Pastel boa?

[Kittycatpenut]

How do you tell a pastel boa from a normal one? I bought a four year old male "pastel" boa at the last reptile show, and I don't really know anything about the morph other than that it is line bred. I don't have a "normal" boa to compare him to, but he has an orange belly. I'll post a pic when I find my camera, this is the only one I have of him now of some guy holding him (he was about to shed here)

[ball python 22]

I think Pastel cleans up the pattern but I dont know much about boa morphs. Correct me if I am wrong though.

[Evenstar]

^^ Yes, that's pretty much what "pastel" means. In boas, pastel is not really a specific gene. It is only arguably inheritable. It's really not possible to tell from this pic just exactly what you have, but it does appear to have a nice clean pattern which I would expect to see in a pastel. I would, however, also expect to see a slightly paler and maybe slightly reddish hue to his coloration. But it may be that the lighting is off enough in this pic that we can't tell. Either way, he's a nice boa!

[Kittycatpenut]

He's much brighter in person, especially because he just shed. Now my deal seems even more awesome; 30$ for a breeder male pastel Now to find him a mate and some money to buy her with...

[decensored]

I often wondered this too! I bought a breeding pair of boas at the kitchner show in 2011 and wondered about breeding, whether the babies would breed out co dominate like ball pythons.. and if so, how you would be able to tell the difference between normal babies and pastels.