Lesser Royal Pythons for sale in the UK
A Lesser is a warm, heavily blushed royal python with a clean belly, and two copies make a white snake with blue eyes. It looks just like a Butter but is a different gene, so only a genetic test tells you which one you are buying.
- Visuals
- £100
- 6 for sale
- Super Lesser (aka Blue-Eyed Leucistic (BEL)) — linked to eye deformities, including bug eyes - a protrusion of the eye
- Lesser (aka Lesser Platinum) — do not pair with another Lesser or a Butter. Offspring of that pairing carry a hereditary defect.
Lesser royal pythons available now
Lesser Het GE Clown
About the Lesser gene
Lesser is a gene that helps create the white, blue-eyed royal python (ball python). It turns a normal into golds, yellows and browns while adding heavy blushing through the pattern and a clean belly when it is on its own. Because two copies create the Super Lesser, a blue-eyed leucistic, Lesser is included in many breeding projects.
Appearance
With its velvety, soft-looking appearance, a Lesser is a snake in yellow and brown that moves towards orange. The blushing is so heavy that it floods the dark pattern between the yellow and orange alien heads. You will usually find a light brown head with a small blush towards the neck. The belly is clean and has little or no marking, while the tail shows the same heavy blushing as the body. Animals vary a lot. Some are high-yellow with tan colouring, but others are so blushed out they could pass for a Mojave.
The Super Lesser has no pattern at all. It is a white snake with blue eyes. This is one of the blue-eyed leucistics and is among the whitest of them.
Genetics
Lesser is incomplete dominant, the hobby's "co-dom". A single copy results in a Lesser and two copies create the Super Lesser. This is also called the Blue-Eyed Leucistic or BEL. Because it is part of the Blue-Eyed Leucistic complex and shares its locus with Mocha, Special, Russo, Mystic, Phantom, Butter and Mojave, any animal with one Lesser and one of those others is also a blue-eyed leucistic.
Lesser and Butter cannot be told apart by eye, and the hobby sells and breeds them as one morph under two names. Genetic testing by Rare Genetics Inc in 2025 showed they are different mutations at the same locus. Only a genetic test settles whether an untested animal sold as a Lesser is actually a Butter, or the other way round.
The Queen Bee (Lesser, Pastel and Spider), the Lesser Bee (Lesser and Spider) and the Kingpin (Lesser and Pinstripe) are named combos. Ralph Davis Reptiles produced the first Lessers in 2001 from an imported male known as the Platty Daddy. This is why Lesser Platinum is the name used in older listings.
Known issues
The welfare concern sits on the Super Lesser, the two-copy form, never on a single-copy Lesser. The Super Lesser is linked to eye deformities, including bug eyes - a protrusion of the eye. Pairing a Lesser with another Lesser or with a Butter produces blue-eyed leucistic hatchlings, and the breeding guidance on this page covers exactly those pairings. If you are buying a blue-eyed leucistic, ask the seller which two genes it carries. Severity varies between individuals - please research the morph and ask the seller about this specific animal before buying.