From my understanding sometimes these genes for white and piebald can be deleterious to essential organs. It could be that a piebald ball with a white head would not develop correctly congenitally and not make it past its developmental stages. For example, I know that in some animals like white Boxers (dog) the white gene can lead to malformation of the eyes and ears internally as well as make them susceptible to cancers etc. I also read somewhere that horses homozygous for white cannot be born because for some reason the white gene affects the development of nerves in utero. It could be that the head of the piebald ball python must have relatively normal pigmentation in order to develop properly to live. Or it could be that we haven't been lucky enough to see one as cool looking as to have a white head. Just my 2 cents...

Rafael

[ Show Entire Thread ]