Scientific Name: Python regius
Common Name: Ball Python
Morph: SNOW
Genetics: Color / Pattern Mutation - Double Simple Recessive ( Mike Jolliff )

Ahhhhhhhh...........the Snow ball. First I will do a quick "how to" on producing a Snow Ball. A Snow is a double homozygous ball python. This means that it is visibly an "albino axanthic" snake. It is homozygous ( visibly ) for both the albino and axanthic gene........this also means that it carries both the albino and axanthic gene. To produce a Snow ball you have to breed two ball pythons together that BOTH carry the two genes ( albino and axanthic )........that breeding pair would be called "Double Het for Snow". Breeding DH's together is the "first step" in producing your first Snow Ball.

DH's are produced by going back to the very beginning of the Snow project........and that is breeding a homozygous albino to a homozygous axanthic........all the babies produced from this breeding will be completely normal looking offspring........and All will be DH ( DH = Double Het ) for Snow. So this is how a DH is made........and how you get your project moving forward towards producing the end result.......and that is a Snow Ball! This is how Any DH project is started with a simple recessive gene.......it is the same for "Striped Albinos" or "Piebald Albinos"........it all has to start by breeding the two genes that you want to see equally combined in "one snake" and making Double Hets.

So now you have your hard earned DH's..........you need to breed them to each other in order to get results. Here is where it can get depressing. The almighty Punnett Square says that when breeding DH's together and producing eggs........that 1 egg in 16 should have a Snow Ball in it. Well ball pythons do not lay 16 eggs.........they normally lay about half that...........so we are talking 8 eggs.........and 8 eggs is a really nice clutch........I would say 6 eggs is a good average.........Ok........getting back to the "odds".........lets make it really simple and "heart stopping" at the same time. I'm going out on a limb and say we have 4 eggs...........we know that 1 in 16 should be a snow.........but we only have 4 eggs!!!

Doing the math on this will tell you that in 4 eggs, that each individual hard earned egg has one quarter of a chance of being a snow ball...........I'll lay this out really quick........16 eggs = 1 chance in 16.........8 eggs = you just cut your chances in half = 1 half of a chance per egg.........4 eggs = you just cut your "1 half of a chance" in half AGAIN!!!!!!!.........thats a whooping 1 quarter of 1 chance per egg in a 4 egg clutch........which is not an uncommon sized clutch for a female to lay her first time............or how about 40 to 1 odds........:)

Now that we cut through all the genetics BS.........what this really all boils down is luck, and how much the Ball Python Gods love you.....LOL.........so there you have it.......now you know how much work and YEARS it takes to produce a Snow Ball.

Ok.....lets talk about the "Jolliff " Snow ball and what it means. First we need to know that the Ball Python Industry recognizes three strains of Axanthic. They are the VPI line........the Snake Keeper line.......and the Jolliff line. All three lines have proved to be an inheritable trait and all three are simple recessive mutations. The Jolliff Snow is from the "Jolliff Line" of Axanthic.......the VPI Snow is from the " VPI line " of Axanthic........and the " Snake Keeper " Snow is from the " Snake Keeper " line of Axanthic. All three lines were bred to an Albino ( T-) to produce DH's.......and thats how the project gets started.

The Jolliff Snow was first produced in 2001 by Mike Jolliff himself. He got 5 eggs from a DH female that was bred to a DH male. He produced one female Jolliff Snow in 5 eggs.........pretty good odds if you ask me. In the clutch was 1 snow, 1 axanthic, 1 albino and 2 normal looking offspring.

In the fall of 2001 I bred a pair of DH for Jolliff Snow and produced 4 eggs from that pairing. Eggs were laid on 5/01/02 and hatched on 6/29/02. I hatched the perfect clutch!!.......1 snow, 1 albino, 1 axanthic and 1 normal looking. The Snow was a male!!!............it is the second Jolliff Snow to be hatched in the world.......and.........the ONLY male! In the series of pics below you will see him from the time I cut his egg and peeked in....... to now ( 10/24/02 ). I love him to death and can't wait to breed him in 2003!

The Jollff Snow ball has a fair amount of yellow in it's pattern ...........depending on how it is photographed it can look pure white or like a very very faded out albino ball..........The term Axanthic means "absence of yellow color, or absent or deficient xanthophore pigment metabolism"...........So one would think that if you breed an axanthic "who lacks yellow" to an albino who lacks dark pigment.......you would get a white on white snake? This is not the case with the Jolliff Snow.........or ANY of the Snows. The first generation of Snows from either line will be the "stepping stones" in the process of improving and refining the future Snow balls. It has to start somewhere.........and having a 90% white snake to start with is not a bad thing.

I always said that if I were to produce DH's I would want to use the palest most faded albino I could find.......one that had a very low amount of yellow........and especially did not have a bright yellow. I will be treating the Jolliff Snow as just that........a very faded albino to breed "back into" the axanthic gene and start all over again. This time breeding it into the VPI line of Axanthic which I know does a better job at reducing the yellow pigment in the Snow. The Jolliff Snow Ball "is what it is".......we made it..........so now we get to have fun with it.........and plug it into other mutations and make "Triple and Quadruple" hets!!!.......while we are refining it.

I would like to say that to date 4 Snow balls have been produced in the world.........1 female by Mike Jolliff in 2001............1 female produced by the Snake Keeper in 2001............and 2 males produced by Ralph Davis in 2002 ( VPI and Jolliff lines ). Mike Jolliff was the first in the world to produce a Snow from his line.........the Snake Keeper was the second to produce a Snow in the world from their own line.

I don't like being third......:)..........so I will say that Ralph Davis was the first person in the world to produce a VPI Snow...........the First person in the world to produce a MALE snow from the Jolliff line.........the first person in the world to produce 2 Snows in one year......."both being males and from separate lines "...........and last but not least...........the only breeder in the world to produce 5 Snow Boas and 2 Snow Balls in the same year..............thats a lot of Snow!!!!...........oh...........and did I mention that the VPI Snow was produce from a " possible het mom "?????????............yeah..........I'm tootin' my horn tonight......and loving every minute of it too......:)

Closing this whole thing up.........I do have a theory on why the Jolliff Snow has more yellow in it then the VPI Snow............I'm thinking that the Jolliff axanthic is really not an axanthic at all...........I'm thinking it is a hypoxanthic........this means that it is a snake with reduced amounts of yellow but not totally lacking yellow..........just like a hypomelanistic is a snake with reduced amounts of black but not totally lacking black.........so if this is the case..........the Jolliff Snow is actually a "faded albino"..........and a "true blue" faded albino is what you want to breed to your axanthic to in the first place to produce DH's............And let us not forget that it IS a double homozygous snake.........it carries to "hard earned" genes............everything it breeds will produce babies that are DH...........if you breed it to an albino........you produce ALL albinos het for Snow..........if you breed it to a Jolliff axanthic.............you get ALL axanthics het for Snow..........and if you breed it to another mutation you have just started working on triple and quadruple hets!!!!!!!!.............so this ain't "chopped liver" people............this is only the beginning.........ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Enjoy the pics below...........if your not sleeping by now........:)