The Pied 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 Pied Ball Python Morphs, both of the patents have to carry the gene.
Description
The Pied Bal Python is one of the most recognisable morphs available. This morph consists of a snake that has partially un-pigmented areas on its body.
These un-pigmented areas are completely white. The rest of the snake will appear relatively normal. However, this is a color and pattern mutation so the ‘normal’ portion of the snake will have slight differences to a wild type.
The amount of ‘white’ or un-pigmented scales on the Pied Ball Python is highly variable. You can get high whites, low whites or snakes that have 50% ‘normal’ and 50% white pigmentation.
An interesting element to this morph is that the amount of un-pigmented scales isn’t inherited from the parents. While the genetics themselves are inherited, a low white Pied is just as likely to produce a high white Pied as it is to produce another low white Pied Ball Python.
History
The Pied Ball Python morph was introduced into the pet trade in the mid 90’s. However, this genetic mutation was known about for a lot longer than this.
The earliest report of a Pied Ball Python came out of Ghana in 1966 when rural villagers found and killed an adult male that measured almost 4 feet in length.
The first Pieds to be imported into the US came in the early 1980s when Tyron Dillon of California Zoological Supply brought in two adult animals, that also originated from Ghana.
More and more specimens were getting imported into the US and Europe throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s. These snakes were also starting to reproduce in captivity and it wasn’t long before the Pied Ball Python became a popular and affordable snake in the pet trade.
Pied 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 Pieds are bred together all the offspring would be Pied. This is because both parents only have the Pied gene to pass onto the offspring. Neither Parent contains the “normal gene” at the Pied 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 Pied locus. As these parents are both Pied, these genes are both ‘Pied.
Each offspring will need two genes to make up its own Pied 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 Pied and the other parent was het Pied then 50% of the offspring would be Pied while the remaining 50% would be het for Pied. This can be seen in the image below.
The first thing to note here is that one of the parents is only het for Pied. This means that it will have one Pied gene and one Normal gene at the Pied locus. Remember, recessive morphs will only show if both genes contain the abnormality so this combination will result in 50% of the offspring being Pieds and the other 50% will be het Pieds.
The next combination we will look at is when both parents are het Pied. This combination will result in 25% of the offspring being Pied, while 50% will be het Pieds and the remaining 25% will be normal (do not appear Pied or carry the gene to pass on).
An important concept to understand here is that 50% of the offspring will be het Pied while 25% will be Normal. However, as both hets and normal’s will look the same it is impossible to tell which ones are Pieds without breeding them back to an Pied 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 Pied 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 Pied.
Similar to the previous example there is no way of knowing which snakes are normal and which snakes are het for Pied. Therefore all 4 snakes will be regarded as 50% possible het Pied (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:
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
GHI Ball Python Morph
Mojave Ball Python Morph
Orange Dream Ball Python Morph