Caramel/pastel mystery solved!!

[BChambers]

Or perhaps the spontaneous mutation is in your male, rather than in his pastel offspring?

It would explain how the original breeder thought there was no possibility the snake carried a pastel gene. And even if you assume the breeder got confused about which animals he'd bred, did he even have a pastel caramel or pastel het caramel to have put in the mix to get the pastel caramel outcome?

Anyway, glad to see the mystery has been at least partially solved! Congrats!

Casey-You're of course correct-that is entirely possible-in fact, given the appearance of the sire's parents, I think it's quite likely. Unfortunately, since it didn't happen"on my watch", so to speak, I don't believe I can ethically advertise this as a "new pastel line". Too bad.