Spontaneous Pigment Loss

[Bill Buchman]

I have 5 or 6 snakes that have lost pigment overnight. With mine I have no doubt it was a reaction to a prey item. Incomplete digestion -- and in 2 of mine they had an oily stool that acted almost like a corrosive acid. These animals NEVER got most of their color back -- some none of their color returned. These guys are completely healthy in every way. Could be a coincidence, but I have never had a normal lose their color -- always some kind of morph.

I will try and take pics of an adult Bumble Bee and a Pastel PH Hypo that HAD quite a bit of black wash. Not anymore!!!!!!! They look like the best Fire Bee/Fire Pastel you have ever seen. I have never considered selling them. Even being honest about what they were NOT I would feel weird about it.

[bones93]

Bill,
If you can post pics of the bee I would appreciate it. My bee just shed again and he still looks like that and his eyes are even black. No more green pastel eyes. I love the way he looks but if he looks better than he did as a baby when he goes back to normal hes gonna be a smoker! Have you noticed any of your bees offspring having this trait?

[RandyRemington]

Here is a girl I bought as a really nice looking axanthic import subadult back in the day. She quickly started to get more dark flecking and more yellow but has stayed like this for several years now. Unfortunately I don't know what she started out looking like. I never did see the stuck shed looking pigment on the back and she has an in shed type glow to her lower sides so not sure if she is one of these changers or something else. I saved back a really nice looking pastel son just in case she is genetic but she didn't go this year. Not holding my breath as it seems most likely she is a changer; either one that changed in the wild or that just got the import label as she changed hands back when such things where big money.

[Serpent_Nirvana]

I have 5 or 6 snakes that have lost pigment overnight. With mine I have no doubt it was a reaction to a prey item. Incomplete digestion -- and in 2 of mine they had an oily stool that acted almost like a corrosive acid. These animals NEVER got most of their color back -- some none of their color returned. These guys are completely healthy in every way. Could be a coincidence, but I have never had a normal lose their color -- always some kind of morph.

That's exactly what happened to the smaller guy that I posted pics of. It was a batch of excessively fatty (retired breeder) mice, and a few snakes got steatorrhea (oily poop) because of them. He's the only one that changed color, though.

The female in my original post never had any unusual prey items, and no unusual bowel movements associated with the color-change event. In addition, she is getting her color back now ... But not the way it was when she started. Before, she was a light "burgundy" type of deal. Now she's starting to look just like RDR's Dirty Joe ...

Interestingly, the kid I got her from has a male that did the same thing about a month later. It almost made me wonder if it was something feed-related except that I can't for the life of me think of how or what ... I know where he gets his feeder rats and they're fed a lab diet and culled if they aren't in perfect health. Neither one of us is getting our hopes up very high that this is genetic, but they're probably going to be bred together just in case ...