Growth speed:holding color

[PythonWallace]

It might be a coincidence, but I seem to see a relationship between how well a ball python will hold it's color, and how much it eats, and how quickly it grows. It seems like my albino and pastels that didn't eat a ton, and that didn't grow fast held their bright baby color better than ones that eat a lot and grow to adult size quickly.

Has anyone else noticed anything like this? Is it a coincidence, or do big meals and quick growth stretch the skin out, causing browning or fading of the desired colors?

[BallPythons9]

You know, I've kinda noticed this too.

[PythonWallace]

Nobody else has an opinion on this?

[Mike Cavanaugh]

Yes, I have definately noticed this. I believe the darkening in color comes with growth not age.

I have seen a few examples of this but my best example is a pastel that I rescued. it was 3 years old, and not much bigger then a hatching because the guy had no idea what he was doing. When I got the snake it ate like a horse and VERY quickly got up to a normal size for its age. It also, at an unbelievable rate, got dark, like pastels often do.

[nevohraalnavnoj]

My fastest growing albino has held her color the best, my two slow growing have started to lose it a little bit. For my pastels it's been some of each.

It would be interesting to see some data on this, but you'd probably have to take tons of pics and do some kind of color/pixel count.

JonV

[PythonWallace]

Yes, I have definately noticed this. I believe the darkening in color comes with growth not age.

I have seen a few examples of this but my best example is a pastel that I rescued. it was 3 years old, and not much bigger then a hatching because the guy had no idea what he was doing. When I got the snake it ate like a horse and VERY quickly got up to a normal size for its age. It also, at an unbelievable rate, got dark, like pastels often do.

Yeah, I think that's probably a fact, I'm just wondering if snakes that are grown slowly from the start, to the time they are nearly or at full adult size end up retaining their colors better as an adult.

My fastest growing albino has held her color the best, my two slow growing have started to lose it a little bit. For my pastels it's been some of each.

It would be interesting to see some data on this, but you'd probably have to take tons of pics and do some kind of color/pixel count.

JonV

I think it would be hard to say for sure, and I doubt we will get anything definitive. I was just wondering if other people who have larger collection, and who have raised up a lot of snakes have noticed a pattern with this, or if it's like Mike said, and it just seems that way because the faster growing snakes around them are dulling or browning faster than the slower growers. In my personal collection, I think it could go either way, but I've wondered this for a while now, and would like to hear what other people think.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

Yeah, I think that's probably a fact, I'm just wondering if snakes that are grown slowly from the start, to the time they are nearly or at full adult size end up retaining their colors better as an adult.

well based on my example above with the pastel, I would say no. if they are geneticly supposed to darken, they will darken as they get up to an adult size... regardless of how long it takes them to get to that adult size.