What genes should help banana retain its lavender color up to adulthood?
I don’t own any ball pythons myself, so I’m not an expert, but since no one has replied yet, I thought I’d share my thoughts!
banana black pastel:
(picture from Olympian exotics) It isn’t completely lavender, but it definitely has a tiny bit more of a lavender hue than a standard Banana.
Banana chocolate:
(image by Morphmart reptiles LLC)
This is an Acid black pastel banana:
(image by Midwest_monsters)
Again, I don’t own these morphs, but I’ve noticed that these specific combinations seem to help adults keep that beautiful lavender tint sometimes!
Like I went to a reptile store just to look around for fun, they had an adult banana black pastel that was really lavender!
Beautiful looking snakes, I got my eye on cinnamons on banana but black pastel seems to work better. Thanks for the reponse
In my limited time working with the morph, the only genes I found that really seemed to help maintain decent colour were the BluEL complex and, to a lesser extent, OD and Enchi
In my experience it’s significantly less about extra genes than it is about getting a good quality line of banana. Most of them turn brown, but some are more likely to stay purple. If you’re looking for something, ask for parent pictures and wait until you find an animal with a banana parent that is still purple.
This is what I was looking for when I got my banana pied girl back in 2021. Between the number of breeders who just won’t provide parent pictures and the number of pictures I got with brown adults, it took me about 8 months to find one I liked enough to buy.
Oh morphs from the BEL complex, I thought they just lessened the spots then just lightens the brown a little bit as an adult. Thanks for the input.
That’s pretty nice, linebred trait of adult ball pythons. Thanks for the input.
You are correct that this is what those genes do and it is that contribution that lends toward them assisting in maintaining the colour. The “freckle-effect” goes beyond just the visual-to-the-eye scale, there is also a sort of micro-freckling that you get and that lends toward the eventual overall muddiness they develop. Likewise, the “lightening the brown as an adult” lends toward them maintaining a sort of creaminess to their base colour and that contributes toward that more pink/lav tone
Thanks for the in-depth explanation.



