Large-eyed palmettos

I’ve been admiring palmettos for some time and would like to purchase one; however, I noticed that the seller I’m interested in buying from also has several unusually large-eyed individuals for sale at a reduced price due to their condition. There’s a disclosure that the mode of inheritance is undetermined and the seller recommends that they not be bred.

Although I would be purchasing a normal-eyed snake -NOT one of the afflicted individuals- I’m concerned that I could possibly be introducing a het gene for the condition into our group which could then be passed on. So, my plans are on hold for now. I’m hoping someone knows more about the condition and could answer some questions for me:

Are palmettos known for this issue? If so, is it a condition that only certain lines of palmettos carry? How common is the large-eyed trait in general (ie., non-Palmetto individuals)? Are larger-than-normal eyes indeed genetic? If so, do you believe the gene (or genes) is a simple recessive?

I should mention that none of their other snakes for sale appear to have this issue -just the palmettos. If anyone has insight or more information, I’d really appreciate it. Thank you so much!

The large eyes are a side effect of the leucism. It can be selected away from but there's always a chance for bug-eyed individuals. You just have to look at any other leucistic rat snake to see that the two traits are linked.

Thank you for the info.... I’m definitely going to read up on leucitic rat snakes further. Off hand, do you know if it is more common or severe in males? I noticed that all of the “larger than normal” eyed individuals were male...

Again.. many thanks! Looks like I have a lot more reading to do before even contemplating buying one.

Males do seem to be more often affected than females, but both sexes can have the trait