Need a deescription of these morphs please?

[loonunit]

If you want a really great pastel, go back to Garrick and ask him to pick one out for you. He's always got a couple really spectacular ones that he sells for more money.

Super pastels are really pretty, yellow and black. They don't brown out as badly as the single-gene pastels, so you'll get to keep that pretty yellow and black look. Fireflies are even cleaner and brighter.

Anything het hypo will make ghosts with your girl. It's a good suggestion, if you can find a pretty morph that's also het and also affordable.

(Bananas and toffinos are way outside your budget.)

Oh, I just noticed that champagnes ARE inside your budget. Champagnes are solid gold snakes with almost no pattern except for small circles on their back (the circles really look like bubbles in champagne). A champagne hypo is called a mimosa---I don't think you can afford a champagne het hypo, but you could MAKE them.

[Amanda1226]

Ok, you guys have certainly gave me a lot to think about. Honeybee, albino, champagne, oh boy!
I am glad I have some time to think about this!
If anyone else wants to describe other morphs, I am completely up for it.
-Amanda Ellen

[angllady2]

Well, one of my favorites that has not been described is Cinnamon. Now a standard quailty cinnamon is not very special. The body is a deep chocolate brown color, the markings are deep tan colored, some have spots of reddish brown blushing along the back. Blushing means it looks like someone tried to erase the color in that spot. Cinnamons also have bright white bellies.

Now, a high quality cinnamon is a whole different ball game. The body is rich milk chocolate brown, the markings are shades of tan and orange as babies, that eventually become all tannish orange. The back and head are usually a rich cinnamon red/brown from the large amounts of blushing. The markings are rimmed in black, and the belly is stark white. They are beautiful.

Pieds are a can't miss in the looks department. The combination of snow white with patches of orange and tan rimmed and streaked with black never gets old. The patterns on pieds are also a lot of the attraction. The pattern on a pied is all, melty and drippy and squiggly. Sometimes pieds have smiley faces on their backs. These will be patches of burnt orange or deep tan ringed in black, with black eyes and mouths like a child would draw. People always turn to mush with a smiley face pied.

Albinos, especially high contrast albinos are really beautiful. Their bodies are stark white, and the loops and swirls of pattern are deep orange as babies, fading to dandelion yellow as they mature.

The bumblebee is another good one, if you get a high quality one. The back and body are daffodil yellow, the sides and belly are snowy white, and the black lines over the back make you think of a spiderweb. Unfortunately, low quality bees are very common. And they are not nearly so attractive. They are more of a muddy yellow as babies, which quickly fades to an unattractive tannish color.

I wish you all the best in your quest for another ball.

Gale

[Amanda1226]

Gale,
Thanks for those descriptions. You have me really reconsider my honeybee selections. Can you tell me about a bumble bee?

Thanks,
-Amanda Ellen

[angllady2]

Ok. So baby bumblebees are usually bright daffodil yellow on the back and about halfway down the sides. The remainder of the sides and belly are bright white. Over top the yellow and white is a deep black spiderweb of lines that runs along the spine and drips down the sides, sometimes all the way to the belly. The most sought after bumblebees are neon yellow, the brighter the better, and blinding white. The black webbing is pure black, like a permanent marker was used to draw it on. They have few or no spots or speckles of black outside of the webbing. They have magnificent head patterns, yellow or white with black markings. People love to find pictures in the head patterns. These top quality bumblebee babies will stay yellow to faintly tan as adults with the white belly and sides and black webbing.

Now, the much more common bumblebee babies are dingy yellow to tan as babies, with grey white sides and faded grey/black webbing. They have many spots and flecks of black all over their bodies, and sometimes even the webbing is sloppy and broken. These babies quickly turn an unappealing brownish tan as adults, with off white sides and greyish webbing. Some people still like them, and there is nothing wrong with that. But once you have seen a top quality bumblebee next to one of low quality, you cannot compare the two. It would be like comparing the canals of Venice to the beaches of Fiji. They my both be water, but the comparison stops there.

Now, if you are truly ambitious about owning and perhaps even one day breeding visually striking ball pythons, a ghost pied is a rare and beautiful thing. The reason it is rare is because both ghost (hypo) and pied are recessive. meaning it takes two copies of each gene, one from each parent, to make the visual. Therefore, as a project of several years, you could invest in a pied now to breed to your Hypo. This would produce babies that were normal looking but double hets. If you then bred two of those babies you have a slight chance of making a hypo pied.

If breeding is far into your future, or perhaps even over your head, and you simply want a lovely snake to enjoy now and make a good impression on your friends and family, then you have several choices.

A bumblebee, pied or albino lead the list. Especially in your price range. Later on, you can dabble with other projects. Take Axanthic for example. Axanthics are the real oddballs of the ball python world. Pun intended. The Axanthic gene removes the yellow, brown and similar colors, leaving blacks, greys and whites. Some are really amazing, like a black and white photograph, others are a more dilute form that shade into a nearly brown hue. As of right now, the Axanthic or Lightning Pied, as they are called, are one of the very few Axanthic morphs that stay deep black, stark white and smoke grey as adults.

Gale

[Amanda1226]

Oh thank you!
I have a much better idea of what I might want. If it is ok with you, when I get closer to the time of purchase, can I send you pictures of the potentials so that you can tell me if they are high quality?

Thanks so much,
Amanda Ellen

[DooLittle]

How did I miss this thread? You have gotten some amazing descriptions. I don't know that I could have done as well. Gale, great job. My personal favorites are most anything bee, and throw enchi into anything and it does amazing stuff to patterns. Do you prefer lighter brighter colors, or darker? Imo, a good bumble bee or high contrast albino is just plain eye candy. But I LOVE yellow on a snake.

And feel free to pm me pics of potentials if you like.

[Mike41793]

Don't we all?

Nope, not me. I always wanna checkout their disposition before reaching my hand in. I also dont like sticking my hand right in their face to wake them up. I also have a few that think they're retics and will think you're food no matter what haha.

[John1982]

Oh thank you!
I have a much better idea of what I might want. If it is ok with you, when I get closer to the time of purchase, can I send you pictures of the potentials so that you can tell me if they are high quality?

Thanks so much,
Amanda Ellen

Definitely post pictures of potentials and you'll get plenty of feedback on their quality.

[angllady2]

Aww, well I try. People have always told me I have a kind of gift for painting word pictures. I and everyone else here would be delighted to help you choose your next baby. It's kind of what we do here.

Gale