The GHI Ball Python is one of the newer genes of Ball Pythons. It was first discovered by Matt Lerer in 2007.
Matt discovered two GHI Ball Pythons in a shipment of imports that arrived into Florida. He discovered a third GHI on the following shipment from the same importer.
GHI Python Description
The GHI Ball Python is a very impressive looking snake. This morph has a much darker background than a typical ‘wild type’ Ball Python.
The dark background coloration is contrasted with lighter patterns that run the length of the snake’s body. The patterning is similar to a ‘wild type’ snake.
A Super GHI Ball Python is an even darker snake again. The background color becomes almost jet black while the lighter patterning also darkens a lot more.
The introduction of the GHI Ball Python morph was a game changer for collectors. These morphs have been used in combination with other genes to create stunning new Ball Pythons.
GHI Ball Python Genetics
The GHI Ball Python is a co-dominant morph. This means that, like a dominant morph, you only need one GHI to produce GHI babies. However, if you breed two GHI’s together, you will produce Super GHI’s.
A GHI will contain the genetic mutation in one of the alleles in their DNA sequence while a Super GHI 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 all 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 GHI Ball Pythons.
GHI x Normal Ball Python
The simplest way to produce a GHI Ball Python is to pair a GHI with a normal Ball Python. The resulting offspring will consist of 50% GHI’s and 50% Normal Ball Pythons. This pairing will not create any Super GHI’s.
As you can see, there 4 possible outcomes. We have named 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 GN, GN, NN and NN. GN means that one of the alleles were GHI while the other was normal. The NN outcome means that both genes were normal.
As the GHI morph is a co-dominant mutation, only one of the alleles needs to hold the trait, for the offspring to be a GHI. This means that the offspring will consist of 50% GHI’s and 50% Normal Ball Pythons.
GHI Ball Python x GHI Ball Python
Another way to produce a GHI is to pair a GHI with another GHI. The resulting offspring will consist of 50% GHI Ball Pythons, 25% Normal Ball Pythons and 25% Super GHI’s.
In this case, the 4 possible outcomes were GG, GN, GN and NN. GG occurred when both parents passed on the GHI gene. As this mutation is co-dominant, this combination will result in a Super GHI. This means that the offspring will consist of 50% GHI, 25% Normal and 25% Super GHI.
Super GHI x Normal Ball Python
If you breed a Super GHI to a Normal Ball Python, all of the offspring will be GHI. This is because one of the parents will always pass the GHI gene while the other parent will always pass the Normal gene. As a result, all of the offspring will be GN, i.e. one GHI allele and one Normal allele.
Super GHI x Super GHI
If you breed a Super GHI to a Super GHI, all of the offspring will be Super GHI. This is because both of the parents will always pass the GHI gene. As a result, all of the offspring will be GG, i.e. both alleles will be GHI.
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
Butter Ball Python Morph
Champagne Ball Python Morph
Chocolate Ball Python Morph
Cinnamon Ball Python Morph
Enchi Ball Python Morph
Fire Ball Python Morph
Mojave Ball Python Morph
Orange Dream Ball Python Morph
Pied Ball Python Morph