Pastave vs. Mojave

I've been looking at getting a ball python for several years now and have decided to get a mojave (female) and pastave (male). I've been breeding corn snakes since 2001 and have a good handle on genetics/morphs there but though I've been reading everything I can on ball python morphs, I'm having trouble seeing the difference between those two. I've read the post about mojaves (http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...PHS...-Mojaves) which I've found to be very helpful but how can I tell the difference between a mojave and a pastave? Would the pastave have green eyes like the pastels? Also, what makes one higher end than another? Lighter color? More even pattern? If any of the experienced owners on here would be willing to give me some tips on this, I'd be extremely thankful since I'm going to Tinley in 2 weeks and hoping to pick up one or both there depending on what I find.

From what I understand, Pastaves should have green eyes of the Pastel. I have a Pastel Phantom and she has green eyes. I would look for a lot of blushing compared to a regular Mojave, as well as a overall brighter tone.

The advantage of having a Pastave and a Mojo is that you can get a Pastel Super Mojo BEL, which will dull the grey spot on the head, if a cleaner BEL is your thing.

Pastaves are lighter and have more yellow to them. Buy from a reputable breeder if youre not completely confident in being able to tell the difference between them.

i look at the head, a mojave head isnt usually all that blushed, if at all, but the head on a pastave has alot of blushing.

How is the eye color on the Pastave?

I know on my Pastel Phantom they are green, on my Hypo Mojave they are yellow and black and on my Jigsaw they are silver and black. And, of course the Lesser Mojo's are blue.

So my BEL complex snakes have the entire gamut of eye colors.

Thank you all for the helpful tips and BEL's are what I'm looking at making. I don't breed anything I don't absolutely love and the types of balls I've fallen for are albino, mojave, and BELs. Luckily, the mojaves make BEL's and I like the lighter coloration of the pastaves so it should be a good start.

As for a reputable breeder, I'm going to try to find one and plan on talking to people at the show but I'm not familiar with the ball python breeders up here (Illinois/Wisconsin) so we'll see how that goes.

If you wanna make bel's you mind as well pickup a pair of pastaves so you have the chance of producing superpastels too ;)

For Illinois I highly reccomend Mark Petros.

I looked him up and it seems like he'll be at Tinley. Thanks for the recommendation. I'll be sure to look for him there. As for super pastels, I prefer the mojave pattern but we'll see. I do like the interesting possibilities with the pastave x pastave pairing.

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Originally Posted by Dracoluna

Also, what makes one higher end than another?

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You have 2 genes to work with in a pastave rather than just 1 in a mojave.