Why is my snake losing his color?

I hope this works!
Hello! I recently found this guy at a petco being sold as a Superfly. However closer looking at him I knew he was unique and something was going on with his pattern. The picture of a picture was what he looked like a few months ago, and the rest are him now! He’s 7 months old and ~270 grams. Thanks for your help!



4 Likes

I think they may have been wrong on the genetics because yours looks to be a single gene pastel fire, not a super pastel fire. The color on the photos is a bit funny. natural sunlight will help.

Ball pythons never look the same as they do as hatchlings. They tend to brown out, but some will kinda fade to yellows. It really depends on the genes involved.

Here’s one of mine as a baby and an adult:


6 Likes

Is it common for Firefly’s to turn monochromatic though? He looks paradoxed. None of the photos are edited either. This is as natural as I can get, as he is currently acclimating and I don’t want to disturb him for pictures.

3 Likes

Paradox is something an animal is born with, not something that occurs overtime.

As @armiyana said, does look to be more of a pastel than a firefly. With that being said, I’ve seen others post about snakes losing color and turning grey/black, I’m not entirely sure why it happened.

Maybe @t_h_wyman can chime in to help explain?

4 Likes

First, I will concur with Christina. Your animal is not a SuperFly, but a FireFly

I will also confirm this from her:

What you are seeing is typical ontogenetic pigment change

8 Likes

I’m not super into ball pythons so i don’t know anything about his morph but i think he is sooooo pretty. I just love his colors so much!

3 Likes

His coloring is really pretty!

2 Likes