Black Back ball python

[Rat160]

look up for my edit, good info tho, I didn't know het reds were also BB

Ok so I was mistaken. RDR Simply referenced Corey Woods. This is from Corey Woods's Website.

"I produced the first Red Axanthics back in 2001 when I was still a very small breeder. I bred 2 Black Backs together expecting to produce more Black Backs. To my amazement 2 “weird” looking Axanthics were in the clutch. The Red Axanthics are born with purple heads and have the classic grey, white and black colouration. As they mature they become a cream colour much like the palm of your hand. At about 2 years of age they go back to their grey, black and white colouration."

[NNJExotics]

Wanted to share this girl i picked up at the NY White Plains expo this month. She is an import and has a nice black back along with other things going on.





Javier
NNJExotics

[WingedWolfPsion]

Partial black-back Lesser Platinum. (No idea if it's heritable, we'll find out this year). I think black back looks particularly spiffy on a Lesser.

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

But the difference between the het reds/ red ax's and the blackbacks is that het reds bred to a cinny create gargoyles. They have a solid stripe. BB bred to a cinny create BB cinny. No stripe. Just solid BB.

So het red/red ax ARE a different snake than the BB.

That's what I was confused about at first also.

Not all BB are het reds and not all BB have the super form of red ax.

[Russ Lawson]

Here are a couple of photos of an unproven black back lesser platinum female of mine. I'm really hoping she passes the black back trait on to her offspring.

When I got her:


Recent photo:

[Reps4life]

I feed my babies 2 times a week but he is only about 80g so i doubt he will make it this year .I dont think he can gain 420g in only a few months.

[Reps4life]

Wanted to share this girl i picked up at the NY White Plains expo this month. She is an import and has a nice black back along with other things going on.





Javier
NNJExotics

I have a female that has that red color blushing on her back like yours. Not as extreme but she does have it.

[JLC]

I think a LOT of the confusion here comes from the term "black back". "Black back" is a descriptive term used to describe a particular pattern type. It, in itself, is not a genetic term in the same way that "pastel" is, for instance.

When Corey Woods told his story, he tells of breeding two "black backs" together in hopes of seeing that trait pass on to babies. To his surprise, he hit a super form that he named "Red Axanthic", and therefore the founding line was called "Het Red Axanthic". This does NOT mean that all ball pythons with a black back pattern are Het Red Axanthics. The black back pattern just happens to be one of the visible traits you can use to identify Het Reds...it's not the only one.

Sometimes the black back appearance can be predictably passed on to offspring and those lines are usually referred to as Genetic Black Backs. But more often than not, the appearance of the black back pattern is as random as the number of alien heads and "eyes" within those heads.

The only way to know for sure if your black back is genetic is by breeding it out for multiple generations, or if it came from a known, proven genetic line.