Ok so I bought a fire yellowbelly 66% het pied 50% het sunset. Also have her sister leopard fire poss yb 66% het pied 50%het sunset. My fire yb girl poss double het went completely black and white for over 2 months. Looked axanthic during the process. She ate well, was axanthic looking long before and after shed, temp was good, no signs of being stressed at all. Her color slowing came back but her pattern is different , plus it looks like a black wash is erasing pattern and also has a white wash erasing pattern too. Hard to describe. But she looks like she has a dark gene in her now that I couldn’t see before she started that axanthic thing, whatever happened made her look darker is what I’m trying to say ?!??! I asked the breeder but he never saw this happening to any of his snakes. Her sister didn’t do this at all. Has anyone ever seen this or heard this before ?
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Also her pattern was very faint during the process this is after she shed and a month later her pattern coming back. In the beginning you could barley see her pattern
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Would you say the pattern is dulling? I’ve seen this happen when there is not enough UV light.
Also, congrats on your first post!
While the axanthic time period yes as you see the top part of the snake (neck) pattern is not as black as the bottom half of the snake. The whole snake was like that in the beginning and middle of the color change… everyone that I know of use racks for ball pythons. Never heard of this happening cause the lack of uv… usually everyone uses racks with no uv… her color want back to normal like a yellow belly fire with a weird pattern change… as she gets bigger it’s like more scales of black come up on the sides and erasing pattern with black… makes her look like a yellowbelly fire with a dark gene… I’ll show you a pic of her now
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Before
Axanthic period 2-3 months like this
Today picture ( see the white blush on the head and the blacks on the side of the snake) none of that was there before
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Hmm, yes I have also heard of great success in rack systems without any problems. Not sure I can help any further than that. I will summon our BP pros.
@saleengrinch and @t_h_wyman
Defective snake, send her my way 
but seriously, I’ve heard and saw some snakes lose their pigment. Go from normal coloration to black and white but I’ve never heard anything about it going back to look like yours in the last pic. Check out Ralph Davis’ old videos. Pretty cool though, hopefully someone else can chime in as well.
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I don’t see how lack of UV could cause that much of a change in pigment. Or any major visible change like this. I would have to see data to support it.
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That’s really amazing. I hope this happens to one of my snakes. lol. I love the Axanthic gene.
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Yes I have experienced this. I picked up this pastel vanilla yb boy 3yrs ago. He had been in my local shop for a week or 2 and looked normal. Then after a shed he turned B&W so I grabbed him obviously.
I don’t see UV having anything to do with it as BPs don’t really require it as a nocturnal species living in holes in the ground. And I keep him in same ARS rack as my others w no UV and nothing like it ever happened w any others. My buddy who owns the shop said he had a weird shed and defecate/urate was stuck between shed and body overnight. His explanation for change, not mine. Although I have read on other forums the possibility of something like this being valid I’ve never experienced it start to finish in my own possession. I also felt it wasn’t the best explanation for a complete change as it wouldn’t have been in contact w his entire body and the shed had already happened so I imagine any color shift being present before the shed and he stayed that way thru multiple others for about a year. After that he started slowly coloring up again w each shed. Still trying to figure it out thru breedings.
This is pic him few mths ago and 1 of his clutches
Let us know if you ever figure/prove anything out.
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I’ve had this happen with a boa or two long ago. I also saw it occur occasionally with other people boas. We never figured out the exact cause but the leading hypothesis was that there was an issue with the feeders. It seemed to be more prevalent from a particular rodent supplier. Aside from the pigment anomaly there were no other noticeable symptoms and it went away in time.
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Interestinggggg
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@snaxxs def will keep you updated !!! Your friends story doesn’t sound convincing… if I was you I would hold everything back lol I will definitely figure this out… I have a normal double het male that will be going to her when she’s ready so let’s see what happens
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Rodent pro does sometimes source from outside breeders. So that explains their rare inconsistencies and it could explain this too if it’s from rodent pro. Even if it is I’m not sure what would cause that biologically.
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I’m holding back this girl as the all gene, what I’m calling super pastel vanilla yb. Although the mom is a very unique girl herself that I picked up as just pastel but I’m thinking more. So far I’ve been able to prove she’s not a super anything and not recessive anything. Ty I’m putting a ghi firefly to her to see if fire is a possibility.
Mom w & w/o flash
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I would concur that it would more than likely be a feeder issue. Thats the only variable that can change without real consideration about it (since you probably buy frozen). However the snake looks 
before, during, and after. And I’m jelly
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Yeah! If we could be sure exactly what is causing it and there is no problems, a color changing BP would be pretty cool 
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@erie-herps @akmorphs @snaxxs if a feeder made her change which is stating that it was a bad feeder right ? Wouldn’t she regurgitate the mouse ? Also she never missed a meal… if the mouse was giving her bad reactions wouldn’t she go off feed alil ??? She was like this way before shed and after shed … I know animals go into shed when they are trying to repair themselves but she was small and I really think it was just her time to shed… I also have her sister which is a leopard fire possibly yellowbelly 66% het pied 50% het sunset… and I think she has some black scales coming into her neck but not sure if it’s the same as the one I showed with the blacks coming into the alien heads. 
I guess we will find out when she’s ready too breed. Also this sunset is very interesting to me because I have a visual sunset pinstripe poss enchi with a ringer on the tail… the breeder is saying it happens but I only heard of 3 animals having it and I’m not sure if they just over looked it and said whatever lol
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