Ultramel Royal Pythons for sale in the UK
The royal python features dark brown and black that the Ultramel morph softens into chocolate, lilac and tan, while keeping the oranges and yellows bright. Because Caramel Albino looks close, the two were confused for years. Confirm which gene an animal carries before building a project on it.
- Visuals
- £140
- 4 for sale
- Hets
- £100
- 9 for sale
All Ultramel royal pythons
About the Ultramel gene
The royal python (ball python) has a recessive colour gene called Ultramel. It pulls back the dark pigment and leaves the orange and yellow alone, so the animal reads warm and high in contrast. The pattern itself is unchanged.
Appearance
An Ultramel is tan to light brown with chocolate and lilac in the pattern, unlike the dark brown to black of a normal royal python. Because of the lighter ground, the oranges and yellows are untouched and read brighter, with heavy blushing along the body. The tail keeps a normal pattern in the same colours as the body, and the head has a lilac crown with a soft, bright orange headstamp. Of the three melanin-reducing recessives, Albino, Lavender Albino and Ultramel, it loses the least, so an Ultramel looks more like a warmer, softer normal than an albino. The name is short for ultramelanistic, even though the gene reduces melanin rather than adding it.
Genetics
Ultramel is a recessive gene, so a het looks like a normal royal python. You can buy carriers as Het Ultramel, 50% Het Ultramel, 66% Het Ultramel and Pos Het Ultramel. There is no super form. This gene is TYRP1, which is a melanin enzyme. Brown and colleagues (PLOS ONE, 2022) found two separate mutations in it among Ultramels. A DNA test for the gene is available. Ultramel is different from Albino and Lavender Albino. Caramel Albino looks similar, and the two were sold as each other for a long time, but they are separate genes; an animal visual for both is sold as Camarillo. Crider and Burgundy Albino are Ultramel under other trade names. It is suspected, but not proven, that Monarch shares the Ultramel locus. Ultramel with Pinstripe is called Ultra Pin. It was first produced by Mark and Kim Bell of Reptile Industries.