CBGES has been specializing in the Reptile morphs for over a year. We have researched and studied every possibility and come out with numerous possibilities. We are currently developing the fist Generic Reptile park in the world.

CBGES, will be involved in collecting all reptile morphs not only specifically snakes.

South Africans across the country have started to collect snakes, Non venomous as well as venomous snakes. There are over three hundred thousand (300 000) people collecting snakes in South Africa.

I, Christopher Beck the owner of CBGES, have over three hundred snakes in my possession. CBGES has recently obtained a new division in snakes. This division consists of a new breed of snakes, what we call MORPHS, morphs regarding to the skin coloration, no other deformities.

More and more South Africans on a daily basis are being introduced to these spectacular reptiles and therefore the demands for these morphs are growing at a rapid rate.

CBGES, is in the beginning stages of producing their own baby pythons and Boa’s, and therefore want to produce new Hybrid snakes. Ones that South Africa can contribute to the world.  

There is a huge amount of interest in herpetoculture today focused on color and pattern variants of commonly kept reptiles and amphibians. These animals differ, sometimes strikingly, from the wild types in appearance.

The differences can be traced to environmental or genetic causes. Genetic mutations can occur spontaneously or are inherited from a parent or parents. Characteristics attributed to environmental influences occur after fertilisation. These environmental influences include variables such as incubation temperature and injury.

Some traits are decidedly a disadvantage for a free-living wild animal. A strangely colored animal might lack the adaptive benefits of the more cryptic normal coloration. This would make it more likely to become dinner for another animal up the food chain, and less likely to be an effective predator on those animals down the food chain. The color and pattern of an animal-indeed, all physical traits and behavior, as well-have been molded by eons of evolution. The current model of an animal has the attributes that makes it the most fit to survive and reproduce in its environment. Evolution depends on these spontaneous, random mutations. Those with a positive effect increase the survivability of the organism and are passed on to that organism's progeny.

Those mutations that have a deleterious effect die with that organism. In a captive situation, a different set of rules applies. Being rare, highly prized or expensive animals, color and pattern morphs can command high prices and an important place in collections. It is likely that these animals will receive special care and be more likely to reproduce. Initially, the occurrence of these mutations is very rare and their low survival rate in the wild makes it extremely unlikely that they can be obtained and put into a captive-breeding program.

Albino Burmese Python 

The first python differing markedly from the wild type in appearance to become available was the amelanistic form of the Burmese python (Python molurus bivittatus), known in the trade as the albino Burmese. This snake lacks all black pigment, but retains yellows and some pink. In a March 1981 National Geographic article about the international trade in wild animals. The bright lemon yellow and white snake was owned by a Thai animal dealer. It was imported into the United States and sold by Tom Crutchfield.

This trait, as are most of the traits commercially available in reptiles, is recessive. When an animal showing the trait is bred to a normal animal, the offspring are normal in appearance. For the offspring to exhibit the trait, both parents must show or carry the trait. In contrast, a dominant trait requires that only one parent have the trait, and all individuals that carry the trait exhibit the characteristics of the trait.

Pattern less Green Burmese Python

In 1987, the second python mutation was produced in captivity. Tom Weidner of Des Moines, Iowa, purchased an olive green, pattern less Burmese python from Western Zoological Supply in West Covina, California, in 1974. The $650 selling price was, at the time, high. The snake-a male-was not a motivated breeder. It bred only once, producing offspring in 1984, and died shortly thereafter. These heterozygous snakes produced their first offspring in 1987. A percentage of these snakes exhibited the new trait.

The snake has been named "green" or "pattern less" after the original adult, and these names are accurately descriptive of the adult animals. The babies, however, are neither green nor pattern less. Hatchlings of this type are khaki-colored, fading to silver on the sides, with a broken line of chocolate brown spots down the center of the back and sometimes scattered randomly along the sides. With age and size, the snakes darken to an olive green, and the spots fade and become less and less apparent.

Albino Patternless Burmese Python

The green Burmese and the albino were bred together, and because both mutations are recessive, the babies looked like the normal, wild-type snake. When these snakes produced offspring, by appearance, four types hatched. The largest percentage of the babies looked normal, there were equal percentages of green and albino snakes, and a very few snakes were albino with the green pattern.

The laws of probability dictate that only one in 16 hatchlings will show both traits. Later that year, Mark Bell, now of Naples, Florida, hatched the first of these new snakes. The snake was light orange fading to almost white on the sides, with darker orange spots centered on the dorsal midline. The snake becomes yellow and the pattern fades as it grows.

Labyrinth Burmese Python

In October of 1988, German reptile dealer Peter Hoch talked about two strangely patterned Burmese pythons that he had imported from Thailand a few years earlier, and had since sold. Bob Clark expressed an interest in these snakes, and he agreed to try to locate them. He was successful, and a few months later, Bob Clark received the snakes in Oklahoma.

Fortunately, the two snakes were a sexual pair, and although they were just 7 feet long, they produced a small fertile clutch of eggs in early 1989. The hatchlings from this clutch were identical to their parents, with an intricate gold pattern on a black background. The phase was named "labyrinth" after its chaotic mazelike pattern. Two additional wild-collected animals were added to the breeding group from the late Dave Lester of the Serpentarium in Walsall, England.

Albino Labyrinth Burmese Python

Another labyrinth Burmese python of wild origin was obtained by Mark Bell from a private collector in the United States. Mark produced the first albino labyrinth in 1993 by breeding the offspring of an albino/labyrinth cross. This is a striking form, where the black areas are replaced by bright white. These areas in the normal type of albinos are orange. The result is a high contrast gold and white snake.

