Selective breeding can influence the looks of the hatchlings, but not always. I've seen beautiful snakes make less than beautiful hatchlings and vice versa.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ighlight=clown

Scroll down and check out Sean's clowns versus the others shown. As noted, Piebalds and Calico's seem completely random and Pastels seem to fall somewhere between totally random and influenced by selective breeding.

It's funny, never was a Clown or Mojave guy myself, until Sean with his Reduced Patterns and Tom with his Crystals totally messed that up .