Chocolate update

[Just CL]

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This is one of the babies that I am calling "chocolate" eastern garters. They are getting darker with each shed. Named after Scott Felzers chocolate wandering garter pictured below.

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I'm not sure they really qualify as a "morph"... On one hand, there were 4 out of 22, I think, that looked like that, and the rest were normal. On the other hand, they could just be a darker, almost pseudo-melanistic, variation of a normal garter. It's true that they don't look super special. But there's the tongue: the most special part is that they have gray tongues. It's unlikely that they lack red pigment, as they're dark brown. So...I don't know.

[Elisabeth83]

Beautiful baby! If it’s not a lack of red pigment I’m not sure what could be causing the gray tongues. Are they like a whitish gray or dark gray?

[Just CL]

They're quite dark. I'm not sure what's going on. It's almost like a melanistic in some ways, but it's venter isn't black. It could just be a fluke. Years of dark snakes breeding dark snakes. Or it could be a locality thing. Not sure.

[Elisabeth83]

Cool! I know it can be tough but get a pic if you can. I can’t find any information on garter snake tongue colors beyond red and black. Maybe you just created a whole new color variety. :)

[Just CL]

Probably not. But I will try to get a good pic..I'll just take a video and pause and screen grab when it's tongue is out.