Lava

Lava is a recessive hypo-type corn snake gene, separate from classic hypo, that lowers dark pigment while leaving a vivid warm color palette. Visual lava Pantherophis guttatus often show orange, red, or yellow tones with saddle borders that look gray, purple-brown, or almost translucent instead of black. The effect can be brighter and cleaner than a normal corn but is not the same as amelanism, because lava snakes still have dark eye and body pigment.

For keepers, lava does not change the enclosure or feeding plan; it is managed like any other healthy captive-bred corn snake. The value of the label is mainly genetic. A lava bred to a normal corn will not produce visual lava babies unless the normal also carries lava, and other reduced-melanin genes may look similar in photos. Breeders use lava in combinations to make pale or high-color projects, so accurate records and honest naming are important when animals are sold as het, visual, or possible lava.

Colors: Albino, Amel, Amelanistic, Anery, Anerythristic, Bloodred, Butter, Candy Cane, Caramel, Charcoal, Cinder, Creamsicle, Dilute, Fire, Ghost, Granite, Hypo, Lava, Lavender, Masque, Miami Phase, Motley, Normal, Okeetee, Opal, Palmetto, Pewter, Plasma, Reverse Okeetee, Scaleless, Snow, Stripe, Sunglow, Sunkissed, Tessera, Ultramel, Wild Type