![]() ![]() The Piebald male killed in 1966 was 118 cm (3.87 ft) long – a respectable length for any adult male ball python. While Piebalds are rarely found in the wild, the ones caught have been reasonably healthy and of normal size. Other than their unusual coloration, Piebalds are generally no more prone to problems than normal ball pythons. But all Piebald balls have a blotchy dorsal stripe and paired elongated blotches on their patterned areas. “High White” Piebalds may be entirely white save for their heads. “Low White” Piebalds may look normal save for a small splotch. Their snow-white patches stand out against their background – and vice versa! Some parts of their body have typical coloration and patterns. But their pigmentation is unevenly distributed. Piebalds produce pigments like every other ball python. Piebalds are easy to spot and hard to forget. ![]() It may take novices some time to sort out the differences between a Fire and a Yellow Belly. ![]() Piebald balls look like somebody took a normal ball python and erased some of its pattern. Popular Piebald Ball Python Combinations.It will also talk about some of the designer Piebald morphs which are available, and give you the information you need to decide how Piebalds fit into your ball python keeping or breeding plans. It will explain the genetics of piebaldism and help you understand why your Piebald has those beautiful snow white patches. This article will tell you more about the Piebald ball python morph. While particularly striking or “high white” Piebalds can cost more, you can get a baby Piebald for $500 or less. Today, after over twenty years of Piebald clutches, the price of a Piebald has dropped to much more reasonable prices. Breeders spent tens of thousands of dollars adding Piebalds to their collection. The Piebald morph was a huge hit with the snake community. Kahl’s investment turned out to be a winner. Snake hobbyists now knew that the Piebald trait was heritable and transmissible. Kahl’s 1998 breeding season produced piebalds in breedings between the offspring of a piebald male and normal females. Each of the offspring had a degree of sporadic pigmentation loss. In 1997 a pair of Kahl’s piebald ball pythons produced a clutch of five eggs. But they could also be caused by unknown environmental conditions, or a random mutation which appeared occasionally but could not be reliably reproduced in future generations. The markings looked very much like piebaldism, a pigmentation issue found in many vertebrates (including humans). In 1994 snake breeder Peter Kahl began purchasing these odd white-blotched specimens in hopes that he might reproduce their condition and thereby prove this was a heritable morph. The 1992 debut of Bob Clark’s Albino ball pythons sparked new interest in unusual ball pythons. In 1966 Ghanian villagers killed an adult male ball with similar markings. These snakes were very rare in the wild, but not unheard of. I am so happy with him and my granddaughter could not be more delighted.In the early 1980s Tyrone Dillon of California Zoological Supply imported two ball pythons with white blotches on their bodies.Ī few years later a white-patched baby appeared on the market. He is the sweetest lil snake ever and drop dead gorgeous. I don’t know if he will, get more aggressive with his food or if he will continue to be a polite lil gentleman. So now I’m getting worried I keep checking and finally I just laid the mouse down and kept an eye on him and then it was gone the next time I checked. So I waited a week and tried again, again I held the mouse in the tongs and he again investigated, but didn’t seem to interested. I held it in the tongs and he checked it out and decided he didn’t care for what was on the menu that day. I bought frozen mice and tongs and set out to feed him but the first time he was not interested or so I thought. Before we could feed him, he was needing to shed. ![]() I purchased a baby male pied ball python for my granddaughter for her 14th bday. ![]()
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