Granite Burmese Python

The new morph has very small, angular, golden brown spots on a yellowish background. The spots and ground color cover roughly equal amounts of surface area. Each scale of the light areas has a dark center. The ventral surface is unmarked. The spear-shaped marking of the head is greatly reduced and irregularly shaped. The remaining area of the head's dorsal surface is light pinkish tan. Several of these snakes hatched from the same clutch of eggs.

The grandfather of the snakes is said to have been identical to the babies in color and pattern. The mother is said to have been normal in appearance. If both normal-looking parents of the babies were offspring of the original, now skinned adult, we could explain the occurrence of the trait as the operation of a simple recessive gene. This snake has been named “granite" Burmese python for the fractured, broken aspect of the small spots on the snake's dorsal surface.

The albino, green, labyrinth and granite forms are the only known genetic mutations of the Burmese python. The albino "green" and albino labyrinth have been produced. , the green labyrinth combination and none of the combinations including the new trait have been bred. All three of these traits are mutations of pattern, and it is unknown how the combinations will be expressed. The amelanistic forms of these combinations also have yet to be seen. The granite trait gives nine new possibilities when combined with existing traits and trait combinations.

Albino Ball Python

In 1989, I became aware of the possibility of the existence of an amelanistic ball python (Python regius). Olaf Pronk, then of The Hague, Netherlands, had received word via Telex, that the snake had been captured in Ghana. In May of that year, Bob Clark received the snake, a young male about 26 inches long. It was bright lemon yellow and clean white. The snake's high contrast, bright color and small adult size created much interest and anticipation among the snake-buying public. The young albino was imported as a nonfeeding, wild-caught individual with all the associated problems and worry that go with such an animal-especially a ball python.

The snake fed voluntarily in due time, and while it was thought to be too small to breed, it did so that fall. The heterozygous generation hatched in the spring of 1990. These snakes grew quickly, bred and laid eggs that hatched when they themselves were only 2 years old. Two years of anticipation had ended! These snakes have held their price at $7,500.

Other Ball Pythons

The future holds promise for several new types of ball pythons. A piebald morph with broad areas of bright white and varying amounts of normal pigmentation has been bred, and if the trait is genetic, offspring with the trait can be expected within the next two or three years. Several axanthic individuals exist and have been bred. These snakes lack yellow pigment and appear as black, gray and white snakes. If this trait can be reproduced and combined with the albino form that lacks black pigment, the resulting snake should be totally without pigment.

The corn snake (Elaphe guttata guttata) has a comparable morph. The two pigments responsible for most of the color in this snake are red and black. When the two traits are expressed in the same snake, the resulting snake has been named the "snow corn." The pigment less ball python could have the very appealing name of "snow ball." Other breeders are working with ball pythons that are very dark or very light in color, have high contrast or unusual amounts of yellow or orange. Various striped forms and unusual patterns exist, but as yet only the amelanistic condition has been shown to be genetic.

Tiger Reticulated Python

Karl Hermann of St. Paul, Minnesota, purchased a strange-looking reticulated python (Python reticulatus) during the fall of 1991 from a private collector in this country. The snake, a wild caught male of unknown origin, has a pattern that appears to be duplicated laterally along the dorsal midline. The dark median line through the top of the head is absent from the eyes forward, and the white areas on the sides are enlarged and lengthened.

This snake bred and produced babies in the summer of 1993, and roughly half the babies had the pattern of the father. Karl has named this form the "tiger" retic.

It was not apparent at first what had happened. No one had expected to see the trait appear in the first generation. If the trait was genetic and recessive, as are all other known mutations in snakes, the first generation offspring should be heterozygous and look normal. The trait should appear in the next generation when these animals are bred. If it never appears, it could be determined that the condition has another cause. In this case, the mutation was determined to be dominant.

With a dominant trait, the condition is expressed in the heterozygous animals. Because the father was himself heterozygous, he could pass the trait on to only half of his offspring. The normal looking siblings were, in fact, normal (not gene carriers). If they had carried the gene, they would have shown the trait. As more of these snakes have been bred, the trait has proven to be fairly variable.

In some cases, the pattern is reduced, sometimes to the extent of having no pattern along the dorsal midline, or sometimes just a narrow black stripe. In other cases, the snakes have a series of small paired blotches along a medial stripe. All snakes lack the head stripe, and all seem to have docile temperaments, in contrast to many reticulated pythons.

Albino Reticulated Python

During April of 1993 was identified, In this snake, the gold pattern is replaced with bright lemon yellow, the gray areas with white, sometimes with a yellow wash, and the black areas with an almost translucent lavender color.

There is an incredible diversity of colors and patterns in normal wild type pythons. Some purists may frown on the popularity of the captive-propagated variants, believing that these animals are unnatural and somehow less worthy of their attention. If we consider the rest of the animals we keep as pets, indeed all of the organisms that have been associated with humans through history, the production of python color and pattern morphs is typical. There has always been the selection of desirable traits.

Consider tropical fish, cage birds, orchids and agriculturally important plants and animals. Few would agree that a chicken with less meat and laying ability is more desirable because it more closely resembles its wild ancestor. The differences in goldfish and carp, my dog and a wolf are both generally appreciated by the pet-keeping public and people in general. The future almost certainly will give us new python morphs and increased availability of existing ones. I, for one, am excited about the possibilities and believe that this is the future for pet owners and a beginning on understanding reptiles.

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