Quote Originally Posted by Joe_Compel View Post
First off....is your animal captive bred or imported? Do you know where it came from?
If it came from a breeder, she or he should be able to shed some light. If it was imported, the you are going have to do the work and answer your own questions

"Tiger" is a tough one......

It is one of the morphs/variants of ball pythons that can be very confusing. The appearance of genetic ones can be variable. More than one breeder has tiger stock......stock that is not related.....stock that may or may not even be the same mutation. In other words, what one breeder calls a tiger another breeder may not....even though both may have "genetic tigers".

To me the tiger morph needs to be "overhauled." I'm sure it will happen with time.
Once I found there wasn't much info or pics of them I figured it was just a generic term. The only thing I found really was a page on Ralph Davis's website:

http://www.ralphdavisreptiles.com/co...all_python.asp

I suspect that what happened was originally the Genetic and True reduced patterns were called "Tigers", however, over the last few years, the term "Tiger", and as I have discovered in searching around, the term "Jaguar" are basically being used to describe a snake with a reduced pattern that doesn't fall into one of the morph categories.

As for where he came from? I don't know. I got him from a small breeder who took him on trade from the original owners. No paperwork. The main reason I got him is because I am a fan of the reduced patterns and I had went to the show with the intention of getting a Woma Ball, but the only 2 there were being sold by LLL, and their staff didn't impress me. I had pretty much settled on a Dumerils boa until I saw this guy.

I saw a snake on a reptile dealers website described as a "Jaguar" that I like. Nice reduced patterns, however, researching Jaguar balls, I found that this term is used more synonymously with the Jungle ball, which has nothing to do with a reduced pattern. It has a "busy' pattern with a light head patch, light eyes, and freckles or spots around the mouth. So, I think Jaguar is another term that may be misused, or generally applied to several snakes, depending on who you ask. Thanks for all the input...


Rob