Pastel Progression

[greenmonkey51]

As pastels get older do most start to lose their yellow a bit or does it get brighter, or does it stay the same.

[Adam_Wysocki]

All ball pythons will darken with age ... normals, pastels, albinos, axanthics, etc ... in scientific terms it's called an ontogenic color cage ... many other species go through the same thing ... I don't think I've ever seen anything that talks specifically about the "whys" and "hows", but if I had to speculate, I would guess that it is caused by a combination of diet and hormones over the lifetime of the animal.

Some pastels "change" more than others ... a very very nice looking hatchling pastel has a much better chance of still looking very very nice as an adult ... a "but hurkting" hatchling will not get "better" as it matures and will most likely still look "but hurkting" as an adult. Also, some lines of pastels generally hold on to their colors better into adult hood than others.

-adam

[elevatethis]

"but hurkting"......lol

[Adam_Wysocki]

"but hurkting"......lol

better learn the lingo if you want to hang!

-adam

[tigerlily]

You guys hang? But I thought you rolled. Dang I'm confused.

[greenmonkey51]

I may have found a pastel that could convince me to try breeding balls instead of boas but its eating live crawler mice and right now the only live I can get is small mice.

[elevatethis]

stretch 'em!

They stay on crawler/hopper mice for like a month of their lives...then they can go right up to small adults.

[Adam_Wysocki]

I may have found a pastel that could convince me to try breeding balls instead of boas but its eating live crawler mice and right now the only live I can get is small mice.

Unless it's really really tiny, small mice should be fine. Why not ask the breeder if he/she could hold it for you on deposit until it's up to small mice (which should only be a couple of weeks) and then ship?

-adam

[Adam_Wysocki]

You guys hang? But I thought you rolled. Dang I'm confused.

It takes more that knowing the lingo to roll with me.

-adam

[greenmonkey51]

The weight on the site says 58g, would it just take a couple weeks for it to grow and start taking small mice.