Amelanistic (Red Albino) Corn Snake
The word "melanistic" is Latin for "Black". The term "Amelanistic" means the absence of black. Therefore to produce the Amelanistic phase you need to bred out the black.
The Amelanistic (commonly called the Red Albino phase) Corn Snake is now the most common type of snake bred in captivity. With this in mind you may be surprised to hear that the first ever Amelanistic corns sold for $5000 each.
A corn snake normally has four colours. These are red, black, white and yellow. Some people would dispute that the white is a colour. However I see the white in corn snakes as a "pigment", as opposed to a lack of colour. I come to this conclusion by looking closely at snow corns. These often have white on a colourless background. I think this shows that there is an actual white pigment. To produce the Amelanistic phase you need to bred out the black. You may expect this to produce a red, white and yellow snake, however what in fact happens is that you get a red and orange snake. The orange colour comes form the mixing of yellow and red. The orange can be various shades, and my favourite is a burn orange effect.
There are many types of Amelanistic corns depending on the amount of the remaining colours on the snake. For instance where there is a lot of white present you get the phase known as "Candy Cane".
@ Stephen Sharp 2006
