Quote Originally Posted by angllady2 View Post
Just because they ate a lot of mice, doesn't mean good health. Lots of people raise their mice on substandard food because it's cheaper. Poor food in the mice, poor nutrition in the mice you feed the snake. It happens more than you would think.

Neither of those snakes look remotely like a pastel, not even an ugly pastel.

If you want to bred them then by all means do so. But do it with the expectation they will produce average quality normal offspring which you may or may not have trouble finding homes for.

I've seen many and many snakes in my day, and what you see in these two is really not all that uncommon in mass produced, malnourished ball pythons. I see more rescues every year that have these same pale splotches, or should I say snakes in need of being rescued from neglectful or inexperienced owners. I've even owned a few like that. And a couple of them really were morphs. My husband's super pastel is a great example. When he got her [ because she was cheap ] she was the palest, brownest, ugliest excuse for a super pastel I'd ever seen. And I mean UGLY. Now, while she'll never win any beauty contests, she did color up really nice once she was offered good quality food on a regular basis.

Had a mojave the same way. He was pale, washed out, almost a greenish color. He looked like he was sick. A few months later, with plenty of good food in his belly, he's starting to look like a mojave should.

Also have a fire, same thing. She'd been starved down to 400 grams at 2 years old. Pale and sickly looking, with these odd bright patches like your snakes have. Today, she eats like a horse on the healthy food I raise myself, and you'd never know she was the same snake.

So by all means do breed them. That's the only way you'll ever know for sure. But don't expect something never before seen out of them, because that will only set you up for disappointment.

Gale
I'v had them scince July and been feeding them med rats weekly that I rasie myself on mauzri rat breeder food. they havent changed a bit in color althought they put on about 800- 1000 grams.