I was told he is a toffee het when I bought him, I have my doubts...

Here is a couple of pictures of Randall. When I purchased him I was told he is a toffee het... after some research I have my doubts. However, I do believe there is a possibility that he is still some sort of morph as he came from a breeder. What do you think? Even if he is a normal.. I love his pattern and color.

http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/...ps493039be.jpg
http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/...psd2c14106.jpg
http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/...psb0310d71.jpg

Thanks for your help!

If he is het toffee you wouldn't be able to "see" it. You have to trust your breeder when dealing with "het" animals. He's pretty for sure! :)

Basically, toffee is a recessive gene. You have to have 2 "toffee" genes to get a snake that looks "toffee". If an animal only has 1 toffee gene, it looks like a normal, but when bred to another het toffee, it has the chance of producing a visual toffee.

He's not a morph. As for being het for something, you'd never know unless you bred him to another one that was definitely 100% het for the same recessive gene. 100% het toffees are not cheap, and there are not very many of them for sale just yet. What did you pay for him? Unless you paid about 2k for him, it's not a het toffee.. Yeah that's right.. 2grand.

Lol that is exactly why I had my doubts.. because I didn't pay anywhere close to 2k for him. Thanks for quick responses! :) I'd love to breed pythons.. but I should probably wait until I'm out of college :rolleyes:

He's very pretty either way. I like the white outlining he's got and the flames on the sides. He's definitely a nice looking ball. I just think the person who sold him to you either doesn't know what he's talking about, or got confused on the names along the way. Maybe he meant het caramel? Which is much more likely. Also more likely that if it IS possibly het for a recessive gene, that its only a possible het. Meaning a 50% or 66% possible het. Any way you look at it, you'd never know with out breeding and if you weren't sure on any of this, breeding to find out which gene it is if any, seems like a lost cause unless you were willing to devote a lot of time to it.

Who did you get him from?

Sounds like they probably used the word "toffee" because of his light color than because of any actual morph. Happens a lot when people get light normal and want to sell it as a "special" BP (whether to sound good or to get more money); at least, I see it all the time on Craigslist.

He's a lovely normal though. :)


EDIT: You said he came from a breeder, so either you'd have to see the parents (or trace the lineage) to be sure, or just trust the breeder's word.

I bought him from a reptile store in Kansas. The breeder is friends with the store owner so they sell some of his snakes in the store. They are currently moving to a larger building and therefore all of their supplies and snakes are on sale at the moment. They're a great couple of guys. He could have very well meant caramel but he gave me a good deal so I'm happy either way :) I actually talked him into selling this little guy to me for the same price as one of their imported normals. Not many people around here know to much about snakes so its hard to sell one at a much higher price when the others look nearly the same. Plus they don't want to deal with shipping live animals which means they only have the local market to set their prices. I just made it a point that I had no interest in buying an imported snake and with a little persuasion we made a package deal with this little guy. This is my first ball python but I've had several years of experience with rough green snakes, viper geckos, fat tailed geckos, and tree frogs. I might breed him but it will be after I graduate from college and have the spare time.

What are some key points you look at when determining what kind of het a ball python is? :confusd: There's so many that it boggles my mind lol. It reminds me of all the colors and patterns that hedgehogs come in (another passion of mine)

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Originally Posted by Huntz362

What are some key points you look at when determining what kind of het a ball python is? :confusd: There's so many that it boggles my mind lol. It reminds me of all the colors and patterns that hedgehogs come in (another passion of mine)

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I meant what are some key points to look at when determining what kind of MORPH a ball python is? Not het... My bad