Genetic Morph: Black Backed
Status: "Could Be" Dominant or Simple Recessive
When: 1999 to present
By Whom: Several breeders and hobbyists working on refining the trait.

The Black Back is very variable in ball pythons..........I don't think that any breeder has actually figured out what the actual "genetics" of this trait is?.........I know I and others have produced them through selective breeding and line breeding.........some have produced clutches of half Black Backs and half normals from just breeding a nice Black Back to a normal...............others have produced Black Backs from breeding two Black Backs together that were unrelated.............so this trait seems to be very "forgiving"......but not what I would say "predictable"...........we all have our "Black Back" projects hiding in our snake rooms.........:)

As of now the only person who has consistently produced Black Backs is Corey Woods............these Black Backs are what we call the "hets" for the Red Axanthic...........when breeding a Red Axanthic to a normal............all the babies produced are Black Backs of some degree..........so I have it listed in the proven section because they can be reproduced........ I produced 25 "het red axanthics" in 2003......all were some degree of a Black Back. The snake pictured on this page is not from Corey Wood's line of Red Axanthic............it is a pic of your "standard" African hatched baby Black Back.

Text by Ralph Davis