Wildcaught! Fire/Vanilla/hypo?? This is a must-see photo!! ;)

[tikigator]

Hey everyone! I am on a posting craze this week! This is more of a little educational thread on Nutrition 101 and how it directly effects visuality of ball pythons....but I wanted to post it here because, well it really is a question of "is this a morph??"

Back in November I had gone to an import center with my friend and we found an adult BP that we thought FOR SURE was a vanilla or fire or even hypo. She was soooooo light and I posted a picture on my facebook and EVERYONE commented saying how amazing she looked. Everyone agreed she was either vanilla or most likely fire with that super light head and awesome coloring. Well...just yesterday I had a couple people comment on the photo....I was like "what snake is THAT?? I don't own a snake that looks like that!!!" And then I remembered which snake it was........so I went to my snake room tonight and took an updated photo. 10 months later....after she has been eating (took a couple months of her not eating anything and then finally taking ASFs....) and being cared for that she has completely changed color and is now.....very normal. I thought you guys might find it very interesting to see a before and after shot of her and just how much she changed color. Believe me, my friend and I swore up and down we had something there when we picked her up. It just goes to show just how much malnutrition in a snake can completely change their color. So everyone keep that in mind when you get an unhealthy snake, rescue it from craigslist, or get a import....if it's light, it may just need some groceries to darken up a bit.

I hope this makes a believer out of some people....it's not that I didn't believe lack of nutrition could cause a slight color change....but I sure would have NEVER guessed it could cause THIS much of an identity swap! This snake was undercover for sure! Enjoy the photo!

[SlitherinSisters]

It can definitely affect their color. I had a young female that would not eat for me for a good 6 months, I could have called her an axanthic and no on would have said a thing. She didn't have a single yellow or brown left on her. It's definitely weird!

[heathers*bps]

I too have witnessed the very same thing. It truly is amazing how proper nutrition can make a snakes color change.

[angllady2]

I have seen this phenomenon as well. It's amazing what some good feeding can do for a snake's color.

Gale

[Jesse-A]

wow.. thats insane!

[joebad976]

Hmmm That is weird and good to know.

Was she housed with other snakes? It almost looks like she is glowing. Maybe she was building and stopped eating. Probably not the case just a thought.

[BP2]

Thats just madness.

[Flikky]

Wow. That's interesting