Hypo Royal Pythons for sale in the UK
Hypo cuts back the dark pigment, leaving a pale snake that always looks about to shed and sheds clear. Many lines on the market, Orange Ghost included, carry the same gene, but a few rarer ones do not, so know an animal's line before you pair it.
- Visuals
- £100
- 3 for sale
- Hets
- £45
- 31 for sale
Hypo royal pythons available now
Orange Dream Hypo
About the Hypo gene
The Hypo gene makes a royal python (ball python) lose some of its dark pigment. Because the blacks and browns soften, the animal looks satiny and pale, like it is always coming into shed. This is a staple recessive in the hobby. Breeders put it into most other genes to let the colours underneath come through and clean up dark markings.
Appearance
A Hypo has a normal pattern in faded tones. You will see yellow, orange, butterscotch, brown, grey and green animals, as colours vary from line to line and from animal to animal. Compared to a normal, the top of the head is paler. While hatchlings begin with bright yellow in the alien heads, this yellow fades as the snake grows into the washed, in-shed look of an adult. This gene is known for looking better with age. Between the faded markings, the tail usually carries heavy blushing.
The most reliable cue is the shed. A normal's shed carries its markings, but a Hypo sheds clear with little or no pattern in the skin. Because the gene cleans up dark markings and brightens the base colours, many designer animals have it in them.
Genetics
The Hypo gene is recessive and does not have a super form. You will find animals sold as 50% Het Hypo, 66% Het Hypo and Pos Het Hypo, as a Het Hypo looks like a normal royal python. People in the hobby use the terms Ghost and Hypomelanistic for this same gene. Desert Ghost, despite the name, is a different gene, and a true ghost in the strict sense is Hypo combined with Axanthic.
A five-base deletion in the melanophilin (MLPH) gene was found as the mutation, published in microPublication Biology in 2023. Every animal in that study labelled Ghost carried two copies. This mutation is predicted to disrupt the movement of melanin within pigment cells. Because a DNA test is available, you can prove a possible het.
Hypo has been kept in many lines and sold under names like Bell, Butterscotch, Green Ghost and Orange Ghost. Orange Ghost is the best known and it is the same gene under a line name because it carries the same MLPH deletion as common Hypo. Not every line is compatible though. Ask which line an animal comes from before building a project around it, as a few rarer lines behave as separate genes.
New England Reptile Distributors (NERD) first proved the gene in 1994. Named combos include Mimosa (with Champagne), Sunglow (with Albino), Caramel Glow (with Caramel Albino), Honey Bee (with Spider) and Candied Clown (with Clown).