Spider Color change?

[PweEzy]

I remember a thread about someone's spider changing colors to what I think was grayish? My buddy called me last night because his spider shed and a spot on her back had turned yellow.



I told him its probably nothing to worry about since I had seen that previous thread, but that I would get some people's opinions. Has anybody's spider changed yellow? What do ya think?

I will try to get him to get a pic that isn't from his phone...

[OhhWatALoser]

there are cases where animal lose random colors of pigment, its not just a spider, or snake or reptile thing, its a animal thing lol.

[Ladybugzcrunch]

Just a little something to think about:
I know nothing about color change in ball pythons but pigment change in human skin is a genetic disease called Vitiligo which can also be liked to other autoimmune disorders. I dogs, hair pigment loss can be related to kidney disease. In horses, there is a specific color gene in which the horse is born with dark hair and over time it becomes pigmentless. I would guess that scale color change would be closest to hair color change but who knows. Just some food for thought.

[SlitherinSisters]

My sister has a small amount of Vitiligo, it can be caused by hormonal imbalances (she's a teen and it's going away with age), I'm actually thinking that's more what's going on with the BPs. I tend to hear about spiders losing color much more often than any other bp. I'm thinking it's hormonal because they do eventually regain their color. It wouldn't be like the horse hair color change because Lipizzaners, what you're talking about, never go back to brown-black. They are born with brown-black hair and fade to white (almost always). It can take 4-10 years for them to change completely. Some gray/white Andalusians (also horses) are similar. It's a permanent color change for both breeds though, they don't revert back to their original color.

To the OP, I wouldn't worry about it, and I'm not surprised at all that it's a spider! It may take a long time, but eventually the color will come back. Someone had an amazing spider! I lost all it's pigment so it looked like an axanthic killerbee! It was pretty sweet! I've seen a few normals on here that lost their color too, but also gained it back eventually.

[PweEzy]

Thanks for the replies. That is an interesting thought about the skin disorder and makes me curious if it is at all the same in snakes. I'd have to imagine that being cold blooded and having scales makes it alot different than warm blooded and skin, but who knows. I told my buddy that it would actually look kind of cool if the whole snake went thru that change. Would make his spider look a little like a bee. Who knows, maybe that means she will produce some killer looking bee's whenever she is ready to start breeding. It makes me wonder about the spider gene. What if the wobble is just a trait of hormonal imbalance too? Time for some scientist to step up with ball pythons and dig deeper. It doesn't take a biologist to understand the simple genetics of ball pythons morphs, but what about the genetics tied to the dna that cause these funky behavioral traits and odd changes like this?

Anyway, feel free to keep chiming in!!

[sho220]

I've seen this before on the net...and from what I remember they go back to normal after a few sheds...I seem to remember it was the whole snake though and not just a blotch like that...but my memory is going so I may be wrong...

[SlitherinSisters]

Thanks for the replies. That is an interesting thought about the skin disorder and makes me curious if it is at all the same in snakes. I'd have to imagine that being cold blooded and having scales makes it alot different than warm blooded and skin, but who knows. I told my buddy that it would actually look kind of cool if the whole snake went thru that change. Would make his spider look a little like a bee. Who knows, maybe that means she will produce some killer looking bee's whenever she is ready to start breeding. It makes me wonder about the spider gene. What if the wobble is just a trait of hormonal imbalance too? Time for some scientist to step up with ball pythons and dig deeper. It doesn't take a biologist to understand the simple genetics of ball pythons morphs, but what about the genetics tied to the dna that cause these funky behavioral traits and odd changes like this?

Anyway, feel free to keep chiming in!!

I wish they would! Ball pythons don't follow any of the normal "rules" that most animals follow. I call them nature's genetic freaks. I need to write down the weird things that BPs have/do that's against nature's law....I of course forget them right now

I've seen this before on the net...and from what I remember they go back to normal after a few sheds...I seem to remember it was the whole snake though and not just a blotch like that...but my memory is going so I may be wrong...

There was 1 spider that changed completely and a couple spiders that almost changed completely. There are numerous normals that have gotten patches, and some other morphs, a butter I can think of right off the bat.