Derma Ball - Enter if you dare!

[Ouroboros]

Okay, being that I let the veritable hairless cat out of the bag, I wanted to find out what everyone thought of one of the latest discoveries in the Ball Python World. Here is a picture of the Derma Ball: Derma Ball Picture

Personally, I think it is rather pathetic looking and would never want to own one. I'm not sure what the lack of scales and heat pits would mean to a python and whether it would affect the quality of life or its survival, but on a purely aesthetic view, I like to see my snakes with all the right parts especially scales.

I don't see this as a morph, but rather a handicap although that is speculative at this point until more is known about the function of scales and heat pits are in captivity. However, if it is determined to be detrimental to a snake, but not necessarily fatal, how would you feel about breeders propagating this anomaly for financial gain? I'm sure there would always be a market for anything "different" in the Ball Python industry, and it probably wouldn't be much different than a two-headed snake, but personally how would you feel about the breeder?

Just thought I would throw this out there and find out what other people thought.

I honestly think that you excagurate a bit but then again you're entitled to your own oppinion. How can you even call it pathetic? It's just a snake that happens to have certain genes that makes it look the way it does. It sure isn't unworthy of life and if people don't want it - then why keep looking at it? It doesn't make any sense to look at a thing that gets you in a bad mood. And also would this mean that Stephen Hawking is pathetic despite his great contributions to science?

If the breeder wants to create some more of these Derma Balls then just let the breeder mind his/hers own business. Who knows maybe he/she might be sincerely interested in creating some more of these ball pythons. Most people will probably not be interested in them just like the case with hybrids. I wouldn't buy them. But I will say this: if the Derma Ball works fine in captivity and dosen't suffer (which we can't tell) then I honestly don't see any problems of it being bred.

The snake might be inferior to a normal functioning ball python but I pressume it still can use its tongue to smell where the prey is. And despite the ''little below'' normal eyesight vision in terrestial snakes then it still can see a prey within some distance. And while we're at it then I also pressume it can sense the vibrations coming from the ground. So it might lack a good tool for hunting (''heat sense'') but it isn't all vounable compared to other animals that are bred without people lifting their fingers. I'm thinking about some defenseless lizards, snakes and amphibians.

It just the same thing with albinos and pieds. The colors would probably catch ones attention if the snake were spotted by a mere glimpse. I'm pretty sure that they're more easy to spot in Africa than a normal or darkly colored ball python. Based on this then I pressume that an albino, pied and some other color- and pattern mutations is more liable to be attacked by a predator. This sounds like a big disadvantage and yet we see several types of albinos, pieds and combos being bred every year without people lifting their fingers.

If we even go beyond reptiles then we could take a mexican hairless dog. They're being sold with pedigrees and some people seem to like them. And results from tests show that they're not more liable to infections and so forth.

My point if the snake works fine and doesn't seem to suffer then I don't see any problems if it being bred on a normal basis. But I do think that the breeder should make the buyers aware of any potential things that might influence the buyers oppinion.