Morph?

[Rat160]

Not sure if this guy is a normal or what. He has a black stripe that goes all the way down his back and Iv'e been told Black back however I read somewhere black backs are related to het reds and he looks nothing like that. World of Ball Pythons also doesn't even have black back on their list.

I also noticed that his belly has no markings on it and is a sandy brown color.

Any ideas?

[Alexandra V]

It's a nice "black back" normal with a clear belly.

Here's the thing with black back: it isn't really considered a morph because it isn't always genetic. It just so happens that the snake has fewer markings on it's back, but it may not pass that trait on to offspring. It's like with the north american "tiger" ball python. We call normals with a banded pattern "tigers" but they're still normals. It's more just a name for the kind of pattern it has.

[rabernet]

It's a nice "black back" normal with a clear belly.

Here's the thing with black back: it isn't really considered a morph because it isn't always genetic. It just so happens that the snake has fewer markings on it's back, but it may not pass that trait on to offspring. It's like with the north american "tiger" ball python. We call normals with a banded pattern "tigers" but they're still normals. It's more just a name for the kind of pattern it has.

Not entirely correct. There are some lines of tigers that ARE genetic, like Michael Jolliff's tigers. I have them and they are re-produceable. I purchased my founding male from Michael.

Also, some black backs ARE genetic. I've just produced a clutch of black backs from black back parents. Black back cinnie with all black back cinnie babies to black back normal with all black back normal babies.

Here's a male "normal" from that clutch.





While the black back may not be a recognized "morph", when it's genetic, it can be used to enhance other projects.

[Rat160]

But would you say hes just a black back? My only catch is his belly. The whole belly is a sandy brown color. Never seen that on a ball python before.

[dr del]

Hi,

I haven't seen that as a normal belly colour either - can you get better pics of it in case it is actually something to worry about? What substrate do you use?

And you need to breed the animal to begin to know what the inheritance is so nobody can really say for certain if it is "just a black back" or not.

I have a pair of black backed animals I am dinking around with to see what breeding them together produces - but I know neither of the parents were black backed so the chances of it being a genetically simple inheritance (ie. a morph ) are extrordinarily low.


dr del

[aahmn]

Wow. That looks a LOT like one of my big old girls. I tried breeding her out, but kept ending up with any looking like her being females... just when I actually wanted males...

[python_addict]

could it possibly have a dirty belly? lol no but i have seen it on a snake before actually my het albino has a dirty look to his belly all the way down its just normally pictures dont pick it up and my very first ball python was a black back but he went with the female he was being bred to

[R&DP]

Could be a black back, but not all black backs are genetic. I would say it's just a normal, but worth dinking around with. You never know!