Sunkissed Corn Snakes

Sunkissed is a hypomelanistic type that changes a corn snake's pattern as well as its colour. The black is reduced, the orange runs brighter than on a wild-type corn, and the saddles lose their points. It is common and affordable, and it sits at the base of a long run of named combinations.

Appearance

The saddles are squared or rounded off, without the jagged edges of a normal pattern. Borders are usually thin, although some lines have been bred for heavy borders and are sold as Sunkissed Okeetees.

The reliable tell is a break in the cheek stripe, which shows even when the rest of the head looks normal. Check the belly as well: the checkers sit where you would expect them, but they are often bicolour, roughly half dark and half orange.

Genetics

Sunkissed is a simple recessive, so there is no super form. It has no recorded allelic partner, which makes it a hypomelanistic type by appearance rather than an allele of Hypomelanistic. A visual animal is listed as Sunkissed, while Het Sunkissed, 50% Het Sunkissed, 66% Het Sunkissed and Pos Het Sunkissed animals all look like a normal corn snake.

Kathy Love found it in okeetee breedings in the 1990s, and Rich Zuchowski proved it a separate recessive gene. It went round the hobby as Hypo B, the second hypomelanistic type anyone had, and the name Sunkist is still in use. Honey, Hazel, Blaze, Inferno, Sundust and Toffee are among the combinations built on it.

Known issues

The Stargazer gene was first found in Kathy Love's Sunkissed projects, and test breeding proved it a separate gene, unrelated to Sunkissed. Stargazer is a recessive neurological condition that affects balance. Snakes with it move erratically and sometimes corkscrew, and the condition gets worse under stress. It is now very uncommon, but if you are buying Sunkissed breeding stock, ask the seller what the line has been screened against.