ok so I have a question, so been researching ball python morphs and came to learn albino animals have photophobia, so I understand they are sensitive to light so my question, how sensitive are they? I mean would you notice a difference in behavior like going away from light? and if they are sensitive will they most likely feel pain with large amounts of light? (these are not statements guys don’t attack pls.)
thanks!
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They have special uv lighting for Albino animals. I know the BioDude ( hes online and has YouTube channel )
This should give you a point where to look for bulbs. All of my morphs are Albino plus all of my other inverts are also sensitive to lights. I plan on going bioactive eventually with my boas, he was very helpful to me and i enjoy his channel . Check him out, im pretty sure he’s on IG as well.
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Id look for the 7% in bulbs if you don’t care for the BioDude prices, im sure there are plenty of competitors to choose from.
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You raise some good questions and I am curious, just how sensitive are they to light, including natural light.
We have an albino BP, I haven’t subjected him to the photo booth, but I really want to get some nice pics of him in natural light.
Most albinos of every species will exhibit some form of photophobia, due to the eyes not developing the pigment needed to create filters. Without these filters unwanted wavelengths of light can pass through. How severe will depend on many factors that haven’t really been assessed yet, at least not heavily in reptiles (I’m sure Travis will show up with a study though). Albino Vs Banana Vs Lavender may have differences in expression.
My guess is that bright lighting, especially UV (or anything past 4000k) will cause harsh headaches from constant strain on the optic nerve, which is a collection of over a million nerves that connect the eye to the rest of the head, and sore eye sockets, especially for species who have no eyelids. In the long run you are looking at an animal that is in some pain every time they adjust their eyes… Again this is just my thoughts and not based on evidence.
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Ooh follow up would an albino ball python eat better in a dim room compared to a normal BP?
(long term)
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That would depend upon the individual animal. You could get either end of the scale, but I would say yes, a darker room would help generally with feeding responses.
Edit: seems I misread your question. I’m not sure I can answer that. Ball pythons use heat pits to sense their prey, so prey temperature is more vital than lighting. They are opportunist and will eat any time of the day if they are hungry and husbandry-happy.
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thanks for the quick response!
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I probably have one somewhere but I am not up to digging through the few hundred papers I have at the moment (just not a good day for me… Sorry)
That said, I have worked with albino type morphs for three decades or so and I can offer up my personal observation/thoughts/feelings
I feel that the photophobia of albinos is a bit over-hyped. I had an Amel corn that hit 27 years and he would lounge about out in the day and the lighting I would use was intense enough that the aquarium film I would wrap his tank in had to be replaced almost yearly. He did eventually develop cataracts, but given his age I am not sure we can say whether or not that was due to “excessive” light exposure, especially when you consider that most snakes over 15 or so will begin to develop them.
With my balls, I have never really noticed any aversion to light. I keep my balls in racks but my animals will never flinch when I pull out a drawer with the lights on or when I am bumbling around in the dark and stick a flashlight directly into a tub.
I do suspect that the new-found fad of using huge amounts of UV all the time might have detrimental effects, but I feel that will be more universal as well (this is probably worth a longer discussion somewhere but short version, animals in the wild are not exposed to constant UV the entire time there are daylight hours so there is absolutely no need to run UV bulbs on the same cycle as your normal lighting bulbs)
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I agree that’s my concern if we use uvb for more animals then I believe albino animals could be in for a rough time.
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I still believe we can, and should, use UV. I just do not think we need to be running them as hard and long as 99% of us are
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I agree BP’s in the wild are in burrows so that makes alot of sense!
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Really appreciate the input @t_h_wyman!
Travis actually has a cool light/dark hour ratio based on animals being below the leaf boundary. In that in the wild they will be covered the majority of the day in shadows from trees/shrubs/grass and only get UV as the sun passes through the gaps… But …
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He does?!?! This is news to me?!?
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I’m gonna have to dig through all of your podcasts…??.. I’m almost certain it was yourself. If it wasn’t you then I take back the praise 
whoever it was, some good though had gone into it.
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Nope. All I have is smart outlets tied to all my lights. For normal daylight, with temporal species I run sunrise to sunset, for others, I adjust on/off times to simulate their range as closely as I can. For UV, I use the ‘AWAY’ setting to randomly fire on/off between the hours of 10a through 3p (peak hours of UV). The random on/off means that there is no constant bombardment of UV to the animal and it also “motivates” the animals to actively bask or not as they see fit.
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From what I understand it is prolonged exposure that’s worrisome. The UVB thing Id imagine there is some kind of solution. I mean, the animal will also hide if they don’t like the light yea? That said, i only give some snakes UVB anyway if they actually bask or stay above ground.
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yes BUT I don’t think having animals hiding because of a light is a good thing, it would lower activity am I right?
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Albinos in the wild may occur from time to time but they don’t typically survive too long.
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While this is broadly true, the reason they do not survive long has nothing to do with eye sensitivity to UV and everything to do with sticking out like a sore thumb for predators to easily pick off
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