Do albinos dull?

[Shelby]

Hey yall.. tell me, do albino ball pythons dull out with age? I want pics! Show me older adult breeders.

Come on guys, wake up the board!

[Adam_Wysocki]

Some do, some don't ... it all depends on the animal. All ball pythons go through an ontogenetic color change. To what degree probably depends a little bit on the snakes genetics and a little bit on it's environment. The same thing happens with pastels, axanthics, etc .... some look great as babies and great as adults and others start off great but darken or fade as they get older.

Enough babble ... how about some pics!









-adam

[daniel1983]

I had went to the breeder here in LA (EbN) a while back and the owner showed me one of his male albino breeders that had faded to pretty much all light yellow(the dark yellow faded to light yellow and the white faded to light yellow. I still thought it looked cool, but definately not a high contrast albino. Then, I was told that all the older albino offsping of this guy and all were very nice contrast. It is crazy how genetics work.

EDIT: adam, awesome feeding/breeding cards. I see them in the first pic...logo and everything..cool

[Shelby]

I especially like the last one.. very nice.

[mlededee]

hey adam, what exactly do you mean when you say it depends on the snake's environment?

[Shelby]

Good question Mle.. also how old are the pictured albinos?

[Adam_Wysocki]

hey adam, what exactly do you mean when you say it depends on the snake's environment?

In theory, factors such as temps, breeding, and food intake can have an effect on a snakes color over it's lifetime. These would all be considered environmental factors.

One of the big ones is rodents. Many fancy bird (poultry) breeders have documented that the xanthophylls in yellow corn can alter the colors of their birds. Take that one step further with snakes ... if rodents are fed yellow corn, or a lab block based diet with yellow corn as a component and snakes are eating rodents with the xanthophylls from yellow corn in their bellies, there is certainly potential for the snakes to be susceptible to the same effects seen in the birds.

Breeding also seems to darken some snakes in my experience. I've always felt that virgin snakes (especially females) are brighter and "crisper" looking than females that have been bred for a few years in a row. Maybe the stress of breeding does something to the skin pigment, or the cooler temps used to induce breeding causes the ball pythons to darken in an attempt to stay warmer (darkening is a common reaction to being too cool in the animal kingdom because darker colors absorb more light).

All that said, I have ZERO evidence towards proving that environmental factors influence the physical appearance of ball pythons. I know that it is something that has been openly discussed in the past among ball breeders (specifically when looking at the color changes axanthics go through) and I personally think that the idea has some merit.

-adam

[mlededee]

wow that's all very interesting. i was hoping i could just put a drop of vitamin c on snick's dinner and he would stay nice and high contrast forever (or something like that, lol).