I found an Odd Banana!

Hello! So I picked this guy up as a Banana. But when I looked at him next to my banana he doesn’t quite look just banana to me. I’ve had these images up elsewhere to try and identify but it seems to be a mystery. The pairing is also unknown. The issue I’m running into is that his alien heads are super clean, no figure 8’s to show cinnamon or something similar. He is also quite muted in color and tanned out. He has spots so lesser and Mojave are also questionable… HRA has been suggested and possibly the closest I’ve seen. Chocolate even felt close but there still doesn’t seem to be enough yellow on him. His spots are dark brown. And I have added some comparisons photos. Any help is much appreciated. image image image image image image image image image image

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Bananas as a whole are extremely variable as adults. Some can be clean like that one and other can be covered in spots like yours. Without information about the animals history, then there isn’t an easy way to tell what all could be there since most comparisons will be babies. That said, if there were any extra genes, I would guess fire. Definitely no chocolate.

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Banana blade maybe.

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Banana Mojave but is really hard to say for sure.

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Not a Mojave, the markings aren’t that of one.

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Maybe yes maybe not… The best way is to breed with a normal and check the new generation

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The colors felt Mojave but he has larger alien heads and he has some freckles already. That and his sides don’t seem to flame very high or into the alien heads. :confused:

I was told a potential pairing was pastel x banana but they weren’t sure.

It could be a very nice pastel banana. If you could get pictures of the parents that would help.

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It sounds like he was picked up by his last owner at an expo and they don’t remember. :frowning:

Definitely not mojave, that you can see.
I may agree with your first post, possibly HRA or LBB.

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HRA is a darker morph that seems to make the colors more vibrant, and has more keyholes from all the examples I have seen. LBB has a similar effect as mojave. Sadly the only examples are babies.

Banana HRA:
https://www.morphmarket.com/us/c/reptiles/pythons/ball-pythons/81608
Banana LBB:
https://www.morphmarket.com/us/c/reptiles/pythons/ball-pythons/389934

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I agree, but I don’t have a lot of experience with banana in general. But I would go with what @ashleyraeanne said

Yeah the younger photos make it harder for sure, but I see your point! I did get some feedback on another site saying that HRA can easily be missed and a low expression or low quality HRA can be hard to identify. And in this case it may seem like a less experienced breeder may not have known what they had if they had a lower expression HRA. I still see his tans as very beautiful and a caramel in color rather than yellows. All very curious! I can only hope to see what he makes!

Also… I don’t know much as I’m still pretty new to this, but what about Coral Glow/banana Specter? https://www.morphmarket.com/us/c/reptiles/pythons/ball-pythons/390369

Thanks for the link. For sure can see a difference with those hatchlings, especially with the alien heads.
Definitely never easy when all you have to compare to are babies.

Specter is basically the same thing as yellow belly. Here is an adult one.
https://www.morphmarket.com/us/c/reptiles/pythons/ball-pythons/171038

Honestly I think the pattern is just that of a reduced normal, as I have seen similar ones on BPs with no pattern disrupting morph. The lighter/cleaner color tells me it might be on the fire/fire complex (vanilla, sulfur, etc) or it could just be a clean banana with browned out pattern.

Fire banana:
https://www.morphmarket.com/us/c/reptiles/pythons/ball-pythons/246342
They continue to get lighter and lighter as they get older, though other less powerful morphs on the fire complex do so to less extreme degree. That or this banana would have had a lighter color compared to yours without the fire.

A couple darker bananas to show the variation:
https://www.morphmarket.com/us/c/reptiles/pythons/ball-pythons/175880
https://www.morphmarket.com/us/c/reptiles/pythons/ball-pythons/331134
One is older and one is younger, but it still helps you get an idea on how much each banana can differ, and that there is no “normal” banana look.

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