The Albino Ball Python Morph is one of the most recognisable and sought-after morphs on the marked. It is a color mutation that produces stunning looking animals.
This morph is a recessive mutation meaning that in order to produce more Albino Ball Python Morphs, both of the patents have to carry the gene.
Albino Ball Python Description
The Albino Ball Python Morph is a color mutation meaning the snakes have similar patterning to a normal ball python but with different coloration.
This difference in coloration is a result of the snake’s lack of melanin or dark pigmentation. They are sometimes referred to as being amelanistic.
This lack of dark pigmentation results in a white snake with yellow patterning. Sometimes the snakes are darker with a cream-colored background and dark yellow or orange patterning.
There are two main types of Albino Ball Python, they are the T+ and the T-. The T+ is a darker snake with black eyes and is usually referred to as the Caramel Ball Python.
The T- Albino Ball Python is the typical Albino with the white and yellow coloration, pink eyes and pink tongue.
Genetics
The Albino morph is a recessive mutation meaning both the parents have to have the albino gene in order for any of the babies to be albino.
However, if one of the parents are an albino, then some of the offspring will be het for albino. This means that they will look completely normal but still carry the gene.
When a snake is ‘het’ for a morph, they can pass this gene onto their own babies and these babies can be visible morphs, even though the parent looks normal.
Albino Ball Python History
The Albino Ball Python morph was first proven out in the early 1990’s to be a recessive mutation. It is one of the ‘original’ ball python morphs and played a large role in why ball python morphs are so popular today.
The Albino was first proven out by Bob Clarke and was the first recessive morph to become widely available and affordable to casual breeders, paving the way for the Ball Python craze we see today.
Albino Ball Python Genetics
Recessive Ball Pythons require both of the genes at a particular locus to contain the abnormality in order for the mutation to be visible. If only one of the genes at a particular locust contains the abnormality, then the Ball Python will be a het for that mutation. This means that the snake will appear normal but can pass on the gene to their offspring.
The image below explains how the recessive genes are passed on from parents to their offspring. If two Albinos are bred together all the offspring would be albino. This is because both parents only have the Albino gene to pass onto the offspring. Neither Parent contains the “normal gene” at the Albino locus.
In order to explain this a bit further we will go through what is happening in the image in more detail. As you can see about parents have two genes each at the Albino locus. As these parents are both Albino, these genes are both ‘Albino’.
Each offspring will need two genes to make up its own Albino locus. It will get these two genes by taking one from each parent. This means that there are 4 possible combinations that the offspring can receive these genes. i.e. 2 possibilities from the mother and two possibilities from the father (2×2=4). These 4 combinations are 1.3, 1.4, 2.3 and 2.4. Note 1.2 and 3.4 are not valid combinations as this would mean the genes were taken from a single parent.
If one of the parents were Albino and the other parent was het Albino then 50% of the offspring would be Albino while the remaining 50% would be het for Albino. This can be seen in the image below.
The first thing to note here is that one of the parents is only het for Albino. This means that it will have one Albino gene and one Normal gene at the Albino locus. Remember, recessive morphs will only show if both genes contain the abnormality so this combination will result in 50% of the offspring being Albinos and the other 50% will be het Albinos.
The next combination we will look at is when both parents are het Albino. This combination will result in 25% of the offspring being Albino, while 50% will be het Albinos and the remaining 25% will be normal (do not appear albino or carry the gene to pass on).
An important concept to understand here is that 50% of the offspring will be het Albino while 25% will be Normal. However, as both hets and normal’s will look the same it is impossible to tell which ones are Albinos without breeding them back to an Albino to see if they carry the gene.
Therefore, when selling these offspring, all 3 (both hets and the normal) would be sold as 66% possible het. This is a common term used in Ball Python morphs and basically means that there is a 66% chance that the snake is one of the hets (2/3 x 100).
The final combination we will look at is when one parent is a het Albino while the other parent is Normal. This will result in 50% of the offspring being normal while the remaining 50% of them will be het Albino.
Similar to the previous example there is no way of knowing which snakes are normal and which snakes are het for Albino. Therefore all 4 snakes will be regarded as 50% possible het Albino (2/4 x 100).
Other Ball Python Morph Guides
We have a wide range of Ball Python Morph guides. You can check some of them out here:
Banana Ball Python Morph
Black Pastel Ball Python Morph
Blue Eyed Leucistic Ball Python Morph
Butter Ball Python Morph
Champagne Ball Python Morph
Chocolate Ball Python Morph
Cinnamon Ball Python Morph
Enchi Ball Python Morph
Fire Ball Python Morph
GHI Ball Python Morph
Mojave Ball Python Morph
Orange Dream Ball Python Morph
Pied Ball Python Morph