"Just" a Pastel...right?

[joelouis821]

Hello All,
A year ago I purchased a Pastel male from a local mom and pop breeder at a small reptile show. I picked him out of a group of about 20 pastels as he was clearly the brightest one, only to find out that he was deep in shed and got even brighter after he shed. Now a year later and he is 700 grams and still holding his color very well. So I picked up a Spinner female to pair him up with. I decided that I should show my son how to pop a snake, and I could not get his penes to pop. Since I don't have a probe kit, I took him to the show in Jacksonville this past weekend to get some confirmation that he was in fact a he (which he is). Now to my surprise, when I took him out at the show some of the breeders started commenting about how nice of a Pastel Yellowbelly he was.....Say what? When I mentioned that he was "just" a Pastel they said "NO WAY"! My snake was shown to a few more breeders to get their opinions, and almost all said Pastel Yellowbelly. Now my experience with pastels is fairly limited, but I have always and am still under the opinion that he is just a pretty nice pastel. What has me questioning myself is that people with a lot more experience than me were convinced otherwise. Even the few who thought he didn't have Yellowbelly in him mentioned how amazing of a Pastel he was. I have always considered him to be slightly better than average at best. Are the majority of Pastels really not that nice? Anyway, I would love to get your opinions so here are a few pics. Let me know what you think! BTW, he is going in to shed (of course), so he is a bit brighter than he appears in these cell phone pics.


http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/...ps95a5d51e.png
http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/...ps02b3e885.png
http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/...ps17966d79.png
http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/...psd864a1a4.png
http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/...psa4eb5b34.png

[CORBIN911]

Well he could be "het" for something but as far as Co-Dom-Dom goes hes just a very nice pastel! Good color and Blushings! Possibly a Lemon pastel?

[joelouis821]

Well he could be "het" for something but as far as Co-Dom-Dom goes hes just a very nice pastel! Good color and Blushings! Possibly a Lemon pastel?

OK, Thanks! That's what I thought too. I'm going to pair him up with another female too. Enchi, Mojave, Fire, or Lesser.....what do you think?

[CORBIN911]

Depends what you'd like to go for.

I mean put him with em all if you'd like. I personally don't like pastaves but that's just me.

[joelouis821]

Depends what you'd like to go for.

I mean put him with em all if you'd like. I personally don't like pastaves but that's just me.

Yeah, I really don't want to pair up a single gene with all those females, just wanted any ideas on what 2 gene combo would benefit the most from his color/blushing.

[Chkadii]

I would go with enchi, his kids will only get brighter with enchi in the mix! And pastel orange ghost enchis are really hot for a long term project.

[J.P.]

+1 on the enchi! i've seen enchi pastels, and man are they bright! it would be mind blowing if he can pass down his nice bright color to his offspring.

[joelouis821]

I know this is probably not a big deal to most, but I have a bit of an update. was able to do a little backtracking a got a hold of the breeder. They said that they were working with Congos at the time that my snake was produced and that he is without a doubt a Pastel Congo. I never heard of this morph before so I checked WOBP and there it was. Apparently it is considered Dominant and has the effect of changing up the pattern and cleaning up crosses a bit. Here is another pic of mine, you can see his pattern much better here.

[alan12013]

Thanks for the update. That's interesting. There's so many normal looking morphs out there that really do a lot when mixed into other genes.