I bought Venus almost 2 years ago now when I was much newer to ball pythons. She was sold to me as a 3 yr old Enchi Pastel Lesser. I took the shops word for it because they are a reputable shop. However now when looking at pictures of other Enchi Pastel Lessers she doesn’t look very similar. She looks much darker. Any opinions would be appreciated!!
Hey Madeline,
If you asked me what that snake was without any info I would guess Pastel Enchi Lesser with very little doubt. Whether there is something else in there could be difficult to tell.
But for the fun of it, I’m gonna say you pair her to something in the #mp-bp-super-stripe-complex and see what happens.
I never had any doubt she was anything other than what I was told until i saw some listings on MM for adults with the same genetics.
I was thinking maybe she isn’t lesser. But we’ll see, hopefully I can prove out some of her genes this season!
Also I like your idea of what to pair with her, I’ll look more into that project!
These are 3 extremely variable traits.
Some lessers stay yellow while others from the same line can brown out and look almost chocolate like.
@saleengrinch can show you the huge variation in his collection.
If you want to prove out the lesser you can pair with any of these for a definite answer #mp-bp-bluel-complex
This is spot on there are definitely huge variance in phenotype expression in the lesser/butter gene. I think this contributed to why a lot of people thought butter and lesser were actually separate genes.
Variability crossed my mind but with how much darker Venus is I wasn’t sure if it was a possibility. But I’m glad you both think it is.
I paired her with my pastel bamboo last season. that only produced four slugs and one very iffy looking egg. It made it full term but the baby only made it part way out of the egg before passing. When I first saw it it looked like a lesser to me. but I didn’t get to see it after it’s first shed so it could have been a pastel.
Another thing to keep in mind is the color change from hatchling to adult can be quite remarkable. So if you have mainly seen hatchlings and yearlings an adult can sometimes look entirely different.
Up until a couple weeks ago I hadn’t seen any other adults. I do hope she proves out, but if not it’s all good.
