I just picked up a new pair today and I am excited to hear what you guys think about it. They are both a little under a year so it will be a few years before I get a clutch but they are still amazing.
Male: Banana, Cinnamon, Special, 100% Het Clown ($400)
Female: Mojave, Pastel, Fire, 100% Het Clown ($200)
Definitely excited to work with these snakes, unfortunately it is once again another pairing I have with the BEL complex. However, I have heard great things about special and it’s pairings with clown. Out of an entire expo with well over a thousand ball pythons this was the only special I saw. And it was the only one they had available. Not sure how rare they are as I’ve started hearing they are super high quality when it comes to clowns AND the BEL complex and are sort of sought after. And on top of that I share the same birthday as him 
Sounds like a fun project with a lot of cool possibilities! We love pictures here if you’d like to show off the pair!
The lighting does not do them justice, especially the female. She is so much darker and more vibrant than that. And in person the male is almost orange.
Special is such an underrated gene. My first ‘fancy’ male was a gorgeous enchi pastel mojave special.
Your banana special babies are gonna be amazing. Take a look at this one.
One of my boy’s baby girls, special coral glow fire (possible orange ghost):
Mom is actually Mojave fire Coral Glow. (They were both het Orange Ghost)
Which is also pretty sweet. Pattern and color wise
I absolutely LOVE banana clowns. I actually got one from an expo November 19th of 2023 but the snake was sold to me sick unfortunately and did pass away. I am super excited to see some special banana clowns if I get any. after doing some morphmarket browsing very few things with special don’t look cool. Especially when that pastel from firefly gets mixed in.
P.S. I added that date in because that is the exact date this male that I just purchased was born. And November 19th happens to be my birthday as well. Just had to pick him up.
Sorry for your loss! That sucks to hear too.
I actually had to return a birthday purchase to the breeder because he had a small kink that both the breeder and I missed (very small at the vent area. Probably wouldn’t have affected breeding, but this breeder was really good about wanting to do right)
That’s awesome that the new baby shares your day though!
Those two are gonna have some neat babies for sure. And I’d love to see more crystal clowns
I actually have a question about crystals if you don’t mind. I have never really paid attention to special before and it doesn’t really look like it makes true BEL’s if that makes sense. Like a super special is very yellow with patterning on its back, crystals almost just have a bamboo like patterning but are white and yellow/orange. The only one that comes super close at least from what I’ve seen on MM are butter/lesser specials. They are almost completely white with faint patterning and a faded yellow back. Curious if I’m just mistaken or not, because and I quote the breeder “Special is one of if not the highest quality morph in the BEL complex at the moment as well as one of the best to mix into a clown project.” Now I agree with the clowns, just a simple banana special clown can sell for upwards of $1000. Even seen them sold on MM for $1,500. However, it seems almost like the worst quality morph in the BEL complex based off what I have seen. I personally see the super Russo being the best and super Mojave as a close second. Both perfect pearly white except for the super Mojave having a black head.
Leucistic animals can still have varying levels of yellow or tan. But they will all have blue irises not red like an albino. The idea that a BEL is a white snake is a huge misconception in the hobby. Look up Mojave mystics, super mystics or mystic specials as well you can see all those varying yellows.
Even a Mojave lesser can have a faint yellow stripe on the spine or show pattern under a blacklight.
I know @t_h_wyman can probably explain the whole reasons for it, or may have a post stashed away somewhere…
Interesting, so it is more just the eyes being blue with genes that cause pigment loss rather than the loss of all pigment. They are so interesting to me. I was mostly curious because the guy at the expo had an all white BEL with special in it, but then when I looked it up I found that none really give that effect. Sort of a good thing I guess because I probably don’t need another all white BEL producing pair lol
It can really depend on the pairing and additional genes as well though as well. You may not know until they’re bred. I got really lucky with my hatchlings. Even my special combos have been very high white. The white BELs of any combo will tend to pick up some yellow as they age regardless. Faint but noticeable if you put them next to a high white pied or a very clean super fire.
Here’s 2 hatchlings. One is a pastel lesser special and the other is a pastel lesser Mojave spider.
Very difficult to tell apart at a glance but the blacklight can make a huge difference. I already sold these little guys but I’m sure the second got a bit more yellow to them as they got older.
Here’s a clutch with a super Mojave, a coral glow super Mojave and a coral glow crystal (I think also firefly hypo).
It’s very difficult to tell them apart.
Here’s the coral glow crystal at 2 years the extra genes really kept her pattern from popping.
If you hit firefly crystal clown, that should be a really neat looking one.
A firefly crystal clown sounds awesome. The pairing is crazy though, I will definitely need help with ID. It’s a 256 possible outcome clutch and 128 if I can narrow it down to a clown or not being as it’s a het to het. And only a handful of the possible combinations are actually on MorphMarket or have ever been listed. Almost every combo says no results, not even sold ones. I definitely have a shot at some MM firsts, not sure about worlds firsts as I really don’t know how to check that, but MM firsts for sure.
That sounds really cool ngl. I don’t know much about ball pythons, but getting a first of anything is always really exciting
Well at least it won’t be a boring clutch, ha!
Yeah no kidding! And I’m not even an experienced enough breeder in any way at all (especially not with snakes) so I literally have no clue at all what I’m going to get.
Gorgeous snakes
Preface that I have not read any of this thread beyond the post I was tagged in (busy day) but the nutshell version is that leucism is not a loss of pigment (like we see in Amelanism where the gene for melanin is destroyed) but a loss in the regulation of how pigment is deposited. Since pigment is still being produced in the animals some of it still ends up, through chance and fluke, landing in the right places which gives you the slight hue. And the allele(s) behind the mutation can be weaker (e.g., Daddy gene) or stronger (e.g., Butter gene) resulting in minor pigmentation problems (“dirty” Leucies like Potions) to major ones (whiter Leucies like SupperButters)
The eyes in leucistics are pigmented because the deposition of pigment in the developing eye cups follows a different pathway than the deposition of pigment in the rest of the animal
And I may revisit with a longer-winded answer later once I read everything here
That’s already a great answer.
Thank you so much for popping in Travis! 
Alright… Got a bit more time today and a fair bit to say here
I would not say Specials are rare, they are just not terribly common. There are a number of reasons behind that. Two of the three lines were never really promoted by their projects founders and even Baker was pretty low-key, for example. Nothing like Ralph or Vin
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I hate to be the cynic, but the breeder was just being a really good salesman for his own project. He loves Special so of course he thinks Special is the highest quality morph.
Now, that is not to say that Special is a bad morph, but it is not some sleeper gene that is going to rock the industry to its core. If you love it, that is awesome, but do not be upset if others are not as interested in it as you are (trust me, all of my projects are “unpopular” ones 
but I still love them)
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I am guessing you have never seen an adult of these? Neither SuperRusso nor SuperMojave are perfectly white, they are in the “dirtier” to “midling” areas of the BluEL spectrum:
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Never a truer statement was spoken
I have pointed this out countless times in countless places. BluELs are simply NOT the whitest snakes out there
Which of these do you think is the BluEL??
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It was a young animal, yes?
There is a big difference in appearance in an animal before versus after it goes through its ontogenetic colour change. The whole industry of ball pythons revolves around how the babies look, which is when they look their best. 99% of morphs/combos look radically different (read - more drab) as mature animals