Mojave Royal Pythons for sale in the UK

The Mojave gene affects the pattern and colour of a royal python (ball python) and appears in a long list of combos. Because it pairs with every other gene in that complex, keepers building blue-eyed leucistic projects rely on it. You can easily spot a single-gene animal by its bright flaming and keyhole side markings.

Appearance

A Mojave has one dark dot on each side of its alien heads, making each blotch look like a teardrop or a keyhole. This is different from a normal royal python where the alien heads have two dark dots. Between these blotches, bright flames rise, and the tail usually ends in a thick dorsal stripe with the same flames on the edges. Over a ground that is greyish or sometimes blue-grey, the colours include deep blacks, intense yellows and browns, with highlights that are creamy. Bright yellow stripes pass through the eyes on a head that is normally dark brown to black, though it may be a little faded on the crown. While some animals show dark tracks along the belly, it is normally a clean white.

No two Mojaves look quite alike. Some are dark and some are light, and some lines have heavy blushing with greenish undertones.

A Super Mojave is the super form. It is a leucistic with blue eyes and is a near-white snake that sometimes shows a faint ghost of the pattern. It keeps a grey or purple wash on the head more often than the cleanest leucistics do, and it often has a yellowish line down the spine. A Lesser Mojave pairs Mojave with Lesser rather than with itself. Keepers who want a snake that is as white as possible tend to prefer a Lesser Mojave.

Genetics

Mojave is an incomplete dominant and the hobby often groups it under "co-dom". A single copy results in a Mojave and two copies create a Super Mojave. It is part of the Blue Eyed Leucistic complex which includes Lesser, Butter, Mystic, Russo, Special, Phantom, Mocha, Bamboo and Daddy Gene. Because these genes share one locus, any animal can carry a maximum of two of them. If a Mojave is combined with another member of the group, the result is either a blue-eyed leucistic or one of the darker, purple-toned combos.

Trade names for allelic combos are Crystal (Mojave and Special), Mystic Potion (Mojave and Mystic) and Purple Passion (Mojave and Phantom). Pastel Mojave is known by the trade name Pastave. Every Mojave in the hobby can be traced back to one wild animal that The Snake Keeper (TSK) first bred in 2000.