I think that the fact that you had an entire littler of perfectly normal infernalis and then this one is really weird. Because if there was some muddling of genetics going on.... shouldn't we see varying degrees of it elsewhere? Like, in the other babies, and the parents? I mean exceptions happen I guess, but I just don't see one rogue baby as reason to condemn an entire line of healthy snakes. I mean, the whole coloration and everything of that one is just weird. It's like a totally different snake. There are outside factors that can alter how color and pattern is laid out while the baby snake is growing inside of the egg. Eve though mother snake incubates these eggs internally, things could still mess up. Sometimes, one gets messed up but it actually has nothing to do with the snake's lineage and is not genetically inheritable (like ringer and shatter pattern ball pythons) it could be faulty genes (like a birth defect), or many other things. I would be interested to see if it ends up being a failure to thrive. Often, when you get a real weirdo in a clutch something it's a weakling and doesn't make it.... and I'm not just talking garter snakes here either.