Ball Python Morph Issue

Here is a table of morphs and the issues that are associated with them. Below will be more details on the issues.

Morph	Issue
Spider	Wobble
Woma	Wobble
Hidden Gene Woma	Wobble
Champagne	Wobble
Super Sable	Wobble
Powerball	Wobble
Sable x Spider	Difficult to hatch, severe wobble
Champagne x Hidden Gene Woma	Severe wobble
Champagne x Spider	Lethal
Pearl	Normally Lethal
Super Champagne	Lethal
Desert	Female fertility issues
Caramel Albino	Kinking and female sub-fertility
Super Cinnamon/Super Black Pastel	Duckbill & rare kinking
Super Lesser Platinum/Super Butter	Bug eyes
Lesser Platinum x Piedbald	Small Eyes
Banana/Coral Glow	Males produce weird sex ratios
Homozygous Spider	Mysteriously non-existent

A condition present in quite a few morphs is what we call "The Wobble". It is known to appear in Spider, Woma, Hidden Gene Woma, Champagne, Super Sable, and Powerball. An even more severe wobble is known to appear in Sable x Spider, and Champagne x Hidden Gene Woma combos. For the purpose of this article, I'm going to refer to the following morphs as "Wobblers". This was orginally written with the Spider gene in mind, but can apply to the other Wobblers.
Anyone who owns one of the Wobblers or seen one in person most likely already knows what I'm talking about when I refer to "The Wobble". Wobblers have an apparent neurological issue. Which I think the best way to describe it is that they essentially lose their equilibrium, moving in directions they normally wouldn't move in. You may not even see it, it can be a subtle as them just tilting their head once in a while, shaking in their head. It can be as bad as them corkscrewing their body in the air almost uncontrollably. It could only happen during feedings or other potentially exciting situations for the snake or it could just be a constant occurrence. The snake could have no signs as a baby and show it as an adult or have it as a baby and grow out of it.
What I am getting at is, this is very variable, every Wobbler is different.
Search "Spider ball python wobble" on Youtube and you can see some of the extreme cases of the wobble. Now it must be clarified that most Wobblers are nowhere near as badly afflicted as those you will see online. Don't let those select few deter you from these morphs. The majority are subtle and won't exhibit a extreme wobble.
The wobble is linked to the gene. The normals that come out of the same clutch as a Wobbler don't have the wobble, the condition is only present in Wobblers. Also adding morphs does not fix the wobble. Anything with a Wobbler gene in it, whether it be a Bumblebee or one of NERD's crazy creations, will all have the wobble. Breeding a low wobble Wobbler can result in some offspring with a bad wobble. Breeding a Wobbler with a bad wobble can result in low wobble offspring. There appears to be no way to selectively breed it out.
I have herd a myth that inbreeding may cause the wobble. I will be bold and say the Spider is the most out-crossed morph (meaning breeding unrelated animals) in the ball python world. There is no proven homozygous Spider, so Spider x Spider breeding are very rare. So the myth is false, it is in no way related to inbreeding.
A question often asked is "What if my snake can't eat because of the wobble?" The combos with the severe wobble can have this problem. As for the other Wobblers, in all of my research, I have only found 1 person that made a claim that they had a baby with a wobble that was so bad, it could not eat. One Spider out of the multiple-thousands of Wobblers out there. With that said if one pops up that cannot eat, by design it will not be around. But besides that one case, they all eat, poop, breed, and live healthy lives in captivity.
Some of you may be asking "Why would you breed a snake with a defect?" There is actually a small debate on the ethics of breeding Wobblers. Here is my personal opinion on the matter. We breed them because it's a morph, in truth every morph is a "defect". People have brought up the arguement that they would not fair well in the wild. My response would be, they are only going to remain in captivity and they eat, poop, breed, live healthy lives just like any other ball python in captivity. The Spider morph has been doing great in the ball python world since 1999 and is considered a staple morph by most hobbyists for any collection.
Now I will also share a theory based a some limited animals I have interacted with.
I don't believe the wobble is going to be seperated from these morphs. There is too much evidence it is linked directly to the gene, but I think it can be reduced. I see stress levels might play a factor in the amount of wobble the Spider's show. As stated before, every snake is different, but I have personally seen how changing homes can bring a minimal wobble, to horrible wobble, to minimal wobble again. Many people report only seeing signs of it while only feeding, or only while being handled. I feel this strengthens the idea that stress or excitement can elevate the condition.
I know this may be a touchy subject for some Wobbler owners whose snakes exhibit a particularly bad wobble. They may feel like i'm saying their not taking care of their snake correctly. I will say if your snake is eating and living a healthy life, you are doing a great job, there may be Wobblers that will always have the bad wobble, but also it may need extra accommodations beyond the normal to feel less stressed (ex. extra hide, more foliage, less direct light, ect). Yes, I am suggesting the 2 hide, water bowl, cookie cutter setup may not be right for every ball python in general and the Wobblers just shows it. I have talked this over with many people and online and I think it all comes to the same conclusion that it's near impossible to test this theory. Some people have stories that strengthen the theory and some have stories that 100% conflict with it. So take it as you wish. If you have any input on this feel free to contect me, it would be great to hear what you have to say.

Along with the severe wobble issue, the Sable x Spider combo has issues even thriving in the first place.

