Scientific Name: Python regius
Common Name: Ball Python
Morph: Platinum
Genetics: Color / Pattern Mutation - Co-Dominant or Dominant ? ( RDR )

This is the PLATINUM Ball!!!!..........He was imported from Africa in late summer of 1999, I was told that there was "Something Big" over there ( Africa ), and I could not wait to see pictures of it...........well here he is..........I did not hesitate for one second about purchasing this guy. At the time of learning about this snake.......there was really nothing "NEW" turning up in the wild in Africa. It was a "dry spell" for anyone who was looking for the "next new morph"...........Out of nowhere this guy turns up, as a young male in the wild?

Well.......I wired a boat load of money over to Africa ....applied for the paper work and set up shipping arrangements to the US. "Big Lou" and I were so excited on the drive to the airport we couldn't see straight..........We got to the airport and the "Platinum" had landed.......we opened the crate that he was shipped in, to find that we had a half frozen ball python in a sack.........somehow the heat in the belly of the plane was never turned on?.....So our snake had been shipped from Africa to London........over the Atlantic in the ice cold jet stream with NO HEAT!!!.........We were in tears to say the least after seeing that the "Platty" was stiff and ice cold.......and not using it's tongue at all........We made sure that US Fish and Wildlife and the airline seen this for claims purposes.........I wrote this snake off for dead!!!

After getting the shipment inspected and paying the shipping costs........Lou and I took the "Platty" to my truck and attempted to warm him up on the drive home.......we said nothing to each other on the way home........both of us were in total shock.

We got him home where I had a cage set up for him.........I placed him in the warm cage and he would not really move much........but he did manage to get to his hide box where the heat was.....so there was hope? I shut the cage and went to bed.......I was "Toast".........I wake up the next morning to check on him........to my surprise he was alert and seemed to be acting totally like a ball python!.......I checked him out for signs of UR infection and just his overall health........he was fine!.........So that night I gave him a gerbil..........thinking this was a waste of time considering what he had been through.........I did it anyway........he grabbed the gerbil as soon as it hit the cage floor!!!!

So now I'm feeling great about this whole thing.........he was home........warm........and he ate on the first try and continued to eat from that time on ( rats no less )........the rest is history......he has been a great snake to keep and I consider him "hands down" to be my most prized possession. He is a totally new mutation in the ball python world, and not simply a variant of something we have seen already.........he is FRESH!!! This snake is the next PIEBALD!!......meaning......this mutation will be and has been a "must have" for the serious ball python keepers world wide. There is nothing normal about the Platinum ball........it is a color and pattern mutation ......and one of the most visually stunning ball pythons to see in person.

He just don't look real!!......he looks like one of those toys you buy of a snake or a lizard that has the wrong " paint job " on it......they use the same body of one snake mold and just change the paint and pattern..LOL........Anyway there is not too much to describe about the "Platty" that you can not see for yourself........he has ZERO black on him of any kind......his eyes are pale green with a goldish tint on top. His back has a beautiful creamy brown color melting down over the sides into pure pale white.......there is hardly any pattern on his sides to see.......and the belly is patternless and white. This is the Platinum "blonde"!!!!!.........he is a hypo to the extreme!!

I bred the Platinum ball to several normal females for the 2001 breeding season.........I was able to get a few clutches "sired" by the Platty Daddy. I was just trying to get heterozygous offspring from him...........to my surprise, when the eggs hatched, babies emerged that resembled their Platty father???........I was in shock to say the least.............each clutch that hatched produced on average half normal looking offspring and half babies that resembled dad..........but not quite?

I imported the original Platty in to the US when it was still a baby.........so I know what it looked like as a hatchling ( the first ever pic of the Platty in Africa is at the very bottom pic on the left )........the Platty is and was much paler and less patterned then any of his offspring..........so when I seen that ZERO of his babies looked like him, I started to think why?

His babies are outrageous looking on their own...........but they are not "Plattys"..........so my "Theory" on this is that the Platty is the exact same thing as his babies.........BUT.........he may also be homozygous for another trait.........it would probably be a simple recessive trait.........he has something else going on in his genetic make up that makes him so pale?.........maybe hypo?..........maybe axanthic?...........who knows?

I have produced babies from the "Platty" two years in a row..........all from beautiful normal females.........and I have had the same results each season.........I produced babies that resemble him.........but are not quite him. I have raised some of his 2001 offspring up to breeding size............and they matured into bigger versions of themselves as babies...........so I know that they do not become lighter with age..........if anything...........they become darker............But the Platty male has not gained any pigment at all...........if anything..........he has become lighter and prettier with age.

I have kept back every "normal sibling" that was ever produced from the Platty..........usually in a Co-Dom gene..........the normals are "just normals"..........but I think mine may be gene carriers..........I they may be holding the secret as to what makes the Platty Daddy so HYPO.........If I breed them together and get some kind of "off the wall" hypo or pale sided snake.........then I will know that the Platty has a couple genes at work.

Here is what I think......The Platty may be capable of producing "itself" in a non-hypo form ( Lesser Plattys, which I produced in 2001 and 2002 )..........it should also be able to produce "Super Lessers"...........by breeding Lesser x Lesser.........it should be able to produce the " True Platinum" ( babies just like him now )...........it should also be able to produce SUPER PLATTYS...........and last of all...........if my theory is correct........I should produce the "secret morph" that gives the Platty his unique look.

I know this theory sounds nuts........and I may really be "reaching" on this one..........but it makes sense to me.........it is not totally out of the question that the Platty is carrying some type of simple recessive hypo gene.........after all........hypos were one of the first mutations recognized in Africa.........they are everywhere over there now...........so time will tell..........and I have nothing but time on this one......:)

In the series of pics below are two pics of the original Platty and a "Butter Ball" that I imported from Africa..........they share some similarities, but the Platty is much prettier........if anything..........the Butter may be a "raw form" of the Platty............more breeding ahead!!!!!!!!!..........God I love this stuff!