My 2008 mouser pastel is 473 grams, and my ratters are over 600, but I would not be concerned that a 2008 snake at 400 grams is undersized. It may have been a late '08, it may be on a 7 day feeding schedule (mine are on 5 day), or it might be a mouser. It might even just be a slow grower, or destined to be a smaller snake.

Folks are in a huge hurry to grow their snakes up to breed in one year, but that is EXTREMELY rare, and unrealistic. You can get some of them up to size in 2 years, but the most reasonable time frame for females is three years. They get up to around 500 grams the first year, then 1000 the second, and 1500 the third.

Some grow much faster than this--some grow a bit slower. But it's MUCH better to wait a year if your girl is 1485 going into the breeding season, and get her up to 1900 grams for the NEXT year than it is to breed her too small and possibly stunt her growth as a result.

My personal theory, which is supported by observing other species, is that if you breed an animal when it is small, it will not achieve all of its potential for size. And in general, larger ball pythons lay larger clutches, so why rush it?

Watching pastels grow up is fun--their colors are at their peak when they're about a year old, in my opinion--after that, they may start to brown out and change. This is not to say that adult pastels aren't pretty--even a very browned-out pastel is gorgeous in person, and of course better quality pastels hold their color better than others. There are two minds about pastels--the high yellow 'lemon' pastels are favored by some, while the browner but extremely blushy 'Graziani' type pastels are favored by others. Of course they aren't real 'lemons' or 'Grazianis' unless they come from those breeders, but the names have caught on for the general appearances. They're two very different-looking snakes.