So I was holding Anise last night.
My bother asks if he can hold her and I let him.
I decide to take a picture of her with my phone and, I caught it!
I dont know if you guys can see it as well as I can but, Anise has a rainbow sheen!
So I have to ask; can they get one or is my camera just playing tricks with me?
Yeah, it is not uncommon to catch an iridescent sheen off of them
Thank you for confirming that for me.
I thought I was seeing things.
That’s really cool to know.
I think that’s really cool.
What causes it?
Is it like the oil between thier skin and scales?
So at the risk of saying the incorrect thing… 
iridophores are the iridescent pigments that some animals have, whether or not that is true for ball pythons and if that is the reason… I am unsure.
@t_h_wyman might be able to make a fool of me and give us a explanation 
Never my intention to make you look the fool, but you are mistaken here. Sort of. Maybe
So… There has not been a ton of work done on the cause of iridescence in snakes but in indigos (the only species where I know the phenomenon has been studied), it is not caused by iridophores but is instead a result of the orientation of the scale cells and the boundaries between them creating a sort of organic diffraction grate
I never managed to catch it on camera, but i noticed the same thing in my bp, most times shortly after shedding. They look soo beautiful!
There’s a snake oil joke in here somewhere.
I catch it every so often with the balls, nothing compared to the brazilian rainbow boas tho. It would be interesting to find out if it’s for the same reason and brbs are just more extreme or if brbs have a completely different thing going on.
The Brazilians are amazing.
I’d like to own one…someday.
And yeah, a ball python’s isn’t as stunning, but I find it pretty none the less.
Normally the iridescent sheen I see on ball pythons is a blue-green color, and it’s usually the most visible on dark colored ball pythons.
