Kastanie Corn Snakes
A Kastanie corn snake hatches dull enough to pass for an anerythristic, then colours up over its first sheds into a chestnut red-brown that is deepest on the head. Put it with amel and you get the Mandarin.
About the Kastanie gene
Kastanie, German for chestnut, turns the oranges and reds of a corn snake into a warm, low-contrast red-brown that builds with age. With Amelanistic it makes the Mandarin.
Appearance
A Kastanie hatches looking dull. It is close enough to an anerythristic to be mistaken for one, but it gains its colour during the next few sheds. The head and neck receive the first brown, orange and peach tones. Adults are rusty red-brown or chestnut. The head is the deepest part, usually a reddish orange or deep red, and the colour fades along the body so the tail carries much less of it. The body runs from red and orange to brown, and can be a little peachy. All the saddles are present but they have low contrast. A reddish wash over the whole animal blurs the edges that are crisp on a normal corn snake. The iris matches the saddles as brown, dark orange or dark red, and the pupil is black. Orange or red runs into the checkers on the belly where they sit in their usual places. In the most extreme animals, the checkerboard is orange throughout. White flecking can appear at maturity, most often in Mandarins.
Genetics
Because Kastanie is recessive, animals that are Het Kastanie, 50% Het Kastanie, 66% Het Kastanie and Pos Het Kastanie all look like normal corn snakes. It belongs to no allelic complex and is also called Chestnut, Copper and Java. This gene produces the Mandarin with Amelanistic, the Persimmon with Lava, and the Rosy Bloodred with Diffused. The same gene is carried by Don Soderberg's American Rosy Blood line, meaning Rosy Bloods are Kastanie Bloodreds. The gene was proved by Frank Schaub's breeding work in Germany.