Are darker morphs more "aggressive"?

I've heard this same story already from a couple of different people that have bp's (including reputable breeders), but I wanted to check here too, just for curiosity - - I've been told that some morphs, particularly darker ones, tend to be more "aggressive" or defensive, or just overall a bit more challenging to handle at times, how many of the ppl on this forum have first-hand experience, or what do you guys think if this is true or false in general?

I have a spinner, and he has never once hissed at me, or been in a defensive or striking position, he's usually a bit tense the first couple of seconds after picking him up, but relaxes almost immediately during handling. He did not display any signs of being defensive or high-strung, even when he was off feed for 4 weeks and stressed out due to being in a tank that was too big for him (he's in a 15qt tub setup atm, and has been eating well close to 5 weeks now).

A day ago, I picked up a dark morph from an expo (1.0 Super Chocolate Pewter), and he was extremely hissy when I got home and took him from his container, this could easily be travel stress and also the fact that he's still a baby - - he's a month younger than my spinner. I understand stress is a contributing factor, all he did was hiss when I opened his container, he stopped after I actually picked him up and held him, and he did not continue hissing after I put him in his tub, though he did "puff up" at me because I had to move him gently to place his water dish into the tub. From what I could tell, though, he was not in a striking or bite position. According to the breeder, he's aggressive during feeding, but otherwise manageable, I held him at the expo before I decided to buy him, and he was totally chill.

Obviously, I've had more time with Solidus to build trust and "bond" with him, and I understand Liquid was stressed out from travel, but how many of you can say darker morphs have more of an attitude than other or lighter morphs? I don't really care about being tagged, I figured that's something you have to accept if you want to keep and handle snakes, I'm just really curious if this "rumor" about darker morphs is true or not?

I don’t have any firsthand experience myself but morphs are just color variations. Other then the few things like the wobble and stuff like that that come from breeding and stuff like that the only thing morphs really change is looks. I’ve heard things like a certain specific morph is nicer or more tame or whatever but saying just a whole group with no real correlation other then being dark is has a different personality then any other doesn’t make a lot of sense to me lol. I’ve actually never heard this before myself but it just sounds like coincidence to me.

Just my thoughts lol


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Using the spider gene as an example I do not think it would be too far fetched to think other genes that affect pattern/color could also effect neurological things including temperment. However just like spiders i am sure there would be varrying degrees.
I am not aware of any hard data supporting this however a poll may produce interesting results.

Sounds like racial profiling to me. I never noticed a difference.

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Originally Posted by John1982

Sounds like racial profiling to me. I never noticed a difference.

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You have to watch the dark scaled ones, they are more aggressive than lighter-scaled snakes.
*Snake racism...:rolleyes:

I can't think how any captive bred morph would be any more or less aggressive than any other morph. Sounds like the old belief that balls were aggressive based on the impressions of wild caught specimens and that somehow "morphed" into darker morphs meaning more aggressive?

I've literally had more than a dozen ppl already telling me dark morphs are a**holes lol, I have no idea where this originated from; but it seems to be a popular saying with bp keepers, I'm not really sure how likely it is either that a morph would alter a snake's temperament or behavior, but honestly, who knows, especially since there's no valid research on it, just a conglomeration of opinions, just thought it'd be interesting to ask what ppl think about it.

I could "maybe" understand if a particular "darker" gene was singled out, lets say "cinnamon" , "chocolate" or whichever.

But what in the world means "darker" ones ?? I have never, ever heard that before. There are so many different morphs and morph combos that could be called "darker". Some that carry genes that are normally from "lighter" morphs.

I think that's humbug. I have never had any of those single gene darker snakes, so I don't know if any of those genes seem to share a particular temperament trait. Who knows ? Might be worth doing some research into.

But lumping them all together and saying all dark ones are little nasties...nah. Don't believe it.

Babies are often hissy and defensive. IMHO when people handle them TO much, either because they are being sold, taken to expos, or new owners try to "tame" them and establish a bond right away, it seems to make it worse. One of my hatchlings actually came TOWARDS me when I opened the tub, striking! Little heffer, LOL. He now hardly looks up when I open the tub and he is fine being picked up. That is just with basic maintenance, no actual "taming" handling. I do open the tubs once or twice the day and messes get taken care of immediately. When I clean tubs, they get transferred into a clean tub, and the dirty one gets cleaned for the next one, etc. So they DO get a fair amount of handling. But it is short, and to the point. The hissers and strikers get ignored, I come from above with a flat hand and gently push their angry selfs down a bit and then scoop them up. Always use deliberate movements, not hesitant or quick. A few good meals and doing maintenance alone will chill out the little dragons.

The ones that continue to be "excitable" get the same treatment with the flat hand and pushing their angry heads and bodys down GENTLY, that seems to snap them out of "angry mood" and they are fine to handle. Handle gently and deliberately, never with fear or anger. Also don't overdo it. Short and often seems better then to force them to accept it by long drawn out handling sessions, that only stress them out.

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Originally Posted by zina10

I could "maybe" understand if a particular "darker" gene was singled out, lets say "cinnamon" , "chocolate" or whichever.

But what in the world means "darker" ones ?? I have never, ever heard that before. There are so many different morphs and morph combos that could be called "darker". Some that carry genes that are normally from "lighter" morphs.

I think that's humbug. I have never had any of those single gene darker snakes, so I don't know if any of those genes seem to share a particular temperament trait. Who knows ? Might be worth doing some research into.

But lumping them all together and saying all dark ones are little nasties...nah. Don't believe it.

