mystery of the color changers

These two animals were brought to me last night from a local pet store. They had been normal in coloration until about 2 weeks ago. (I had seen them in the store... they were COMPLETELY normal.)

A big mystery in the bp community is what causes this sudden color loss? (the color will come back in over time btw) Well I think these animals might be key to unlocking the cause....

The banded male in the first picture has been at the pet store for the past 2+ years. He's not for sale. The 2nd animal, a female was given to the store by a custumer not more than 1 month ago. They were both moved to a new cage and housed together. They both almost immediately went into a shed cycle and ended up looking as they do now. To me the situation just screams that the cause of the change was something to do with the new caging environment or having to do with being housed together (not as likely)


I went and checked out their environment... They were in a solid plasic cage with ambient between 98 and 102 degrees with humidity well over 100% (water dripping down the sides off the cage constantly).

My theory is that the high heat and humity coupled with their shed cycle caused the animals to look as they do now.

Opinions welcome.

Justin
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...a/DSCN6780.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...a/DSCN6781.jpg

Wow! They almost look like desert ghosts!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rabernet

Wow! They almost look like desert ghosts!

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should i sell them quick while i can? :rolleyes:

j/k :rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jkobylka

should i sell them quick while i can? :rolleyes:

j/k :rolleyes:

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Quote:

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The banded male in the first picture has been at the pet store for the past 2+ years. He's not for sale.

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:P

lol

maybe you can edit my post...

i was just explaining why the pet shop hasn't sold him in 2 years... I don't own either of these snakes.

Justin

They look like typical color changers to me. Great pics Justin. Hopefully you can figure out a little more about what causes it. Great work researching their living conditions when this happened.

p.s. Sell quick, as they might color back up after their next shed. LOL.

thats odd....My black stp did the same thing....

The morning after I fed him his head was complete light grey(HOT!). Later on in the day it was back to normal, which is blackish grey :taz:

Maybe the balls where trying to camo themselves.. :rolleye2:

this is the second thread this week I seen regarding this , very unusual , OT was not on here tho .

Weird.. kinda reminds me of how females lighten up when they are gravid.. but it looks different than that. Odd nonetheless.. i wonder why this happens?

Hi,


Wonder if it could be related in some way to lizards darkening to absorb more heat from sunlight in some whacky vestigial way?

Get too warm for too long, lighten up next shed to try and reflect more heat kind of thing. Probably not though and for god sake don't anyone cook their snakes trying to find out.:eek:



dr del