Some morphs more aggressive?

Is it true some morphs of ball pythons are more aggressive than others?? My good friend has about 50 ball pythons and his 7 mojave males and females plus his pastave are very nippy and strike no matter how much he handles them. Also his cinnamons are all nasty as well and very prone to strike defensively. While his spiders, pastels, and albinos are very calm and do not mind being picked up. He claims some morphs are always more nippy.. Is this true?


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Only bite I've taken from a snake, thus far, has been my male albino ball python. I think it's like with kids: some bite more than others!

It has been said and noticed that the darker morphs tend to have a little bit more attitude.

I know my mojave girl and a few other mojos were feisty when they were younger.

Our mojo boy definitely is hissy (though he's never tried to strike or done anything more threatening than stare at my hand when I go in to pick him up), but I've been attributing that to him having been a breeder and probably not a pet. He's been getting better at not hissing, though.

I've heard the the deserts are more agressive and have seen youtube videos to prove it. I wonder if it's more about the lines the snake comes from than the morph itself. Like with horses you want the sire and dam to have good personalities because the foal inherits it and also picks up a lot from mom since they're raised with her (obviously not the same for balls). Interesting discussion though.

my mojave girl was really aggressive when she was little .. my vanilla female at 800g still is! .. I have also noticed that Phantoms tend to not eat as well as others .. they take longer time to gain weight

I would disagree with this. My two black pastels and my mojo are all great and have not even hissed at me. My bee tries to bite me whenever i slide his tub out. Took a few bites from my albino too. I think it all just depends on the snake

I guess it is all based on the individual snake but i too heard that darker morphs have a little more attitude than lighter morphs.. Weird. I would like to see a study if morphs play a role in aggression or ability to tolorate handling.


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I would lean more towards the theory that it's the line of snake rather than the color. I think snakes are too simple genetically to have behavior and color links the way some breeds of animals "tend" to have. However, I think a possible way to investigate this is to trace the first few captive hatched originators of a particular morph and see if the first few generations of mojaves from different bloodlines, regardless of owner are aggressive or not. I've heard clowns and pins used to be aggressive, but I've also heard of many other individuals of other color morphs that sounded even more cranky than the average pinny. :D

To be fair, there are huge advantages to aggression for most snakes, seeing how good of eaters and breeders the more hissy and biting they tend to be. If I were a hungry animal looking for a snake snack, I'd probably eat the quieter ones!

Funny how we all have different experiences. With my bunch it's the pastels/super pastels that have attitude and hiss when disturbed. None of my current bunch of royals strike to bite but I used to have a super pastel who drew blood numerous times. My female pewter has some attitude but i put that down to the pastel side rather than the cinny!