How to Shed Test a Ball Python (2026)
Updated
Shed testing is reptile DNA testing done from a piece of shed skin — no blood draw, no probing. Mail in a clean, dried shed and a lab reads two things from it: the animal’s sex, and whether it carries a specific recessive morph gene. A single shed is enough, at any age. Two companies run it for ball pythons in 2026 — Rare Genetics Inc and Phenome — and this page covers what the test can and can’t tell you, and how to send one in.
The short version
- It’s DNA from a shed, not a blood sample. Skin cells in the shed carry the animal’s DNA; the test is non-invasive.
- It reads sex at any age. One shed determines sex — even a hatchling’s first — without probing or popping.
- It verifies specific morph genes. For a recessive gene with a validated test, it confirms a het directly, no test-breeding.
- It only reads the genes offered as tests. It is not a scan of everything an animal carries — you order the trait you want checked.
- Two labs do it. Rare Genetics Inc (the broad catalog) and Phenome (the ShedTesting.com successor).
What shed testing actually is
A snake’s shed is a full-body cast of its skin, and the cells left in it carry the same DNA as the animal. A lab extracts that DNA and runs it against known genetic markers. That makes two questions answerable from a mailed-in shed that used to require handling the animal or waiting on a breeding project:
- Sex. The test determines whether the animal is male or female from a single shed, at any age. That replaces probing and popping — the manual methods that risk injury on a small snake and are unreliable on a neonate.
- Morph genetics. Most ball python morphs are recessive: an animal can carry one hidden copy of the gene — a het, short for heterozygous — and look completely normal. A marker test reads whether that specific gene is present, so a het can be confirmed on paper instead of proven out by breeding it and waiting for visual offspring.
The testing companies
Two labs test ball pythons from sheds in 2026. They overlap on the core service — sex and morph tests from a mailed shed — and differ in catalog breadth, species, and how far each is trying to take the science.
Rare Genetics Inc — the broad catalog
The established lab, launched in October 2022 by Benson Morrill, PhD — whose doctoral work at Utah State was on ball python genetics — and Shawn Christian. Its shed test is non-invasive by design: “no popping, no probing,” just a shed mailed in an envelope. The catalog is the widest in the hobby: single-gene morph tests, multi-gene panels, and sex determination across ball pythons, boas, reticulated, Burmese and blood pythons, hognose, the common colubrids (corn, king, rat, milk), and some venomous species. Every test carries an accuracy grade from A+ down to C, set by how many known samples have validated it; the top A+ tier is graded at over 99.9%. Orders go through an account on its own portal or through MorphMarket’s genetic-testing section — prices aren’t posted on the public pages.
Phenome — the ShedTesting.com successor
The newer name, and a rebrand: Phenome launched in October 2025 as the successor to ShedTesting.com — the small service Charlie Williams grew out of testing friends’ sheds — and the shedtesting.com domain now redirects to it. The founding team pairs Williams with geneticist Dr. Patrick MacKnight and breeders Josh Hanson and Jeffrey Hudson, and its stated ambition runs past single-gene tests to mapping the full genomes of several reptile species. Testing is live for ball pythons, green tree pythons, hognose, and skinks.
What’s changed
Shed testing is recent enough that a lot of what gets repeated about ball python genetics predates it. The current picture:
| Claim | Reality (as of 2026-07-11) |
|---|---|
| A ball python’s sex can’t be known without probing or popping | A shed test determines sex from a single shed at any age, non-invasively — including a hatchling’s first shed. |
| Proving a het requires test-breeding the animal | For a recessive gene with a validated marker test, a DNA test confirms the het directly from a shed — no breeding project and no waiting on visual offspring. |
| Genetic testing needs a blood sample from the snake | Shed skin is enough. Both current labs work from a mailed shed; there is no blood draw. |
| Green tree pythons can’t be sexed until they’re older | Phenome sexes a green tree python from its first shed. |
| Send sheds to ShedTesting.com | ShedTesting.com became Phenome in October 2025; the domain now redirects there. |
How to send a shed in
The sample is easy to get — the snake makes it for you — and the labs are specific about how it should arrive:
- Collect a clean, complete shed. Take it out of the enclosure soon after the snake sheds, before it is soiled or eaten. One shed is enough, and age doesn’t matter.
- Dry it. Unroll or spread the shed flat and leave it out to dry for at least 24 hours.
- Bag and label it — one shed per bag. Mark it with your name and email, the specific test you’re ordering, and an identifier for the animal, so the result maps back to the right snake.
- Order the test that matches the question. A single morph gene, a panel, or sex — Rare Genetics Inc through its portal or MorphMarket, Phenome through phenome.com.
- Mail it and read the result in your account. Send the shed to the address the lab gives at checkout; results are delivered to your account.
Shed testing is a buying-and-breeding tool more than a husbandry one: it settles what an animal is before money or a pairing rides on it. For where those animals change hands, see the sell page and the buy page.