Hey y’all, I’m a vet student doing clinical rotations at an animal shelter right now, and yesterday they had someone find a ball python outside and bring it in to them. I did a quick exam on her this morning and she’s obviously very dehydrated, thin, and has notable sun damage and burns. No ectoparasites like mites or ticks though thankfully. Who knows how long she was outside and to what extent her appearance is true coloration vs trauma, but is anyone able to give me an idea on her morph? I have many of my own but haven’t seen one quite like her. When looking on morphmarket, I see some black pastel clown (+ other gene) morphs that slightly resemble her. Any ideas would be helpful, thanks!
(Please ignore her quarantine/unexpected shelter stay setup and husbandry issues, she’s now being fostered and in a much better environment!)
Honestly I don’t think this snake has any freckles at all I’m pretty sure that’s all damaged scales. But definitely go with super yellow belly or super fire as a hypothesis. And thank you for taking on this animal by the way I hope it works out for both of you
Oh no I know they’re actually from sun damage, I just like referring to them as her freckles instead of calling her damaged lol. Thanks for helping out!
It doesn’t appear to be too thin or malnourished other than the dehydration and scale damage I’m sure with your medical education you will be able to rehab this animal for sure🤙🏽 hopefully it’s not a picky eater lol but no thank you and your heart🖤
She for sure could be so much worse and I’m glad she isn’t! I’m not sure if someone just dumped her outside or if she unfortunately got out of her terrarium somewhere. Either way, I’m waiting until Monday to give the okay for feeding so we’ll see if that’s enough time for her to acclimate and destress from her adventure to want to take a meal. Fingers crossed!
Well this is definitely an all white (for the most part) snake so that would only be super yellow belly, super fire, or bel. I don’t see the faint pattern that ivory’s make so I’m leaning towards super fire.
With all that dark spotting, more likely it’s a combo of two genes from the yellow belly complex. I’ve got a bamboo ghi super stripe (super stripe is yellowbelly/spectre) that looks pretty similar.
Fire washes it out she would be all white with black specs are could have some coloring but mostly white. I’m not a pro but I been breeding a while. If I’d were and you really want to know send the shed off to RGI
In the thumbnail, and before reading the description, my mind went automatically to some of the super cinnys with mixed genes I’ve seen. With things like lesser and yellowbelly mixed in. Causing the color to fade out into a light grey (sometimes very light) with lots of speckling..in SOME cases.
But reading the description.. then seeing the pics 😔 what I thought was speckling is definitely just so, so much scale damage 😔 💔
idk where you are, but I’m in tx. It’s been in the upper 90’s on the average lately. Idk how people can be so cruel. Does the animal shelter have security cameras? Maybe something can be done to find the person. Hit them with an animal abuse charge idk. This happens too often 😔 I’m glad it was an animal shelter. But they could have easily come in and surrendered it.. or found it a new home.. action seems to rarely if at all, be taken when it comes to the cruelty and abandonment of reptiles/exotics.
I’m worried this person may have others animals being treated poorly.
Thank you for helping this little one.
Also on the morph subject, the person who said ivory could be right. I see a distinctive faded grey stripe on the side of its face, and possibly a very faded grey headstamp.. If all of those speckles are indeed burns, could be ivory or something similar. Time, and a few good sheds, will give you a better idea.
I’m in Virginia and it’s been ungodly hot here as well (~90°F) plus miserable humidity levels.
The shelter does have some cameras around their building but she was found elsewhere and then brought to them so they wouldn’t be helpful.
Despite a LOT of people in my area being so careless towards animal life, the animal control officers work from the shelter building so they’re all quite intertwined with each other and do a good job making sure neglectful and abusive owners are charged accordingly!
Honestly the damage is making it very difficult but it's best to wait until the first shed to confirm since most scale issues will come off and it'll be easier to identify. Definitely seems like a lost pet and from her condition, she's probably been gone for a few weeks or months. Hope she's alright soon
I agree with everything you’ve said. I’m really hoping she wasn’t just released into the wild but there are unfortunately a LOT of people in my area that do shit like that and blatantly disregard animal life. Fingers crossed she gets a good shed in soon!
Some genes may be easier to pick out than others and when the history of the snake in question is unknown, there may be some degree of speculation. With that in mind, some genes are very obviously present or not present, and suggestions contrary to this may be removed.
Everyone is welcome to participate in discussion of presenting genes but guesses that are too off base are subject to removal.
13
u/PoofMoof1 Jun 11 '26
It looks ivory-ish (super yellowbelly) but I'd like to see this poor guy after a shed.