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I've been studying Ralph Davis' site, and I must admit that I can't seem to find any real distinguishing features between the Tigers and some Reduced Patterns. He mentions the Tigers looking "electric", but the patterns still look similar. In fact, one of the Tigers looks a LOT like my Reduced Pattern, so where is the line drawn? And what about the Banded? I've seen a LOT of Ball Pythons that are labeled "Normal", but sporting seven, eight, ten really thick nice bands. I guess the first question is...when do we know it's not "Normal"? I happen to have a VERY normal Ball Python male. In fact, he's TOO normal. Freakishly normal. Very little deviation from his head to his tail. Every two inches looks exactly like the last. Alien Heads--two eyes each. This to me is "Normal".

So...anyone know how to correctly define the differences between Tigers, Reduced Patterns, Bandeds, and the Normals sporting these traits?

Thanks a Ton,
Chris

There is a difference between Tigers/Bandeds and Reduced Patterns....Tigers/Bandeds both have banded patterns but the Tigers appear to be more colorful as where the typical banded colors don't look any different than a typical normals......but a ball with a few bands and/or clean blotches IS NOT a reduced patterned ball.....Camlon Reptiles has an awesome example of a reduced pattern....Ralph..NERD..and others have nice examples of reduced patterned balls on their sites. A reduced patterned ball has VERY LARGE areas of pattern..reduced black......similar to spider black striping. The title reduced pattern is actually misleading..........opinions will vary but when I think of a reduced pattern it has VERY LARGE areas of clean pattern..not a couple bands.

I have always thought the term "reduced" was kind of odd, because I always thought of the lighter tan/gold blotches as "pattern", therefor what most of us refer to as "reduced" is actually increased in my opinion...but that's another debate!
I think the term reduced and banded/tiger are the same and I don't think having less spots in the blotches makes it reduced. A ball with a large amount of banding and thin stripes of black coloration is reduced/tiger in my opinion.
Below are two of my reduced ball pythons.

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Paul Snyder

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Oops! Here's the pic...

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Paul Snyder

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That has to be one of the coolest morphs i have seen, what kind of pricetag do they carry?

For unproven tiger/banded ball pythons you can find them from $100 to $1,000 for very nice specimens. I believe the genetic bandeds are $4,000 - $5,000 each... Correct me if I'm wrong. I believe Corey Woods and Ralph Davis have proven lines now.
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Paul Snyder

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camlonreptiles.com once you see theirs then you know what a reduced is. I too have one that people call reduced but I think the true name for them should be no alien head snakes or something else. Cause mine doesn't even compare to the reduced on camlon's site.

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Misty Sprouse Ball Pythons

Here is a pic of a reduced pattern. It is very easy to mix reduced pattern, banded, tigers because many have the same characteristics just by looking at them. Nothing has really been set in stone, so everyone seems to work off the general idea of the extreme form being "reduced patterns" and the less extreme being "tigers" or "bandeds" (neither better than the other).

From my reduced patterns and other breeders findings, reduced patterns seem to produce incredibly nice banded babies...thus far......

Rich Macias BLOODLINES

np

I'd have to say that Reduced Patterns deal more with the SIDES of the animal (large blended brown areas; no alien eyes) than Bandeds which deal with the TOPS/BACKS of the animal (bands connecting opposing side alien heads; may have alien eyes).

Tigers are a bit more complex. These seem to be a mingling of the two. However, the brown areas seem to be more round (almost a single large patch; no alien eyes) than the random complex (blended from more than one alien head) shape of the Reduced Patterns. The browm areas of the Tiger also seem to cross the back like the bandeds, but these marking are large and round (not strips or bands) and do not seem to be connecting anything (no opposing side alien heads).

Is this a decent observation? Any professional insight would be appreciated.

Chris

Let me retract my observances of the Tiger Ball. I still can't figure this one out. Is anything with prominant bands and no alien eyes simply called a Tiger Ball? The powers that be should form a committee to decide on things like this.

Troubled with Tigers,
Chris

I havent proven him to be genetic, but will be breeding him this year to get to the bottom of it. He also has a clear belly with some black striping around the sides. So we will see. Any comments would be apprectiated. Shawn

Nice looking banded! I'd love to have that in my collection!
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Paul Snyder

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