Enhancer

The Enhancer is a recessive mutation.

In 2002, my partner Michael Perry and I @ RegiusCo imported a bright yellow lime yearling female ball python from Togo, Afrika, she had good weight for a wild caught but did not take well to captivity, took us a good year to get her established BUT once established, she never looked back and grew to a monster 3,500 grams as a three year old.

At that time, the incomplete dominant ball pythons were taking off but there wasn’t the huge array of dom - co-dom mutations we see today, Pastel, Black Pastel and Spider were the staple co-doms back then. We were hoping to prove out this mutation and decided to breed her to a recessive gene! Clowns & Piebalds where quite expensive back then and not yet in our collection… We bred her to our Genetic Stripe and produced 2.5 Double-Het Enhancer/Genetic Stripe. They grew fast, we bred one of the yearling males back to their mother and proved out the gene to be simple recessive.

Now many claim the Enhancer and Desert Ghost to be one of the same! I respect their opinion but do not agree with it. Having raised dozens of Enhancer & Desert Ghost side by side, they look completely different, age differently and colors at maturity aren’t the same. The Enhancer is one that just keeps getting better with age, Like the Desert Ghost, they get brighter with every shed. The adult Enhancer colors in its pure form is not easy to describe. At maturity, they get this light yellow lime color with heavy blushing.

The Enhancer and Desert Ghost where bred together in 2012, proving both strains to be compatible, the resulting offspring take on a look in between both strains. Since then, many keepers have mixed both lines together and marketing their offspring as pure Desert Ghost. This being particularly true in the Canadian market. Some of us do however keep the Enhancer strain pure, Justin @jkobylka and Billy @mutation_creation also agree that both strains look different and keep both lines separate from one another.

In conclusion, both the Enhancer and Desert Ghost are a key ingredient in combos, their future is bright, no pun intended.

Happy Herping

Marc Bouchard
Selectively Bred Serpents. ^[1]