Slightly odd color variation

[Just CL]

Hello,
I've been reading posts on this site for a while now, but only recently joined... I have been working with garters for years though. Anyway, firstly, thank you for the welcome to the community. I'm actually posting about a few babies I just produced. I've seen "chocolate" garters, but never of the eastern variety, and I think I have some which would fit that moniker. They came from an almost melanistic looking female who was a baby from a wild caught female I found years ago. She was the only "odd" baby, and when breeding her to a normal plain-Jane garter, I ended up with two more "odd" babies. They are a beige gray looking color with irregular black blotches and a slate gray venter. Their heads and parts of their bodies are a deep chocolate brown, with much more iridescence. The photo doesn't do this one justice, and it was about to shed at the time, but...they're...odd. Also, all of the normal babies have normal pink tongues with black tips, but these have gray tongues with black tips. Any thoughts?