A normal is a normal, but how do you tell a morph is a BP?

1. Count the heat pits. A ball python has five on either side of the upper lip.

2. Look for the eye stripe. Obviously this will not show up on a leucistic animal or some crazy 4+ gene critters, but it is there on morphs like pinstripes, mojaves, lessers and spiders.

3. Look for the spurs. One on each side of the vent. Yes, I know other species have them, but may as well mention this.

4. Look for a very chunky animal. Ball pythons are built nice and heavy.

5. Look at the eyes. Retics, for example, have orange eyes most times, ball pythons don't.

6. Look at the head shape. A Burmese python has a blunt, shovel shaped head. A ball python has a rounder nose, a pronounced dip where the eyes are and obvious bulges on either side of the head.

7. Look at the length of the tail. Ball pythons have short tails.

8. Look at the size of the animal. A hatchling ball might be only sixty grams, but an adult might be three thousand grams or more.

9. Look at the neck compared to the head. Particularly on young animals, the neck is skinny compared to the head.

10. This one is obvious, but know your morphs. Just knowing a little about all the base morphs can help you get by. I would learn to identify pastel, pinstripe, spider, mojave, pied, axanthic and lesser. Be sure to check the super forms. Combos made from those are usually pretty common, so look at those, too. Seriously, even knowing the names of these morphs will help.

When in doubt, you can always ask the person selling the snake. Remember, they want to sell ball pythons, so they won't say it's an African lalaland python. Hope this helps! :)

Awesome summery. Things I never really paid attention to the first time around. Learning the morphs is helping. Chunky snakes for sure. The best one for me on this is the heat pits.

Thanks,

Dave

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Aercadia

I just sketched this up by way of a visual explanation, because words r hrd :)
http://i.imgur.com/b3Rn49X.png

(be gentle, I didn't use a reference)

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It's so cute!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AKA Dave

Awesome summery. Things I never really paid attention to the first time around. Learning the morphs is helping. Chunky snakes for sure. The best one for me on this is the heat pits.

Thanks,

Dave

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No problem. I had quite a bit of difficulty when I first started looking at ball pythons trying to figure out how to tell if a morph is indeed a ball python. I know enough now to know most of the common morphs, but the heat pits are always my fallback plan if I'm not sure. :)