Dark Axanthic PLUS Pied breeding outcomes?

[Lord Sorril]

Hello!

Recently I've gotten extremely into ball pythons! I've had my pied ball python for almost a year now and she's growing quickly!

Greetings! Is your pied ball python Het for a specific axanthic (e.g. SK or VPI)?

I want to eventually breed her with an axanthic morph. My goal is a mostly black/white/grey pied like the one below:

Breeding a straight up Axanthic to a Pied will produce 100% Hets which will then need to be intercrossed when they mature to get a 1/16 chance of producing an Axanthic Pied. You can get animals that are Het Axanthic: such as a Pied Male Het for SK Axanthic, and a Pied Female Het for SK Axanthic and cross them together, and then your odds will be 1/4 instead. Again, make sure your Hets are the same type of Axanthic.

Now, my question is, if I get an axanthic ball python that is more brown and darker in color, is there still a chance it will come out like the one below? Or should I look specifically to get a more silver/white/grey axanthic ball python? I can't find an answer anywhere and any help would be appreciated!

Brown Axanthics (with no additional morphs present) are ones that lack and/or have lost their silver color to some extent (usually as they have aged)...they are less desirable. Background genetics are a factor and you should be looking for the most silver you can find in a line bred specimen.