Orange Dream Ball Python Morph: Facts, Where to Buy, & FAQs

The orange dream ball python is a designer morph with vibrant orange, yellow, and black markings.

Its pattern usually looks like a ball python that has had its brown markings replaced with orange ones.

The care for the orange dream morph is the same as that for other ball pythons. So keep reading to find out about this morph and its bright orange coloration.

Python Regius Background Information

Ball pythons are a medium-sized species from sub-Saharan Africa. They live in forests and open areas with some tree-growth..

Ball pythons tend to inhabit habitats with running water, which they enter to escape from the heat.

Breeders first imported ball pythons to the United States in the 1980s, and they quickly gained popularity.

The species is easy to breed, and many keepers started breeding their ball pythons.

In time, breeding normal ball pythons was no longer enough, and breeders started to focus on animals that had a different appearance or patterning.

As the different appearances became distinct, each of them was classified as a morph.

Today, keeping and breeding morphs is a popular activity, and new morphs are produced often.

Sadly, scientists suspect that people are exporting too many wild ball pythons. They have serious concerns that wild populations are at risk of becoming endangered.

We’ll discuss morphs in detail later.

What is an Orange Dream Ball Python?

The orange dream ball python is one of the many designer morphs of the ball python.

This morph was produced through a series of careful crosses, back-crosses, and genetic experiments.

Ball python morphs are distinctive thanks to their coloration and patterning. We’ll discuss the appearance of this co-dominant morph in the next section.

A ball python morph can be reliably bred by following certain genetic principles to replicate the patterning and color.

It’s only in rare cases, like the stormtrooper ball python, that it doesn’t seem possible to replicate the morph reliably.

Orange Dream Ball Python Appearance

If you haven’t pieced it together already, the orange dream ball python has a bright orange color.

The orange coloration is much brighter than that of other orange color morphs, such as the pastel morph or banana morph.

A typical orange dream ball python doesn’t have any unusual patterning but looks like a normal ball python with brilliant orange patterns instead of brown.

Breeders have, however, crossed the orange dream morph with many other morphs, so you can also buy an orange dream pinstripe or an orange dream spider.

How Big Do Orange Dream Ball Pythons Get?

It’s a common misconception that, in ball pythons, different morphs reach different sizes.

This concept is an absolute myth, and the orange dream morph reaches a similar size to other types of ball pythons.

While a female ball python grows slightly larger than a male, you can expect any ball python morph to reach a maximum length of five feet.

Buying Orange Dream Ball Pythons

It used to be MUCH harder to buy a morph like the orange dream or super orange dream.

There were few organized expos where you could buy animals and, in its early days, buying a snake off the internet was nothing if not risky.

Buying a snake on the internet can still be risky if you don’t follow some basic safety rules, but we’ve got you covered.

If you want to buy your orange dream morph on the internet, NEVER buy animals from a general listing website.

These websites allow anyone to post adverts, and you have no guarantee that you’re getting what you pay for. You might order an orange dream morph and get a normal instead.

General listing sites are also full of backyard breeders who may or may not know about their snake’s genetic history.

If you decide to buy your orange dream or super orange dream online, then stick to reputable reptile-specific websites like MorphMarket.

These websites run detailed background checks on breeders to ensure that they’re legit and that you’re getting what you pay for.

They often also have legal clauses that back you up if a breeder tries to cheat you.

The last excellent thing about this kind of online platform is that they stock thousands of morphs from breeders all around the world.

You’ll have access to normal orange dream, super orange dream, orange dream enchi, orange dream spider, super orange dream ultramel, and hundreds of other morphs.

If, like many people, you prefer to buy animals in person, consider your nearest reptile convention or expo.

A reptile convention (or repticon) hosts hundreds of stalls from vendors around the country.

You’ll be able to find everything from normal orange dream to super orange dream or orange dream spinners.

As with reptile-specific classified ads, you can rest assured that the organizers thoroughly vet any vendors that apply to sell their animals at the convention or expo.

The final option is a pet shop that happens to stock orange dream ball pythons.

Unfortunately, pet shops don’t have the best reputation in the reptile communities. Many of them are little more than a marketplace for pythons from random breeders.

If the pet shop can’t put you in touch with the breeder who produced the snakes they sell, it’s risky at best.

