The Orange Dream is a relatively new Ball Python Morph. Ozzy Boids are credited with being the first to prove out this gene after they obtained the first animal from Ian Gniazdowski in 2002.
This first female that was purchased from Ian had that banded look and was initially believed to be nothing more than a cool looking normal at the time.
After raised her up, Ozzy Boids noticed that she was very different from a typical ‘Wild Type’ Ball Python as it was loaded with Orange colouration. Her sides had the look of a Pastel with a lot of Orange Colour, especially around the tail.
The owner of Ozzy Boids joked to a friend that this strange looking ‘normal’ Ball Python was going to make him a million dollars to which the fried replied ‘Keep Dreaming’. That day, the name Orange Dream was coined.
In 2004, this female was bred for the first time and she laid 4 eggs. They hatched and two of the four eggs produced Orange Dreams meaning that the gene was either dominant or co-dominant. It later proved to be a co-dominant gene.
Orange Dream Python Description
The Orange Dream Ball Python Morph is a subtle color mutation. On its own, it isn’t too different from a normal Ball Python. However, this gene really comes to life when mixed with other Ball Python morphs.
The patterning of this snake is very similar to a ‘normal’ Ball Python but it has a brighter coloration to its bands. These bands were more orange in appearance than the typical yellow or tan-coloured bands. The orange appearance gets brighter towards the underside of the snake.
A Super Orange Dream Ball Python has far more vibrant oranges. The tan bands are usually completely taken over and the amount of background black coloration is usually reduced.
Orange Dream Ball Python Genetics
The Orange Dream Ball Python is a co-dominant morph. This means that, like a dominant morph, you only need one Orange Dream to produce Orange Dream babies. However, if you breed two Orange Dream’s together, you will produce Super Orange Dream’s.
An Orange Dream Ball Python will contain the genetic mutation in one of the alleles in their DNA sequence while a Super Orange Dream 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 Orange Dream Ball Pythons.
Orange Dream Ball Python x Normal Ball Python
The simplest way to produce an Orange Dream Ball Python is to pair an Orange Dream with a normal Ball Python. The resulting offspring will consist of 50% Orange Dream’s and 50% Normal Ball Pythons. This pairing will not create any Super Orange Dream’s.
As you can see, there 4 possible outcomes. We have named 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 ON, ON, NN and NN. ON means that one of the alleles were Orange Dream while the other was normal. The NN outcome means that both genes were normal.
As the Orange Dream morph is a co-dominant mutation, only one of the alleles needs to hold the trait, for the offspring to be an Orange Dream. This means that the offspring will consist of 50% Orange Dream’s and 50% Normal Ball Pythons.
Orange Dream x Orange Dream
Another way to produce an Orange Dream Ball Python is to pair an Orange Dream with another Orange Dream. The resulting offspring will consist of 50% Orange Dream Ball Pythons, 25% Normal Ball Pythons and 25% Super Orange Dream’s.
In this case, the 4 possible outcomes were OO, ON, ON and NN. OO occurred when both parents passed on the Orange Dream gene. As this mutation is co-dominant, this combination will result in a Super Orange Dream Ball Python.
This means that the offspring will consist of 50% Orange Dream, 25% Normal and 25% Super Orange Dream.
Super Orange Dream x Normal Ball Python
If you breed a Super Orange Dream to a Normal Ball Python, all of the offspring will be Orange Dream. This is because one of the parents will always pass the Orange Dream gene while the other parent will always pass the Normal gene. As a result, all of the offspring will be ON, i.e. one Orange Dream allele and one Normal allele.
Super Orange Dream x Super Orange Dream Ball Python
If you breed a Super Orange Dream to a Super Orange Dream Ball Python, all of the offspring will be Super Orange Dream. This is because both of the parents will always pass the Orange Dream gene. As a result, all of the offspring will be OO, i.e. both alleles will be Orange Dream.
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
Cinnamon Ball Python Morph
Enchi Ball Python Morph
Fire Ball Python Morph
GHI Ball Python Morph
Mojave Ball Python Morph
Pied Ball Python Morph
