Everyone puts photos up of their best looking animals, so it only makes sense to do it that way as well. But in some cases, that animal might be one
that is the best one produced in 20 years of working with a cultivar. So is it likely that ALL of the babies produced are going to look like
that one? Of course not. But if I put up a photo of just an average looking one, then I would be at a distinct disadvantage of catching someone's
interest when my average looking animals were compared with everyone else's best looking animals. Clearly not a fair way of doing things.
Then I thought about perhaps putting up about a half dozen or so photos for each cultivar so a person could more easily get an idea of the range
of variance they are likely to get when their babies grow up. But I'm sure you can see the problems that would lead to. Invariably, people would
ask for babies that will grow up looking like the one shown in photo #3 or something similar, so I would be right back where I started at. If you've
been to my CORNSNAKES.COM website and seen the page on Lavender Corns, you probably noticed the 30 some photos of Lavenders I posted there. You would
be amazed at the number of people I have had that have asked for Lavender corns that looked like a particular ID listed on that page. Something that
is nearly impossible for me to guarantee.
Thirdly, baby corn snakes just do not look anything at all like what they will as adults. Some colors do not express themselves until much later
on in life, and the interactions they make can give you a different looking snake about every other shed. I usually keep about double the number of
animals I really want to hang on to every year just because I am aware of this dilemma and know that I need to make a final cut about a year later
for my future breeding stock. And I am dead certain that some animals I sold off as newly hatched babies would have been keepers if I had grown them
up a little bit before selling them off. But when you have a few thousand babies hatching out every year, you usually do not have the luxury of being
able to keep ALL of them just to wait for their colors to finally come around.
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