Not sure about this morph. Thoughts?

[Mr_Gunther]

This female ball python was sold to me at a reptile event as a Pastel, but the guy I bought it from said it may have another or an extra gene but he wasn't sure.

I'm relatively new to ball pythons but most everything I've seen about pastels is that they're more of a yellow than orange. Could it be that this is just a low quality pastel, or something else entirely? Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

[albinos_rule]

My guess is just an average pastel, maybe some others can give you a better idea..

I think sometimes vendors say things to make people think they are more than they are. Either way it is a very nice snake.

[Blue Apple Herps]

Yes, just looks like a pastel.

[alan12013]

He wasn't sure? How did he say it? Perhaps he said it might be "het" for another gene? If a breeder told you that it might be a 2 gene animal I would consider resexing the snake as well to verify it's a female before you made any breeding plans. It's a classic example of the Pastels I see for sale around where I live. She'll change a bit as she gets older. Most Pastels will lose some of that glossy yellow coloration and get darker almost like a gold brown for most of their pattern. Although some get better with age as my male has got some amazing coloration in his blushing as he gets older.

[Mr_Gunther]

He said something to the effect het fire, but again I'm not positive. He was very thorough on other info regarding the snakes, both had shed and fed 3 times, he did sex both of the snakes in front of me (both female), even sexed a male from the same age group for comparison (per my request).

I wasn't too sure about breeding the pastel anyway because of her being more orange, I was thinking she may brown/tan out quicker and I didn't know if that was a quality issue or not. She's still got some growing to do though so I figure I have at least a year and a half to change my mind.

Thanks everyone for the input!



Non-related: The other purchase was a Mojave Spider. Definitely considering her for breeding. She has a slight wobble during feeding or excitement, but then again I hear most Spiders do.

[Tigerhawk]

It looks like a pastel to me as well.

[alan12013]

There's nothing wrong with that Pastel so not sure why you wouldn't want to breed her. Unless you're going to tip top quality right out the gate which is pretty tough for most of us. I would try to find out just in case. If the breeder has a website just go look at their collection and you could probably figure it out. Het's are pretty good things to have as it's 1 step into a recessive gene.

[J.P.]

breeder said het fire? no such thing.....makes we wonder how much the breeder knows about ball pythons.