The Butter Ball Python Morph is a popular Ball Python morph that was first proven out in 2001. It is a co-dominant mutation. This is similar to a dominant mutation, only that there is a Super form of the Butter Ball Python if two of the alleles contain the mutation.
We will discuss more about the genetics of the Butter morph below. This morph is commonly available and easy to produce, resulting in a modest price tag. You could expect to pay anywhere from $60 for a standard Butter, while Super Butters (Blue Eyed Leucistic) can go for around $200.
Butter Ball Python Description
The Butter Ball Python is a nice looking snake with soft coloration. Their base color is a caramel brown with soft yellow or gold markings. Black scales often surround the markings which makes the patterning really stand out.
The super form of the Butter gene creates a Blue Eyed Leucistic. This is a highly sought after snake. This is a completely white snake that has a pinkish tone to it. The eyes of a BEL are a stunning bright blue colouration.
The Butter comes from the same complex as the Lesser and Mojave morphs. When any of these two snakes are bred together, they can produce a Blue Eyed Leucistic.
The Blue Eyed Leucistic and the Black Eyed Leucistic are very similar in appearance but are very different snakes, with the eye colour being the primary difference. The Black Eyed version can only be created by breeding a Fire Ball Python to another Fire. If you bred a Butter to a Fire, you would not get Leucistic offspring.
History of the Butter Morph
The Butter Ball Python morph was first produced in 2001 by Reptile Industries/ReptMart. This is very similar in appearance to the Lesser Ball Python.
Many people consider the two snakes to be two different lineages of the same morph. This is because these snakes are very similar in appearance and generally produce the same combos.
The Lesser was first produced by Ralph Davies Reptiles around the same time as the Butter. As there are subtle differences between the morphs, it is accepted that they are not the same, but believed to be different lineages that stem from the same morph.
Butter Ball Python Genetics
The Butter Ball Python is a co-dominant morph. This means that, like a dominant morph, you only need one Butter to produce Butter babies. However, if you breed two Butters together, you will produce Super Butters (BEL’s).
A Butter Ball Python will contain the genetic mutation in one of the alleles in their DNA sequence while a Super Butter will contain the genetic mutation in both of the alleles. The appearance of these two snakes is visibly different, which distinguishes the co-dominant mutation from a dominant mutation.
How are genetics passed on in Ball Pythons
We are not going to go into too much detail about how genetics work in snakes in this article. We have explained it in detail in our Recessive Ball Python Morphs article. Make sure you check that out if you are not familiar about how genetic mutations are passed.
While the article discusses recessive Ball Pythons, the concept of how parents pass on their genetics is the same for co-dominant morphs, the appearance of the offspring is just different.
Here is a basic breakdown of a DNA strand:
Locus – This is the location of a gene/allele on a DNA strand.
Allele – Genes are made up of pairs of Alleles. Therefore an allele is a single gene on a given locus.
The image above shows a DNA strand of two snakes. Let’s say, they are a Normal and Pied Ball Python. Let’s say the first locus on this DNA strand is for the Pied Gene. You can see that the first snake has 2 normal genes (not Pied) while the second snake has two Pied genes (visible Pied).
When these snakes reproduce, they will each pass on one of their Alleles from each locus to their offspring. This means that the offspring will receive one of their ‘Pied’ genes from their mother and one from their father.
We will use this concept to explain how different pairings will produce Butter Ball Pythons.
Butter Ball Python x Normal Ball Python
The simplest way to produce a Butter Ball Python is to pair a Butter with a normal ball python. The resulting offspring will consist of 50% Butters and 50% Normal Ball Pythons. This pairing will not create any Super Butters (BEL’s).
As you can see, there 4 possible outcomes. We have names each allele and colour coded them. As each parent can only pass one gene each, the possible outcomes are 1-3, 1-4, 2-3 and 2-4. Alleles 1-2 cannot both be passed, either can 3-4 as this would mean a single parent passed on both of the genes.
So the 4 possible outcomes were BN, BN, NN and NN. BN means that one of the alleles were Butter while the other was normal. The NN outcome means that both genes were normal.
As a Butter Ball Python is a co-dominant mutation, only one of the alleles needs to hold the trait, for the offspring to be a Butter. This means that the offspring will consist of 50% Butters and 50% Normal Ball Pythons.
Butter Ball Python x Butter Ball Python
Another way to produce a Butter Ball Python is to pair a Butter with another Butter. The resulting offspring will consist of 50% Butters, 25% Normal Ball Pythons and 25% Super Butters (BEL’s).
In this case, the 4 possible outcomes were BB, BN, BN and NN. BB occurred when both parents passed on the Butter gene. As this mutation is co-dominant, this combination will result in a Super Butter Ball Python (BEL).
This means that the offspring will consist of 50% Butter, 25% Normal and 25% Super Butter (BEL).
Super Butter x Normal Ball Python
If you breed a Super Butter to a Normal Ball Python, all of the offspring will be Butter. This is because one of the parents will always pass the Butter gene while the other parent will always pass the Normal gene. As a result, all of the offspring will be BN, i.e. one Butter allele and one Normal allele.
Super Butter x Super Butter Ball Python
If you breed a Super Butter (BEL) to a Super Butter (BEL), all of the offspring will be Blue Eyed Leucistic. This is because both of the parents will always pass the Butter gene. As a result, all of the offspring will be BB, i.e. both alleles will be Butter.
Other Ball Python Morph Guides
We have a wide range of Ball Python Morph guides. You can check some of them out here:
Albino Ball Python Morph
Banana Ball Python Morph
Black Pastel Ball Python Morph
Blue Eyed Leucistic 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