Ivory/lucy/ultra health issues?

I've seen some vague posts on Facebook, etc, that say something about the white snakes not being healthy or able to breed well. I currently love the idea of having one and possibly breeding someday small scale. Could anyone with experience shed light on this? Also is it true that ultra and lucy are different lines and an ivory is a cross between the two. I have a hard time finding info about these beautiful animals and it frustrates me like no other. Haha. Thanks!

Ivory is a super YB and not a true lucy I believe since it retains some color/markings

http://www.regiusco.com/images/pythons/Ivory.jpg
(img from WoBP)

You can get lucys from several different crosses, they're usually the super form of other co-dom genes; mojave, lesser, fire and phantom. The super forms of these snakes will either produce Black Eyed Leucistic or Blue Eyed Leucistic snakes, known collectively as the BEL complex genes.

I'm not sure what you mean by ultra, unless you're talking about ultramelanistic, which is a totally different thing.

http://www.reptilepit.com/uploads/ga...tramel%20F.jpg

As to the health of the snakes, I have not heard about anything specific to the BEL complex health wise, but I'll let someone with more experience in that area answer.

Super lessers many times have "bug eyes", but it isn't really a health issue.

http://www.owalreptiles.com/issues.php

I think you guys missed where this was posted? Probably not asking about balls in the giant python part of the forums.

I don't own any retics, so I'm no expert, but I can find any information about the white snakes having any kind of issues. I actually can't find much about giant white snakes at all beyond a very few for sale.

I think the question is about retics not ball pythons

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Originally Posted by Daigga

I think you guys missed where this was posted? Probably not asking about balls in the giant python part of the forums.

I don't own any retics, so I'm no expert, but I can find any information about the white snakes having any kind of issues. I actually can't find much about giant white snakes at all beyond a very few for sale.

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Dave GreenI think the question is about retics not ball pythons

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Whoups... True!

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Originally Posted by Daigga

I think you guys missed where this was posted?

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yup

D'oh! Dang snakes having similar named morphs. I still can't find anything about specific health issues though. I think they're uncommon because they're pricy as hell.

LOL go away BP owners... this is the giant forum ;-)

Ivory and Ultra Ivory seem to just be two lines of Platinum / fire that produce the two. But there are only a handful of snakes that can produce the solid whites (that have the health issues).

The lucy complex formed from Ivory / Ultra Ivory is typically an issue health wise and wont live for very long (usually a year or less). Same issues with Albino Ivory which tend to die around 1 year old (those were the controversial ones because people tended to sell them at their high prices even AFTER general knowledge was they died at around 12 months of age.

Ivory and Ultra Ivory though are pretty stable in their own. It's when you breed the two together to try for Lucy's that you start to see issues rise up. As long as the parental breeding was at least Ivory x Platinum, or Ultra Ivory x Platinum, or Platty x Platty, you should be fine.