Hope everyone has had a good day 
Just wanted to share this for any new snake breeders out there, its something that may seem unimportant but it can be quite crucial for Identifying morphs.
I know I will be sharing Ball Pythons in this example but it applies to most if not all snake species when IDing Morphs or Traits.
When Neonate (hatchling) snakes hatch out they have something commonly referred to as “Baby Shine”, which is the shiny condition neonates have prior to their very first shed.
Here is a good example of this, albeit in poor lighting
This shine can greatly affect the ability to ID fresh hatchling snakes, especially for nuance morphs or traits… an example would be trying to determine if a Ball Python has Fire or Pastel or both before they’ve had their first shed from a pairing that had both Fire and Pastel in the list.
The BP (pre-shed hatchling) in this photo, who is the same hatchling from the previous photo, looks like a Normal, right?
Well… here is a photo of the same BP fresh out of their first shed. The colors are brighter, there is a clearer contrast of colors and there is even some color that wasn’t even noticeable before the first shed. This is a Russo!
Here is another example of a Banana Russo poss Pastel
Before shed
After shed
This is why most will ask for post-shed pictures of hatchlings when trying to ID them, because how much of a difference the pre shed and post shed colors can be. I hope this topic can help those new to breeding snakes.
