I love white snakes.  Beauty through simplicity.

Whether we’re talking about Ivories, Black-Eyed Leucistics or Blue-Eyed Leucistics I just don’t see how you can go wrong.  Shame on me but  I don’t have any Super Fire’s (black-eyed lucy’s) in my bag of tricks but I do keep blue-eyed lucy’s and ivory’s.  They’re awesome.

Every now and then I catch wind of someone talking about how Ivory’s aren’t very attractive because as babies they look kind of dirty.  What I ususally tell those people is that they need to see an adult Ivory.  With age comes some impressive changes.  Adult Ivory’s tend to be white as a fresh snow with a faint yellow line running down the back.  Jet black eyes, red irises.  R – I – D – I – C – U – L – O – U – S ! ! ! !  Wanna’ see it get cooler?  Peep this:  Pastel Ivory.  Imagine a white snake dipped in a vat of soft yellow glow; like the stain of a buttercup on your skin.  Sick!  I haven’t seen a super pastel ivory ball python yet but I certainly do look forward to the day.

The key to the Ivory ball is the Yellow Belly, of course.  Yellow Belly’s make Ivory Ball Pythons!!!  This makes Yellow Belly females the single most under-valued snake in the reptile business these days.  Like many other breeders I know, I have pretty much resolved myself to the fact that I’ll never sell another one.  Besides making Ivory’s the Yellow Belly gene is like a scrub brush for every other morph; it just makes it better.  I kept every female Yellow Belly I produced this year and will probably do the same again in 2009.  I may let a few go, but not many.  I’ll actually pick them up from others who are willing to let them go.  I’m not alone in my thoughts.  I did sell all of the Ivory’s I produced, though.  Gotta’ pay the bills, I guess.  If money wasn’t a factor I think I’d end up keeping 95% of what I produced.  If you’re a breeder reading this you’ll probably agree with me.  We’re our own best customer.