Acid Ball Python: A Complete Morph guide and breeding tips

First produced by Josh Jensen, in 2014, the Acid Ball Python is a striking morph that will be playing a role in the hobby for years to come. Let’s look at a quick summary of what makes this morph special.

The Acid Ball Python is a beautiful morph, but it’s true potential comes into play when combined with other genes. Like Confusion, it is becoming incredibly popular due to the busy pattern and unusual color variations it creates when added to recessive genes like Clown, or incomplete dominant (codom) morphs like Yellowbelly and Fire.

Morph type

The Acid Ball Python is a single gene dominant morph. This means that on average, 50% of Acid offspring will visually express the gene. No super form is known. As in the Pinstripe morph, Acid’s influence is stronger on pattern than colour.

Acid Ball Python Description

In this morph, there is a distinctive head stamp, which on good examples almost takes on a clover shape.

The dorsal colouration is similar to that of a normal Ball Python, but the brown saddles take on a different pattern. Instead of forming disjunct blotches, they form irregular, connected blotches and bands mid-body and stripes on the neck and tail. Within the brown blotches, there are “bubbles” of black colouration. This patterning is remarkably like that of the Leopard Ball Python.

On the ventral scales, there is an almost solid black band of patterning most of the way down the body, making a “zipper” effect. Aside from this black pattern, the rest of the ventral areas tend to be a rich yellow instead of white.

Overall, the whole snake has a blue-black sheen to it. This is a defining characteristic of the morph and helps distinguish it from the Leopard Ball Python.

Does the Acid Ball Python have genetic issues?

As far as we can tell, the Acid has no genetic issues whatsoever. This morph eats, sheds, and breeds healthily. It also mixes well with other genes to show co-dominance. In fact, its only real drawback is that it lacks a super form.

Acid Ball Python Breeding tips

There is no doubt the Acid Ball Python can make exceptional combination morphs. But then again, so can almost every other genre out there! To make this morph work for you, you first need to decide what you’re aiming for.

If you want to aim for bright, highly disrupted patterning, breed Acid to Pinstripe or Spotnose, but make sure Pastel is also in the mix. Pastel is a very old morph, but it mixes particularly well with Acid and adds a huge amount of disruption to its patterning.

Or, if you like dark morphs, breed Acid to Mojave, Blackhead, Leopard, GHI or Cinnamon to create intense, moody colours.

As far as recessive morphs go, Acid works with anything! Particularly striking would be combinations with Clown, Desert Ghost and Ghost. In my opinion, Piebald is not the best choice, as with a high white Piebald you would miss out on so much of the pattern that this morph is popular for in the first place.

Top 5 Acid Ball Python Morphs (my choice)

1. Acid Spotnose Pinstripe

This is a designer morph that combines Acid with the much sought after Spotnose gene and the classic dominant morph, Pinstripe. It’s pretty much as close as you’ll get to a snake with spots like a Cheetah.

In my opinion, the beauty of this morph is that it could be a great investment for practically any breeding project but is also a simply stunning animal to look at.

2. Acid Mojave

When compared to a normal Ball Python, the Acids differences in pattern are quite subtle. But when you mix in Mojave, it brings out a whole new dimension to it. The brown pattern is lighter, the background is darker, and the contrast between the two is much sharper.

3. Acid Leopard Yellow Belly

Like the previous morph, this combination increases the contrast between light and dark, but makes the pattern much yellower and striking to look at. To hobbyists, this is probably as appealing as the well-known Bumblebee morph was when it first came out.

4. Acid Batman, a.k.a Acid Spotnose Clown

I’m not sure if this one has been done yet, but what is certain is that when it becomes available it will have a hefty price tag! The original Batman used Leopard instead of Acid, but in my opinion this version would be an upgrade.

Just like the original Batman, you can’t count on this combination becoming very popular.

5. Acid Pastel Yellow Belly

Jumbled up pattern, striking yellows, and the ever-popular Yellow Belly gene, all in one place! I have to be honest; this is my favourite in the list. And, though Acid is a high-end morph, you can expect simple combos like this one to become more affordable in the near future.

Acid Ball Pythons for sale

As with any high-end morph, be wary of getting a “good” deal. If it’s too cheap, there may be a reason. Always check on the breeder’s reputation and/or ratings, depending on the platform they use.

Remember that pet stores often increase the price of animals by a considerable amount – getting a morph like this directly from a breeder could save you a lot of money!

I sometimes have this morph available on my for sale page, but not always as I only breed on a small scale and as a hobby. In this case your go-to place should be Morphmarket. This website lists breeders in North America, Europe, and South Africa, along with feedback from their recent customers.

Future of the morph

Just like Leopard, Acid mixes extremely well with both recessive and dominant/incomplete dominant genes. It’s not hard to imagine it taking the place of Leopard in a lot of breeding projects over the coming years. But then again, it also works extremely with this morph, so there might just be room for both of them!

Whatever happens, there is no doubt that Acid will be used to create pricey, high-end Clown combos. To my mind, this is where the gene will become truly relevant to the hobby. If you like funky patterning and highly unusual dominant morphs Acid is great, but if you want to make investment-level morphs, then it might just become essential!

Summary

First produced by:	Josh Jensen, 2014
Morph type:	Single gene, dominant
Genetic issues:	None
Goes well with:	Light and dark dominant/incomplete dominant genes, recessive genes like Clown

Key points to remember about the Acid morph:

• The Acid Ball Python is a snake with a unique pattern, that could soon become one of the most popular ball python morphs.

• It has a beautiful yellow color on it’s belly, mottled with black spots, and the black markings on its back have a subtle indigo hue to them that help its unique pattern stand out.

• Acids are not a co-dominant morph, they are in fact a dominant genetic mutation, just like Pinstripe Ball Pythons. This means you can’t get a “super Acid”. You can however, create a variety of different patterns by breeding them to a recessive trait or another dominant or codominant gene. These color variations will depend on what project you add them to.

• If you breed to another dark morph, most of the offspring will be dark brown. If you breed them to something like super pastel, on the other hand, you’ll be blown away by the bright yellow blotches and high contrast.

• The challenge with a morph like this is always to use selective breeding to add brightness and contrast to the black base color and brown coloration. After all, most popular morphs are ones that achieved this feat, particularly in clown Ball Pythons. Furthermore, if you want to do a long-term project with Acid, Clown probably is the best recessive gene to use, though even the albino morph will do it justice.

• When it comes to creating an Acid morph with a specific color, that’s still a little complicated, as it has such a dark background color. The easiest way to bring in different colors but keep its striking pattern variations is to breed it to a very bright base morph, like the Coral Glow Ball Python. What you’ll get is a snake with a beautiful dark yellow and purple color and funky pattern.

• Or, you can use a bright but less domineering morph like Super Fire or Fire Ivory to create lots of hatchlings with birght yellow spots and flames against dark bands.

• Whatever the case, your success rate will be high when trying to create new morphs with this gene – there is a huge amount still to be done with it!

Also on this topic:

• Ivory (aka Super Yellowbelly) Ball Python
• Coral Glow Ball Python
• Pastel Ball Python
• Champagne Ball Python Morph Guide and Breeding Tips
• Mojave Ball Python: A complete morph guide and breeding tips

For more on single gene morphs in general:

Back to the single gene topic page