Dinker? Yellow Belly?

[Parysa]

Ok, so I have a really hard time with identifying yellow bellies and the place I got this boy (I haven't sexed him yet, but they said it's male) from, a reptile-specific pet store where I get my feeder rats had him and his coloring struck me along with the fact that he really could use some TLC, so I got him. He was sold to me as a normal, but the store owner said that he came from a good breeder in the area and that he may be a yellow belly. What do you guys think? Yellow-belly, dinker worthy, or just a pretty normal? He has the flames and the yellowish sides and (I think) the speckling along the sides of the belly, but no head stamp. If not a yellow belly, please tell me what's missing so I can get better at identifying these guys.

Pre-shed:


All the rest are post-shed.

[RobNJ]

Neat, not a yellow belly...

[Flikky]

Yeah not a yellow belly but I think he's interesting for sure

[iCandiBallPythons]

x2 not a yellowbelly

yellowbelly

[Vilenica]

I've produced a bunch of bellies through the years and there are typically five markers that I look for in determination of them.

-lightened head or spot
-lateral blushing or flames
-dorsal blushing
-lateral flecks of melanin (almost parasite like)
-increased ventral melanin or tinted belly

[Mike41793]

YB:

[Coleslaw007]

Nom nom nom!



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[snakesRkewl]

Yellowbelly's come in all different colors and patterns but they all have some of the same traits.

The belly's have some speckling to a lot of speckling.



And they have lots of flames down the sides.




You're snake is a normal from what I see

[Parysa]

Thanks guys for all of the lovely pics to illustrate. Mike, those are some gorgeous snakes. My boy has some really nice flames, but no dorsal blushing or head spot. The speckling on the belly is one of the hardest things for me to pick out. Still, I think he's really pretty. I wish he were female. I think he'd be a really nice dinker if he were a girl, but from everything I've read, common practice is normal female to morph male if breeding a normal. Of course, I'm just taking the seller's word that he's male. I don't know if he's been probed or popped. I've been more concerned with getting him hydrated and fed and in better condition because he's extremely thin and has stuck shed all over his belly and nose and the husbandry where he was wasn't anything to write home about. They knew they were having problems, but I honestly don't know if he'd ever eaten before I fed him the first time. I've never seen one as thin as he is. He looks like he'll break if you touch him. So I have him in a small tub quarantined from my others and am just leaving him alone for the time being aside from spot cleaning.

[Parysa]

Well, I fibbed a little bit. The earlier pics are not post-shed. He still had a couple layers of stuck shed all over him. And he looked absolutely miserable and crunchy...if that makes any sense...so I gave him a soak and got all of the shed off. He seems to be resting much more comfortably now.
Here are some new pictures of him that I snapped real quick before putting him back in his tub. I don't think it changes anything, but he does look better now.





Slightly blurry belly shot.