It is reported that this combo does not live very long after hatching.

Pearls that are alive display a sereve wobble and do not thrive for long. Known to be Lethal. However, there was a snake that is thought to be a Soulsucker Pearl (Homozygous Hidden Gene Woma, Heterozygous Lesser) that not only thrives, it displays no wobble at all. Hopefully there will be more information soon.

So far two have been hatched and did not thrive very long at all. Appears to be homozygous lethal.

There is significant evidence that Desert females are not able to produce viable eggs. There are many reports of females becoming egg bound and when they do lay, all slug eggs. One theory was that the females can not thermoregulate their eggs correctly and cook them. So a few have kept their females in a cooler cage in hopes of good eggs and so far they have all still laid slugs. Many are trying different methods to see if they can get the females to lay viable eggs, but so far have been unsucessful.

Caramel Albinos are known for having a very high kink rate. This means they can be born with a deformed spine. The kinks may or may not be an issue with the animal's ability to thrive. Also Caramel Albino Females are known for having what we call sub-fertility issues. They can lay viable eggs, just there seem to be extreamly high rate of slugs for many. Now with that said, I have talked to a few breeders who have zero issues with the morph on both accounts and claim they do not do anything out of the ordinary. Hopefully more information can come out about this gorgeous morph.

Super Cinnamons/Black Pastels sometimes have an issue called a duckbill. They can have a narrowed nose near their eyes, making the end of their nose look wider, giving the illision they have a bill. I have read of a few cases where the deformity was too great for the animal to eat, but most of the time, it does not seem to effect their eating or cause any other issues, they just look different. There are also reports of having a higher than normal kink rate, while it still appears to be pretty rare.

Super Lesser Platinums/Butters are known for sometimes having bug eyes. All this means is their eye ball sticks out farther from their head than a normal ball python would. Besides looking different, there are no issues with the bug eyes.

It is repoted many Lesser Platinum x Piebald have smaller than normal eyes, it does not appear to affect them.

I will start with the only thing that is fact about this gene. Female Banana/CG appear to be completely normal, as they throw typical clutch results, something close to, 25% male banana, 25% female banana, 25% normal male, 25% normal female. Male Banana/CG tend to throw weird ratios outside of the typical. That is all that is fact at the time I am writing this.
Now I have heard it explained in a complicated ways. I have also heard it call a sex-linked mutation, which what is being reported does not fit the definition of sex-linked. Honestly at the time I am writing this, I see nothing that doesn't point toward this simple explaination. If the male Banana/CG came from a female Banana/CG, then it will mostly produce female Banana/CG and very few male Banana/CG, also meaning it will produce mostly male normals and very few female normals. If the male Banana/CG came from a male Banana/CG, then it will mostly produce male Banana/CG and very few female Banana/CG, also meaning it will produce mostly female normals and very few male normals. Now as for why the gene acts this way and why it only happens to males? I haven't seen an explaination without any holes in it yet. Hopefully time will reveal more answers for us.

If the Spider is a dominant gene and I bred a Spider with another Spider, I should statistically get 25% Homozygous Spider, 50% Heterozygous Spider, 25% Normal. The homozygous Spider should look exactly like a heterozygous Spider. The only difference would be that the homozygous Spider, when bred to any other ball python, would result in offspring that are all Spiders. While the heterozygous Spider would result in offspring that would only have a 50% chance for getting the Spider gene.
Now here's the problem, the Spider was first established at NERD in 1999, and we still have yet to see a proven homozygous Spider. First, what Kevin (the owner of NERD) has to say about the issue. Kevin said that he has not produced and does not believe that there is a homozygous Spider, nor that Spider is homozygous lethal. From what I understand he is saying it just simply does not exist for an unknown reason and is not a simple dominant gene.
Some will say, there hasn't been enough Spider x Spider breedings to prove or disprove a homozygous Spider. Well here's the deal with that, you first have a breed a Spider x Spider. Every Spider offspring only has a 33% chance to be homozygous, then you have to raise up the offspring and do multiple breedings to prove it is in fact homozygous, rather than just getting really lucky on a clutch. So, yes very difficult to prove. Also, I have not seen any data of any kind on someone attempting to prove this, so maybe the answer is simply someone needs to try.
Another theory is that homozygous Spider is lethal, which is mainly based on the fact we havn't seen one yet. Now one could argue the above theory, but there are reports of increased number of slugs in Spider x Spider breedings. Could the homozygous Spider have a hard time even thriving in the egg?
There was also an all white snake that was born and died shortly after from a Spider x Spider pairing. That could of in fact been the homozygous Spider. However, this is the first time someone publicly has shown anything like this from a Spider x Spider breeding. The theory is the homozygous Spiders don't normally go full term and this one was did. I think if this could be repeated, we might have found our answer right there.
Now the question, "If I bred a Spider x Spider, statistically what % of Spider should I get?" Well If homozygous Spider does exist and is dodging us all these years, 25% homozygous, 50% heterozygous, and 25% normal. If it's homozygous lethal then 66% heterozygous and 33% normal. If it doesn't exist for some reason, depending on how you look at it, it could either be 66% heterozygous and 33% normal or 75% heterozygous and 25% normal. So go ahead, pick one.

Source: http://www.owalreptiles.com/issues.php