This color mutation is an obsession at NERD, we have a serious fixation for retics and are crazy about the various color combinations of the Calico form. We have a large colony of these snakes and all of the white form animals are females! This leads us to believe that this morph may be sexed-linked, similar to the majority of calico cats. On the other hand, we have worked with a male calico retic in the past, and have some of his male offspring that are in the process of turning calico.

Calico retics vary but all possess the pure, stark white scalation that gives them such a stunning appearance. Eye color varies from animal to animal in a spectrum of black, grey, orange or silver. As female retics typically mature in 3 years, takes time to see the full physical manifestation of this trait. We do not expect to produce hatchling Calicos; in our experience there has never been a Calico collected from the wild under 8' in length. The Calico corn snake has proven itself as genetic, normal as babies and as they matured acquired the white pied coloration; at this point we theorize that the Calico retic gene is very similar. At this point we maintain & breed a large collection of these snakes, all of which are extremely variable. Various breedings we have done involving the Calico gene indicate to us that this is a simple recessive trait.