Babies are often hissy and defensive. IMHO when people handle them TO much, either because they are being sold, taken to expos, or new owners try to "tame" them and establish a bond right away, it seems to make it worse. One of my hatchlings actually came TOWARDS me when I opened the tub, striking! Little heffer, LOL. He now hardly looks up when I open the tub and he is fine being picked up. That is just with basic maintenance, no actual "taming" handling. I do open the tubs once or twice the day and messes get taken care of immediately. When I clean tubs, they get transferred into a clean tub, and the dirty one gets cleaned for the next one, etc. So they DO get a fair amount of handling. But it is short, and to the point. The hissers and strikers get ignored, I come from above with a flat hand and gently push their angry selfs down a bit and then scoop them up. Always use deliberate movements, not hesitant or quick. A few good meals and doing maintenance alone will chill out the little dragons.

The ones that continue to be "excitable" get the same treatment with the flat hand and pushing their angry heads and bodys down GENTLY, that seems to snap them out of "angry mood" and they are fine to handle. Handle gently and deliberately, never with fear or anger. Also don't overdo it. Short and often seems better then to force them to accept it by long drawn out handling sessions, that only stress them out.

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I think with "darker" ppl have literally meant any morph that produces a mostly black/dark brown snake? The only /specific/ morph I've personally heard being singled out or "flagged" as being aggressive, has been Black Head, if I remember right. And I remember reading someone hatching Black Head Black Pastels and writing about all of the hatchlings being little a**hats, LOL.

Hatchling "aggression" is a given, so is over-handling or improper husbandry, etc, that can make bp's act out defensively, I honestly don't know or can figure it out either where this rumor even came from, but this is what I have been hearing quite a lot in my local bp circles, and when my Super Chocolate Pewter was hissy with me yesterday, this rumor came to my mind and I thought it'd just be fun to ask around.

I don't buy into it myself, just wanted to see how other people feel about it, because it just seems so dumb.

I agree with everything ZINA wrote. In my experience the little babies are frightful and aggressive. The subadults and adults tend to settle down and become passive if they are carefully handled and treated with respect.

I have one adult that I have handled since he was little and he is extremely "tame" and tolerant of humans. Just the most friendly, passive, chill snake while being handled or "hanging out" with my family and I.
On the other end of the spectrum, I have another adult that I adopted at 4 years old, and she was not handled much, nor adapted to human proximity. She spent all her time in a tub, with very little human contact, and is not "tamed" much. She has never struck at me, but she hisses when I go to pick her up. This is simple animal behavior, just as other pets are more tame (passive) when they are accustomed to peaceful human co-existence, and less tame (aggressive) when they are not accustomed to human proximity and/or they have been abused by humans.

I did a little bit of research and Google'd around, some ppl do mention specific morphs as displaying more "aggro" than others, Mojave came up a lot in search results, but it's mostly mixed response judging from what ppl have written; some agree certain morphs /are/ more defensive or harder to handle, and some ppl say it has nothing to do with the morph, and rather, the /line/ the snake comes from/has been bred from.

I was just so intrigued by this rumor because I had never heard of it before or encountered when I first started doing research on bp's and after I got Solidus and started to interact more with local bp owners, "morph aggression" has come up often.

Yeah, can understand a few genes being singled out to be more aggrsive sense I have heard things about spiders being particularly calm and tame (even though mine isn't but she's still just a baby noodle lol) and I'm keen to believe the majave thing sense the only snake I've ever been bitten by was a super majave, but he sure as beck wasn't dark XD

It's only the fact that all dark morphs were lumped together as mean that bugged me

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Originally Posted by John1982

Sounds like racial profiling to me. I never noticed a difference.

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+1

The myth originates with bhb saying it in their old snake bytes episodes.

In my experience the morphs don't have a correlation to temperment. I've seen light colored BEL bp that are mean as heck and will take a bite out of you. I also have known darker snakes that are nice. My first BP was a very dark normal and hes never struck once. so i'd say its a "snake by snake" basis.

I'm of the mind that - like spiders - certain morphs can have a predisposition toward temperaments, but I don't know that there's enough actual data out there to prove anything at all. It's something that has REALLY interested me lately.

I've heard specifically (and experienced first hand) that het reds can be slightly nippier/more aggressive eaters. This was years ago with my experience - I asked the question if others had this and a few said they had.

i only have one dark snake, my Super Cinnamon, and if someone said to me "darker morphs are more aggressive" i'd probably reply "heck yes they are, Coffee Bean is a brat!"

but i only have one dark snake and just 3 years experience, so i have a limited scope and don't consider my ONE experience as fact. in fact my comment really doesn't help at all LOL.

Could it be why we don't see any jet black ball pythons is because the few breeders foolish enough to try were killed instantly once they hatched? I think there is something going on they are not telling us!

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Originally Posted by SDA

Could it be why we don't see any jet black ball pythons is because the few breeders foolish enough to try were killed instantly once they hatched? I think there is something going on they are not telling us!

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wait, Coffee Bean does seem to be trying to murder me...IT'S A CONSPIRACY!!! HIDE THE CHILDREN!

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Originally Posted by SDA

Could it be why we don't see any jet black ball pythons is because the few breeders foolish enough to try were killed instantly once they hatched?

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Yes.

I had a friend who hatched a clutch once, first one out of the egg lunged out ......bit him the jugular.

He went down like a sack of potatoes, we tried to save him but he was long gone by the time the paramedics got there.


.....I inherited his Freedom Breeder racks though, so his memory is long forgotten

:groinkick