The Cinnamon Ball Python Morph is a popular Ball Python morph that was first proven out in 2002. It is a co-dominant mutation. This is similar to a dominant mutation, only that there is a Super form of the Cinnamon morph if two of the alleles contain the mutation.
We will discuss more about the genetics of the Cinnamon morph below. This morph is commonly available and easy to produce, resulting in a modest price tag. You could expect to pay anywhere from $50 for a standard Cinnamon Ball Python.
Cinnamon Ball Python Description
The Cinnamon Ball Python is different to a normal in both color and patterning. The background color on the Cinnamon is usually a dark brown color, hence their name. The color of their pattern is also different and can vary from different shades of brown or tan.
What really distinguishes a Cinnamon morph is their patterning. The lighter patterns on these snakes are very distinctive and are often compared in appearance to ‘Alien Heads’.
The Super Cinnamon is a patternless snake. The overall body coloration can range from rich cocoa brown to a dusky grey or black, depending on lineage. The belly of the snake is light in color and unmarked.
Cinnamon Ball Python History
The Cinnamon Ball Python morph was first proven out in 2002 by Graziani Reptiles. The super form of the Cinnamon morph was proven shortly afterwards when Gulf Coast Reptiles hatched the first Super Cinnamon.
Cinnamon Ball Python Genetics
The Cinnamon Ball Python is a co-dominant morph. This means that, like a dominant morph, you only need one Cinnamon to produce Cinnamon babies. However, if you breed two Cinnamons together, you will produce Super Cinnamons.
A Cinnamon Ball Python will contain the genetic mutation in one of the alleles in their DNA sequence while a Super Cinnamon will contain the genetic mutation in both of the alleles. The appearance of these two snakes is visibly different, which distinguishes the co-dominant mutation from a dominant mutation.
How are genetics passed on in Ball Pythons
We are not going to go into too much detail about how genetics work in snakes in this article. We have explained it in detail in our Recessive Ball Python Morphs article. Make sure you check that out if you are not familiar about how genetic mutations are passed.
While the article discusses recessive Ball Pythons, the concept of how parents pass on their genetics is the same for all co-dominant morphs, the appearance of the offspring is just different.
Here is a basic breakdown of a DNA strand:
Locus – This is the location of a gene/allele on a DNA strand.
Allele – Genes are made up of pairs of Alleles. Therefore an allele is a single gene on a given locus.
The image above shows a DNA strand of two snakes. Let’s say, they are a Normal and Pied Ball Python. Let’s say the first locus on this DNA strand is for the Pied Gene. You can see that the first snake has 2 normal genes (not Pied) while the second snake has two Pied genes (visible Pied).
When these snakes reproduce, they will each pass on one of their Alleles from each locus to their offspring. This means that the offspring will receive one of their ‘Pied’ genes from their mother and one from their father.
We will use this concept to explain how different pairings will produce Cinnamon Ball Pythons.
Cinnamon Ball Python x Normal Ball Python
The simplest way to produce a Cinnamon Ball Python is to pair a Cinnamon with a normal ball python. The resulting offspring will consist of 50% Cinnamons and 50% Normal Ball Pythons. This pairing will not create any Super Cinnamons.
As you can see, there 4 possible outcomes. We have names each allele and colour coded them. As each parent can only pass one gene each, the possible outcomes are 1-3, 1-4, 2-3 and 2-4. Alleles 1-2 cannot both be passed, either can 3-4 as this would mean a single parent passed on both of the genes.
So the 4 possible outcomes were CN, CN, NN and NN. CN means that one of the alleles were Cinnamon while the other was normal. The NN outcome means that both genes were normal.
As the Cinnamon morph is a co-dominant mutation, only one of the alleles needs to hold the trait, for the offspring to be a Cinnamon. This means that the offspring will consist of 50% Cinnamons and 50% Normal Ball Pythons.
Cinnamon x Cinnamon
Another way to produce a Cinnamon Ball Python is to pair a Cinnamon with another Cinnamon. The resulting offspring will consist of 50% Cinnamon Ball Pythons, 25% Normal Ball Pythons and 25% Super Cinnamons.
In this case, the 4 possible outcomes were CC, CN, CN and NN. CC occurred when both parents passed on the Cinnamon gene. As this mutation is co-dominant, this combination will result in a Super Cinnamon.
This means that the offspring will consist of 50% Cinnamon, 25% Normal and 25% Super Cinnamon.
Super Cinnamon x Normal Ball Python
If you breed a Super Cinnamon to a Normal Ball Python, all of the offspring will be Cinnamon. This is because one of the parents will always pass the Cinnamon gene while the other parent will always pass the Normal gene. As a result, all of the offspring will be CN, i.e. one Cinnamon allele and one Normal allele.
Super Cinnamon x Super Cinnamon Ball Python
If you breed a Super Cinnamon to a Super Cinnamon Ball Python, all of the offspring will be Super Cinnamon. This is because both of the parents will always pass the Cinnamon gene. As a result, all of the offspring will be CC, i.e. both alleles will be Cinnamon.
Other Ball Python Morph Guides
We have a wide range of Ball Python Morph guides. You can check some of them out here:
Albino Ball Python Morph
Banana Ball Python Morph
Black Pastel Ball Python Morph
Blue Eyed Leucistic Ball Python Morph
Butter Ball Python Morph
Champagne Ball Python Morph
Chocolate Ball Python Morph
Enchi Ball Python Morph
Fire Ball Python Morph
GHI Ball Python Morph
Mojave Ball Python Morph
Orange Dream Ball Python Morph
Pied Ball Python Morph
