New Morph or Medical mystery?

[SadistTechnoPirate]

About a year ago my, then nine year old, pet Ball python started shedding weekly. I took him to see a vet who said to change the temperature and humidity in his tank, but not to worry too much because he was still eating and retaining his size. His excessive shedding finally slowed when i got him a larger hide, which was hard to find. After shedding weekly for seven weeks he had shed most of his color, his normally brown spots where left a light yellow with lots of blushing in his formerly black areas. Some of his coloring came back in the following months but he is still so light! His name used to be Blacky because he was mostly dark, for a normal ball. Have any of you ever heard of this happening? Do you think that his color will come back eventually? Just thought i should share this interesting/terrifying event.
~ Sincerely Danielle

[Ranegyr]

Sorry to say i have no idea what could be wrong, but we would all really like to see a picture.

[scoobyark]

This sounds kinda like what you've described.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=62581

[SadistTechnoPirate]

I know that some gravid female reptiles change color...But he is a boy.
Are there any morphs that lighten over time? repeated shedding could have sped it up.

Here are some pics, took the yesterday


With my normal female (first contact with another snake)

[LadyOhh]

If it happens in BPs, it'll happen to either sex.

[MiniJ83]

Could have been stress, or any other number of factors. Luckily, he seems to be ok now that its all over and done with.

And all snakes do change color over time. It may not be dramatic, but they all will lighten or darken over time.

So, probably not so much a medical mystery...and definitely not a new morph. But interesting, YES!

[SadistTechnoPirate]

I know it was stress 'cause it stopped when we got him a bigger hide, started looking for one a while before the incident.

Scared me half to death when it was happening. He is better looking though

[janeothejungle]

It's not unheard of to have color fluctuations in either sex, usually involves stress hormones (corticosterone, t3, t4, etc), which are the same hormones that kick in with gravid females, as well. It can be an odd thing to see firsthand, but not much of a mystery.

~Kat