Any Tips of Picking Out a Normal to Cross with Pastel?

[BrianaK]

So now I'm really on the lookout for a nice normal. I plan on getting her up to breeding size then crossing her with my pastel and mojave. What "kind" of normal, crossed with a pastel or mojave, will make the best looking pastels, mojaves and normals in your opinion? A very light one with lots of blushing? Or one with deep blacks, minimal blushing and dark golds? Thanks for the input.

[DmD]

Choose one with nice blushing and a reduced pattern, and maybe one with some high yellow.


Choose what you enjoy !!!!

[Lolo76]

Personally I like very light pastels with lots of blushing, so those are good qualities for your normal... I think high contrast between the black & yellow is good too, for making the pastel's yellow pop. To give you an idea, here's the girl I picked specifically for my pastel - but unfortunately she didn't breed this year (feeding issue). Hopefully she'll go next season!

She doesn't have a lot of blushing, but I loved her light head & pale colors...

[Lolo76]

P.S. It also depends on what "type" of pastels you want to make... if you like busy patterned pastels get a busy normal, and the opposite if you prefer reduced pastels.

[kellysballs]

I have bred my pastels to a few different types of normals. Mona Lisa is a reduced pattern, light yellowish normal. A real smoker! She was our first ball python and specifically picked because of her light coloration and clean reduced pattern. She bred to our pastel het for SK line axanthic and produced washed out pastels that where nice and light yellow but didn't have the POP you look for in the yellows when you (at least when I) buy a pastel.

Now Lucky was our first animal to bred to. We purchased her because she was large enough to lay eggs our first season instead of waiting for Mona to grow for another year. Lucky is a darker normal female nothing really odd or different except she has a nice dark coloration. (not super dark). She produces the nicest pastels I have ever seen. Her babies POP! They have clean sides and beautiful oranges that gradually fade to a goldenrod yellow. So I prefer darker somewhat reduced pattern females to make pastels with.

Photobucket is doing maintenance right now so I will have to post picks later.

[jallenfl]

Depends on the age and size as far as the later quality will be concerned...

A young normal with lots of orange will most likely turn brown and washed out as an adult.

I prefer to stick with high amounts of blushing with any cross to a normal. Also gold is a nice touch. Look into Bryan Gundy and his gold blush Mojo on Youtube... He shows you the nice normal crossed to make those and she is incredible. Just my OP

J

[BrianaK]

Depends on the age and size as far as the later quality will be concerned...

A young normal with lots of orange will most likely turn brown and washed out as an adult.

I prefer to stick with high amounts of blushing with any cross to a normal. Also gold is a nice touch. Look into Bryan Gundy and his gold blush Mojo on Youtube... He shows you the nice normal crossed to make those and she is incredible. Just my OP

J

Buying a normal off of him as soon as I get my rack I've never wanted any morph as bad as I want one of his gold blush normals. Is that weird?

[iCandiBallPythons]

Why not go with a co-dom female?