Pastel?

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Originally Posted by EvesFriend

Interesting.
So what makes these BP's "normal" if it obviously isn't their looks? Phenotype/genotype? What truly differentiates one BP from the next? I mean a Spider BP doesn't look "normal," but neither do some of the pics you posted, in relation to a regular brown/black BP. So what makes one BP a "normal," and another BP a "Pastel," as opposed to a normal that visually looks like a pastel?

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Genetics. The top one was from a mojave x normal pairing, so I know the genetics. The male I tried to prove out and got all normals.

In order to have a morph, the snake has to be able to pass down its genes. For example, there is a pastel gene, an axanthic gene, and albino gene... However, some snakes dont look like you typical ball python but cant pass on the look. Those are normals.

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Originally Posted by EvesFriend

That's pretty interesting, thank you for all these replies.


Can someone explain co-dominant? What would the co-dominant gene be?

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There are three basic kinds of traits; recessive, codominant and dominant. For all three types, each animal has two copies of each gene. When it breeds, it passes one gene to the offspring so the baby has one gene from each parent.

Recessive - In order to see the trait, the snake has to have both copies of the gene. If it only has one it still carries the gene but you cant see it. An example is albino.

Codominant - The snake only needs one copy to be a visual morph. If it has both copies of the gene, also called a super, it looks like an extreme version of the morph. Pastels/Super Pastel and Mojaves/BELs are examples.

Dominant - It doesnt matter if the animal has one copy of the gene or two, as long as it has the gene you can tell. There isnt a super form. An example is a pinstripe.

this might help you:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-makes-a-morph

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Originally Posted by EvesFriend

Everywhere I take my bp people say she's def. not a normal BP. She has that pastel gene, not as bright as some pastels I have seen but still very obvious. Here are a few pics days before she started the shedding phase. Let me know what you think!

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She is either a pastel or she is not and in this case, sorry but she is not.

Keep in mind that normals can vary greatly from light brown to dark brown, with a lot of blushing or none at all, busy patter or reduced, etc.

If you bought it as a normal, it's a normal :gj: You could always breed it and find out.

You have a very pretty classic :gj: Like others have said, normals vary VASTLY in pattern and color

looks like a high gold normal to me

One of the coolest things about normals is there are sooo many types of normals.

I've seen literally hundreds of normals, and no two look alike. There are the classic brown and black, lighter and darker, more pattern and less pattern, they really are like snowflakes.

The reason we know yours is not a pastel, is that there are several key visual traits to a pastel or most other morphs, while many snakes are like yours and show one or sometimes two traits, if ALL the traits aren't present, then it isn't the morph.

Gale

It looks like it possibly has spots below the nose like a spotnose but you can't know for sure without a nose shot. It is not yellow on the dorsal, its just lighter gold. I have a normal that looks just like yours and at first I wondered if he had something in him because his dad was pastel but he proved out to just be normal!

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Originally Posted by EvesFriend

So if she does not contain at least some mutation of the pastel gene, why does she look so different from the normal brown/black ball pythons? She is obviously brighter and lighter than the brown/black BP's, what is this?


I didn't think she was really a pastel BP either, however when I hold her next to "normal" BP's, she def. stands out. I have even had ppl tell me this with no reference point.


Also, if you look at the first pic, the line through the tail is very obviously yellow. Most "normal" bp's I know of have no yellow.

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All normal ball pythons look different. Some sand out more, but are still just pretty normals. This one contains nothing abnormal to me, maybe your friends just haven't seen many baby normals?
Personally I agreed with calling normals Classics instead, as none of them are "normal" they all look different, more blushing on some, more yellow on others, less or more pattern, yet 100% normal. Classic is a better name.:gj:

Still a nice classic though.