Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok so I have had Milo for four years, and I am just coming onto this site, and have been reading some past posts. There are different KINDS of ball pythons? And what does Morph mean? and het? what does that mean? I thought ball pythons were ball pythons and that was it. I know there are albino ones, but I never heard of High Contrast albinos or anything like that. I thought they were all just balls, some albino.
SO overwhelmed! -and intrigued!

Heh, yeah, there are many variations out there and more coming all the time. Here are some sites you might like to take a look at:

http://ballpython.com/page.php?topic=morph
http://www.newenglandreptile.com/genetics_intro.html

Yeah, since some time in the mid 90s things have gradually gotten out of hand. There are some Ball python "morphs" that look nothing like ball pythons.

"morph" = altered morphology

morphology = appearance

so an albino is a morph as are about 20-30 other genetically caused changes in appearance in ball pythons

Some of these changes are genetically dominant (one copy results in the changed appearance) while others are genetically recessive (two copies are necessary to see the change in appearance).

Het = heterozygous

heterozygous = contains one copy of two different genes (hetero = different)

So a heterozygous animal of a dominant trait such as pastels, mojaves, spiders, cinnamons, lessers, etc... appears to be different.

A heterozygous animal of a recessive trait such as albinisim, piebaldism, Hypomelanism (ghost), clown, etc... appears to be normal. You need two copies of these genes (homozygous) to see the trait.

Some traits are codominant, which means one copy (heterozygous) results in a different animal and two copies results in an even more extreme difference. This is the case for many of the dominant mutations listed above...like pastels (heterozygous) and super pastels (both genes or homozygous [homo = the same])

Ok I think I got the jist of things.
So there is such a thing as a "normal" ball python? Are these the ones normally found in pet stores? Or are all BP's morphs of some sort or another?

"normals" are considered wild trait. Those are the ones found in pet shops every where. technicaly speaking "normals" are a morph themselfs.

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Wow! The one on the right doesn't even look like a bp! Milo looks like the one on the left. So why would you consider the ones with the wild trait morphs too? Wouldn't they really be the only ones that aren't morphs?

The one on the right is a retic (reticulated python).

Eric

Yup, thats my retic. All a morph is variation in physical apperance. Wild trait is as much a morph as spiders and pastels, just 1000x more common. untill got comes down on a cloud and presents a "normal ball python" its just a morph on basic genetics.
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But wouldn't a Wild Trait have the original genes of wild bp's? I just don't think I understand. If it has genes from the original wild bp's, than it wouldn't be a morph, because no one "morphed" it. Thats how I would see it...

BTW both your snakes are beautiful!
I would have loved to get something bigger, like a red tail, but I didn't want something that I would have to feed Guiney pigs or bunnies to.

Its not that somebody "morphed" the balls. think of it more as white people, black people, brown people, albino people etc. All of the designer morphs have the potental to exist in the wild, but they arent found because in the wild there isnt selective breeding and inbreeding to bring the trait out.
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Ok so a morph is just a kind of ball python, not necisarily one that was changed? I think I get it now. So wouldn't the ones that were changed be morphs of morphs?
So what are the original morphs? If there are black people, white, albino, and so on, than the morphs of morphs would be crosses of these, right? Well which ones were the original bp's? before any were ever crossed?

Hmmmmm, me thinks this has gotten a bit over complicated.

I'm really just curious as to how it all works.

By definition, wild type or normal is the most common phenotype (appearance) found in the wild. A morph is an uncommon phenotype caused by one or more genes that have changed from the wild type or normal version of the gene or genes.

You can call the wild type phenotype a morph if you want, though it is not commonly done. If so, instead of comparing morph against wild type (normal), we'd be comparing abnormal morph against normal morph.

Paul Hollander

LOL it doesn't look like a reticulated python either!

he's a "tiger" reticulated python.
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He's beautiful!

Like I stated above morph = morphology

morphology by definition means physical appearance. For some strange reason in the reptile world this has come to mean an altered physical appearance from normal. I think it started out like this...

I have a pastel morph = a BP with a pastel morphology
I have an albino morph = a BP with a albino morphology

Have you seen my morph collection = my BPs with unnusual morphology.

So morph is really just short for unusual appearances. You do not create morphs, they are already there. Designer morphs are just combinations of existing morphologies. In some cases these result in even weirder morphologies, but they were still not created, just combined.

Maybe if you expose a gravid female to excess radiation and mutagens you can create your own morphs, but most likely you would just get a bunch of deformed BP babies...geez maybe I should even write that...someone will probably try it now...lol

do you think "Morphed" (deforemed) balls will be worth more?! im going to get in on the ground floor!
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np