Reptile & Amphibian Forums

here is an 05 female. she was developing a nice gold color, as shown in the second pic in january. she just shed and now the color on the lower half of her body has lost it's color. it looks like an axanthic gray. does anyone know what is going on with this one? is this the IMG trait? thanks for any help you can provide. Rin

Only time will tell for sure. That's how mine started out, Then it went to looking almost full axanthic but it had the very bright yellow mark's on it back. Then after about a year it turned into what everyone is calling the IMG. Good luck and let us know how you make out. Thanks Erick
{ Exotic Designs }

Hey Erick, if you don't mind me asking, where did you get the snake in that picture? It looks like one I was going to buy.
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Ryan Farris

Belive it or not I got it in a pet store here in CT, But it looked alot different when I picked it up. Thanks Erick

Interesting change. I have one that did the same thing at about 1000gram. Well, she is around 2000 grams and has been slowly returning to a normally colored BP. To my knowledge, no one has had one retain that look for an extended period of time. I don't know what it is or why it happens.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

np

There are many theories behind these type of color changes some of the are:

Its a hormonal thing

There is a deficiency in the snake that affects the melanin production.

Bacteria from dirty conditions inhibit the snakes ability to produce melanin properly.

Lactating feeder mice secrete an enzyme that inhibits the snakes ability to properly produce melanin.

I think there is another one - but I cant remember it off the top of my head.

These snakes have been around for quite some time - yet no one has been able to prove them genetic.... Breed it and see what happens. She's a nice looking snake no matter what.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

6.42.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi)
0.1.0 Bredls Python (Smurfette)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.0 frogs rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.1 Lizard of unknown origin

Good post above Tosha....very thought provoking about what could be external sources causing these changes.

As for these being proven out...seems to me that proving an IMG would require keeping a large amount of completely normal looking offspring for a few years to tell. Seems like alot of people are 'Dinking' around with these projects, but I don't think very many out there have really put the time/effort into trying to realistically prove it out.

-Dan