Albino pied turned all white in three sheds

I’m so confused lol :sweat_smile: I got this ball python Not on MorphMarket from petco yes yes i know not a good idea so no info from a breeder I was wondering if anyone could help me though I purchased it as a pied albino it’s shed for me three times and each time the yellow has disappeared more and more it shed Wednesday janaury 15 the all white pictures are fresh shed from thursday january 16 then the others are when I got it I’m confused cause now it’s all white and the middle of it’s head is kinda light purplish and the only yellow it has now is around that purplish middle spot and it’s very very very light :sweat_smile:


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That’s totally nuts @janie-stokes Janie! I don’t know why this happened but I believe it is unusual……Never the less your animal is gorgeous! I don’t think Petco knew what they had! :joy:

Others will chime in…

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Thank you yeah it confused me alot lol they had two i shouldve grabbed the other one as well lol

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The only thing I can think of is they may have the odd melanin increasing gene that has been floating around and not isolated.
So as your snake would have gained more ‘black’ it shows as white in albino. At least that’s my theory.

Think of the “stormtrooper” that JD Constriton produced. She started out as a high contrast pastel Axanthic… And then over the next couple years turned darker and darker. Here’s a few pictures of her over time.

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I believe this is what @armiyana said. Increasing Melanin Gene, but with Albinism in play this leads to an increase in the white tones that would otherwise be black in a non-Albino snake.
A pretty neat find for sure!

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That’s crazy cool!! Talk about unknown genes floating around!

Would a melanin-increasing gene also turn off the yellow pigment, though? Is that how it works?

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As what would have been black takes over the areas that are yellow the white would be there instead.

I don’t know if maybe @t_h_wyman knows of another possible reason for something like this? Is snake Vitiligo a thing?

Definitely a neat snake though! I have a dark gal that may be carrying that trait as well, but she’s not an albino. She’s a pastel black pastel who looks very very dark. Darker looking in person for sure
This trait is just super elusive and as far as I know it still can’t really be proven out as reproducible.

Here’s a photo of my dark gal. I’m waiting impatiently for her to be out of quarantine. Hahah.

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Wow thats pretty im never going to breed but im already going to send in a shed to see if itsale or female i might do the genetics one

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Oh my goodness gracious! How totally weird and cool!

That Stormtrooper snake @armiyana references is gorgeous!

Hmm. I understand that, without this gene(s) being identified, there’s no way to know this but as these two are female I’m wondering if whatever this is is sex linked.

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That would be really interesting and has been something that crossed my mind. I vaguely remember someone saying they saw something similar in a female axanthic as well, but lost the info on it. It would be interesting if this snake was also a female.
I’m also considering testing my Black Pewter to see if she’s secretly carrying tsk axanthic

There’s also a weird trait that has shown up in pastel hypo Pieds where they start turning like a slate blue. But again, never replicated. Just randomly happened. But the snake I know about there was a male.

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