Chocolate Royal Pythons for sale in the UK

Chocolate is a royal python (ball python) gene that changes both colour and pattern. A Chocolate reads darker overall than a normal, its pattern shifting towards a deep chocolate brown, and the alien heads take on a keyhole shape. It has been in the hobby since 1999 and turns up in several named combos.

Appearance

The background stays black while the pattern goes much darker and browner than on a normal, so the whole snake looks darker. Against that dark base the keyholes and side markings run to caramel. The keyhole shape inside the alien heads is the cue to look for first. Expect extra spotting along the body. The head is dark brown to black, sometimes with a faint headstamp at the back of the crown, and a thick dorsal stripe usually dominates the tail.

Genetics

Chocolate is incomplete dominant, sometimes listed as "co-dom", which is a looser word for the same thing. One copy makes a Chocolate and two copies make a Super Chocolate. It belongs to the Spider complex, allelic with Spider, Champagne, Black Head, Spotnose, Woma, Hidden Gene Woma, Wookie and Cypress. A genetic test for Chocolate exists, so a seller can back the label with a result.

BHB Reptiles, Brian Barczyk's operation, first produced it in 1999. A second proven line, the Garcia line, goes back to a female found by Randy Remington in 2001 and proved genetic in 2007. When homozygous animals from that line were produced in 2010 they matched the BHB Super Chocolate, so the line is sold as Chocolate. Named combos include Camo, also sold as Camouflage (Super Chocolate with Pinstripe), Chocolate Blast (Chocolate, Pastel and Pinstripe) and Hot Chocolate (Chocolate with Fire).