Could a ball python be sold as a normal but be het for something?

Im wondering if the normal ball python i purchased could be het for something? How could i figure it out?

yeah, you never know what genes its carrying if you don't know what the parents were. You'll have to breed it, to know for sure.

Is that the only way???

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Originally Posted by dillymann

Is that the only way???

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It is unless you are willing to pay for a full gene map of all BP morphs and then have the genes of your possible het compared.
Certain hets are known to have "markers" that indicate a better than average chance of being het. This isn't entirely reliable and until it is bred out "markers" is just a guess rather than evidence.

Breeding it out is about the only way. Unfortunately, to hit that exact het pairing the first time is pretty difficult. Without some type of background on the snake, such as sire and/or dame it will be nearly impossible. Sorry.

If it's from a big pet store, it's probably a no. Hets are more costly than normals, and if they're buying BPs, they're getting something cheap to re-sell for higher, and if they're going to get something not-normal, it'll be visual, because the average customer will not pay more for a snake that looks the same.

If it's from a smaller store, they probably keep records. Mine does; if they buy a het from a breeder, they write it down and factor that into the costs- and rightly so. i.e. the store I got my rats from had cards on the snake's enclosures saying "enchi het pied".

If it's from someone else, and they didn't mention anything, it's probably not.

If no one knows the origin, i.e. my female normal was a rescue from Hurricane Katrina, then no one knows and hey, it very well could be- but probably not. :P

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Originally Posted by DestinyLynette

If it's from a big pet store, it's probably a no. Hets are more costly than normals, and if they're buying BPs, they're getting something cheap to re-sell for higher, and if they're going to get something not-normal, it'll be visual, because the average customer will not pay more for a snake that looks the same.

If it's from a smaller store, they probably keep records. Mine does; if they buy a het from a breeder, they write it down and factor that into the costs- and rightly so. i.e. the store I got my rats from had cards on the snake's enclosures saying "enchi het pied".

If it's from someone else, and they didn't mention anything, it's probably not.

If no one knows the origin, i.e. my female normal was a rescue from Hurricane Katrina, then no one knows and hey, it very well could be- but probably not. :P

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Actually almost ll big breeders wholesale out their possible hets to wholesalers who supply pet stores. With the price of 100% hets and some morphs like spiders and yellow bellies so low they usually wholesale these out too. That's why Petsmart and Petco sometimes carry low end morphs. Chances are your captive bred pet store normal is possible het for something maybe even 100% het. As prices come down further it'll happen more and more. Corn snakes are good example. Breeding a pair of "normal" cornsnakes often results in surprises. Hasn't come to that yet with BPs, but it will.

Happens all the time. I sold a normal and 2 pastels this year that were poss het axanthic. I didn't advertise as het so someone out there may have het axanthics that they purchased as normal

Both last year and this year we are selling babies as normals because they are only 66% and 50%. I mention it is a possibility but stress that it is just as likely to be 100% normal as it is to be het albino or pied. Course we also sell normal normals as well.

Heck yeah! But the only way to find out is to breed it to what its het for. You can not know it by looking at the snake. Even Pieds I have some with pied markings that are not het pied. Accidents do show up now and again. Want a het albino, they all look very normal.