetees are pink with light-yellow saddles. They have light orange and yellow markings on their head. - Reverse Okeetee: When you reverse the colors of an Okeetee, what do you get? You get an albino Okeetee with almost no colors present on their body. The background color is light pink, or subdued yellow with bright orange saddles. The saddles do not have the black outlines because they are amelanistic. The black color has been replaced with white or pale purple.
There are different versions of the reverse Okeetee. There is the buff reverse Okeetee where
The body color is mostly pinkish purple with bright orange saddles. There are intermittent faint yellow bands running between the orange saddle. Then, there is the red factor reverse Okeetee which looks a lot like the Love and Abbott lines, only the black colorations are missing. Reverse Okeetees have orange, red or pink eyes since they are albinos. - Buckskin Okeetee: Buckskin is a coloration where you will find hues like tan, black and white to a large extent. These Okeetee morphs are more subtle colored and not as bright as the Abbott or the Loveline Okeetees. They are tan overall, with blackish-orange saddles, and the saddles have thick black outlines. Along the last one-third of the body the saddles condense to only black, and the orange parts are almost invisible. Their heads are orange with white lines. .
- Miami Phase And Okeetee Phase Morphs: Miami phase snakes are beige/tan colored Okeetee corn snakes that have bright orange saddles with thick black outlines. They have similar colored markings on their head. They are a result of selective breeding in order to achieve a lighter ground color in the snake’s body.
Okeetee phase corn snakes, unlike the Miami phase, are bright orange with red saddles and thick, black outlines. They look a lot like the Extreme morphs discussed above.
A Miami locality corn snake is different from a Miami phase Okeetee. Corn snakes found in Miami, Florida are called Miami locality and they naturally have a silver/tan ground color. Whereas Miami phase Okeetee is a morph that can be bred and found outside of Florida. They are called Miami phase Okeetees because they have the tan coloration of Miami locality.
The same applies for the Okeetee phase as well. The original Okeetee corn snakes come from Okeetee Hunt Club and are selectively bred there. On the other hand, Okeetee phase corn snakes are not bred in the aforementioned hunt club but they look a lot like the originals. - Ultramel Okeetee: Ultramel is a morph which is formed by an allele of the amelanistic gene. When a classic corn snake (P. guttatus) is bred with the Gray rat snake (P. spiloides), ultramel Okeetee corn snakes are produced. They have gray coloration instead of black colors due to a lack of melanin in their body.
Ultramel morphs are one of the finest looking variations out there. Colors like bluish-gray, red, yellow and orange all jump and play around on the bodies of these snakes. They have an orange body overall, with red saddles outlined in gray instead of black. Their head has markings of all these colors, mostly yellow at the snout. They have the characteristic checkerboard belly. - Striped Albino Okeetee: Albino Okeetees have no black coloration on them since the snakes cannot produce melanin. They could be of various colors, like pink, light to bright orange, purple and brown. The tessera and motley albino Okeetees have longitudinal stripes running down their body, sometimes singly and other times in two or three together.
- Amber Okeetee: They look quite different from the other Okeetee morphs. They have a mostly light purple appearance with amber colored saddles. The amber saddles are outlined in thick black coloration. The heads are mostly amber, with purplish chin and tails.
- Tessera Okeetee: Tessera is a morph where the snake has amazing looking longitudinal stripes running along their sides or back, and they may also have extraordinary looking blotches or markings that look pixelated. Tessera Okeetes are gorgeous with maroon colored bodies and orange hued stripes, with white markings along their flanks. They have white and orange markings on a maroon colored head.
What Do Okeetee Corn Snakes Eat?
Okeetee corn snakes can be found in the wild and also bred in captivity. Their food choice is what corn snakes usually prefer, mice or rats. They may also prefer insects or other invertebrates. In the wild, they are able to climb trees as well and aim for bird eggs.
Within human supervision, baby Okeetees could be fed one pinky mouse per week, and to the adults one fuzzy or jumbo mouse or even a rat, can be fed every 14-21 days. Females usually have a voracious appetite just after copulation or before laying eggs. They should be fed appropriately during the breeding months. However, you should avoid overfeeding them.
Corn snakes have aglyphous teeth that are short and pointed, with the help of which it grasps living prey. In captivity, they are usually not fed live prey. They are non-venomous and do not have fangs. After they grasp their prey, they coil around them to suffocate them to fatality. The lifeless prey is then swallowed whole. This method of subduing prey is called constriction.
Are Okeetee Corn Snakes Expensive?
While the classic corn snakes are not that expensive, their morphs may be fairly pricey. An original Okeetee corn snake may not cost you much and you will get one within $70 and $80.
However, their variations, like the albino, motley, tessera and the ultramels may cost you between $700 and $2000.
A Teensy-Weensy Care-Sheet For Okeetee Corn Snake
Source:@sneks_n_geks
Corn snakes are popular for their docile nature. They rarely ever bite and you can play around with them, caressing them, petting them to your heart’s content without the fear of getting your hand bitten off. Okeetee corn snakes are no exception and can be taken care of in exactly the same way as other snakes. They are also a great addition to your home decor for their colors.
The enclosure you want to house your Okeetee in is crucial to pay attention to. It should be large enough so that your beloved pet can move around and stretch comfortably. A 30-40 gallon tank is a must for adult Okeetee corn snakes. Next thing you have to take care of is the temperature. Try to maintain the temperature between 78 and 82°F at all times. The basking spot should be at 90°F, and 75°F should be the cool zone.
No animal is free from sickness and may feel unwell from time to time. If you find their feces or droppings to have more fluidity than usual, they may be suffering through some intestinal problems. Check their nose to see if bubbles form when they breathe out which could be a sign of respiratory infection. Rubbing their body against surfaces could mean they have parasites. If you see persistent symptoms, with no signs of improvement, feel free to visit the vet.
Symbolical Importance Of Orange Snakes
Orange is a lively and cheerful color. It is one of the hues emitted by the glowing sun and it brings a smile to your face and soothes your heart. If you happen to have dreamt of an orange snake, then need not worry, it basically means that something good is about to happen.
The body of a snake resembles the shape of a river, therefore it means there will be some changes in your life. Your social life, which consists of your friends, loved ones and well-wishers, will expand. Success is knocking on your door and soon your innermost wishes may come true.
Thoughts
Okeetee corn snakes look a lot like the common corn snakes with even redder and more orangey shades playing hide and seek on their body. Some morphs like the albino and lava morphs look as if they are on fire. Then there are subdued morphs too with subtler shades.
If you like the gentler shades more than you should check out the buckskin, Miami phase, and reverse Okeetes, from hundreds of others pastel shades. They will warm your heart and also cool you down because the colors are so heavenly. They are amazing and highly cherished.
