Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have my opinions, what do you think? This Southern copperhead female came from Texas.

It is very light & PINK!! Do you have any other pix of the animal - kinda hard to tell from that pic.? Hypomelanisim has to be the most commonly occuring trait found in the wild. I know of a guy that got Hypos (3:3) from breeding two normals from TX so the genes are out there. The animal shouldn't have any black. It should be dark brown/purple where the black would be on "normal" Coppers.

There are several books that give a general definition of Hypomelanism but it really isn't much more than an animal that is "lighter" in appearance than a wild-type animal. Basically, if it is something that is able to be reproduced through manipulation of the genetics (inbreeding or breeding into animals that come from a bloodline that have the same visual characteristics), it IS a morph. Most stubborn old-timers hate that word (morph) but it is what it is. They used to bring Ghost (Hypo.) Ball Pythons in as normals and just called them "light" or "pretty" ones but those days are over. They went from $3/ea. to $500 - $1,000 for WC animals. The first C.b.b.b (in the late 90's) animals went for $1,500 & now you can't get a female for less than $2,000 & they have been reproduced consistently for almost a decade.