Hi,
That made me smile.
So I went and found my copy of "The general care and maintenance of ball pythons" by Philippe de Vosjoli - copywright 1990.
This is the entire section on morphs.
Under the heating section it has a big bold warning against hotrocks - so we have been telling people not to use these things for 20 years.Variation
Color and pattern in ball pythons can be variable. The most notable variation involves the color of the light areas. In most imported snakes, the light colored areas are tan or brown to reddish brown. In others, the light color may be a pale yellow or yellow orange. The latter "morph" is sought after by collectors and breeders. The ball pythons from the northern Ghanaian savannah are said to be primarily of the yellow-orange morph.
Pied (with an irregular or scattered albinism) and albino ball pythons occur with some frequency in the wild. Albino ball pythons resemble stouter bodied, miniature versions of albino burmese pythons, being white with a yellow-orange pattern. One well known U.S. breeder is currently in the process of establishing an albino morph in herpetoculture. Striped-phase ball pythons, sometimes offered as captive bred hatchlings, are usually the result of "cooling" during the latter part of incubation rather than the result of a genetically inherited trait.
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It here has a picture of a nice black back with a joined side pattern with the following caption;
"A "striped" ball python hatched by the author. The eggs in the clutch were incubated at fluctuating temperatures."
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But there are some seriously odd things in the breeding section;
The temps are about the same (88-90f ) but they say it is recommended to drop the temps by a degree or two (eg. from 90f to 88f ) approximately two weeks prior to incubation. They also say the eggs will take about 90 days to hatch at this temperature.
It also said the oldest known ball pythons at the time was at the Philadelphia zoological gardens which lived for over 28 years.
dr del
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