We recommend buying your new orange dream ball python from a breeder through a reptile marketplace or at a reptile expo or from the top best ball python breeders here. 

Orange Dream Ball Python Price

Since the orange dream is a co-dominant morph, there are many different crosses on the market.

While you can still find a normal orange dream morph, you’re more likely to see an orange dream clown, orange dream enchi, or something along those veins.

For a standard orange dream, you can expect to pay around $100.

An orange dream ultramel can fetch up to $600.

A super orange dream has a value of around $200.

An enchi leopard orange dream, on the other hand, costs around $3500.

With co-dominant genes, the determining factor in the pricing is which morph the other parent carries to the offspring.

Caring for Your Orange Dream Ball Python Morph

It’s a common misconception that different morphs have different care requirements. Fortunately, this is entirely wrong.

All ball pythons share the same basic requirements. We discuss that topic in detail in our detailed ball python care sheet, so check it out for the full scoop.

Breeding the Orange Dream Morph

The orange dream morph is the result of co-dominant genes.

You can cross the orange dream with another co-dominant to make a new morph, or with another orange dream to make a super orange dream.

Let’s take a closer look at the potential results for breeding the orange dream ball python.

The python may be either a homozygote or a heterozygote for the co-dominant orange dream gene.

A heterozygote has the gene once (normal orange dream), while a homozygote has the gene twice (super orange dream).

If you were to cross this co-dominant gene with a normal ball python, you might see the following results in a clutch of eight eggs:

• Super orange dream x normal: eight orange dream babies
• Orange dream x normal: four orange dream babies and four normal babies

If you cross an orange dream and an orange dream you won’t just get a super orange dream. Instead, you’d see the following:

• Orange dream x orange dream: two super orange dream babies, four orange dream babies, and two normal babies

You can apply this pattern to just about any co-dominant morph to calculate the potential of the clutch.

When breeding a normal orange dream, there’s always the chance of the snake giving normal genes.

When breeding a super orange dream, the snake always gives orange dream genes. A super orange dream is the way to go when you’re trying to breed new morph crosses.

There are many potential crosses with super orange dream and orange dream which we’ll look at in the following sections.

Pastel Orange Dream Ball Python

We’re sure that you’ve probably guessed it already, but the pastel orange dream ball python is what you get when you cross a super orange dream and a pastel.

You can also get a pastel orange dream by breeding a pastel and a normal orange dream, but less of the offspring will be this morph.

This morph combines the bright coloration of both the pastels and the orange dream to give a truly brilliant color morph.

Banana Orange Dream Ball Python

Banana and orange dream are both co-dominant, so crossing a super orange dream and a super banana always yields a banana orange dream.

Of course, you can get the same results with normal orange dream and normal banana, but less of the offspring would turn out as banana orange dream.

This beautiful morph has yellow instead of black, like the banana morph, and the bright orange of an orange dream.

Orange Dream Fire Ball Python

Crossing a super orange dream and a super fire gives you orange dream fire ball pythons.

These hatchlings have the brightness of both the orange dream and the fire morph, making beautiful babies.

Do Orange Dream Ball Pythons have Wobble?

A normal orange dream or super orange dream doesn’t have wobble.

Wobble, or head wobble, is a neurological condition related to the spider morph.

It’s transferred along with the spider gene and results in a snake that can’t control its head properly.

The ball python’s head may stand at a 90-degree angle in relation to its body.

Another symptom of wobble is that the snake’s head wobbles from side to side as it moves.

The condition makes the python look like one of those bobblehead figurines you put on your car’s dashboard.

Kinking is another genetic condition that comes from the spider morph, so doesn’t affect a normal orange dream or super orange dream.

When a snake has kinking its spine forms unnatural kinks at odd angles to its spine. The python’s backbone can bend as sharply as 90 degrees in some places.

Both kinking and head wobble are painful and harmful to the snake as they prevent it from living a full and satisfying life.

While neither condition will pop up in a normal orange dream, crosses with other morphs raise a different question entirely.

Any cross descended from a snake that had spider genes somewhere in its genetic history is at risk for both wobble and kinking.

The orange dream ball is truly spectacular, and well worth buying.

Will you be buying one of these majestic animals? Let us know in the comments.