grades of pastel

[Ginevive]

Here he is now His father was a bit browned out, but out of the Pastels that he sired this year:
-Two are exceptionally bright with alot of yellow and little orange that turns to brown; the two females. I sold one and held back the other.
-Two males might brown out on their toplines like their dad, but they have super-awesome blushing and light heads for sure. These are yours (Ladydragon) and one that I traded for my striped male in a trade/cash deal.
-The rest were relatively orangey to begin with and are really not bad at all; they almost had a mahogany blushing type of coloration. Those I sold to a local shop at wholesale prices. I priced my pastels accordingly as to how they were/are marked. As their dad threw such a variety of babies (all but one female pastel were from the same mom) it just shows that sires can father babies that are browner or yellower than they are.
I had the opportunity to see a NERD line lemon pastel at the guy's shop. WOW! Paid a lot more than I paid for my Graz or sold my babies for, though. that's for sure!
Here yours is now. I am getting completely fed up with FedEx, and mark left them a terse message today; they are not calling us back.. our rep must be a complete slacker or something. I swear I am thinking of just driving the snake down to you since you are only in PA, but I am not sure what part. Argh...

[Sputnik]

I don't think the line of pastel means anything much, but I think it's best to shoot for the best looking example of that line. There are great examples of all lines and crap examples (So to speak by comparison) of all of them.

There are so many graziani pastels out there that we tend to think they are the darker. You don't see as many examples of the other lines, so the perception is that Graziani pastels brown out more. This is probably assisted by people breeding them to anything just to get a pastel and a few bucks.

That one isn't a bad example, I'd bred him to lighter looking females to at least shoot for some good looking off spring... just my 1.3c

And congrats!

[MarkS]

When looking for pastels to hold back, I tend to look for the lightest yellow ones. From what I've seen the dark yellow and orange ones tend to brown out the worst when they get older. However, having said that, the only male I held back from last year was a very orange looking pastel. I expect he will brown out as he gets older, however I really liked the clean banded pattern he has. I plan on breeding him to the lightest females I have. I guess time will tell if I can eventually produce a real light yellow pastel with a clean banded pattern.

Mark

[Ladydragon]

thanx jenn.. that is one of the best pics I've seen of him yet. he looks more yellow in that pic than the other ones I have of him. I guess the best option is to either get a really light reduced pattern normal female or a really bright pastel female or even a lemon or blonde pastel female and hopefully that will help get bright pastel babies. Heh Jenn.. you may have to make a road trip!! Fedex doesn't want to cooperate with you. O.o

[Ginevive]

I don't see why everyone refers to darker pastels as pieces of crap. I bought my Graziani knowing that he would brown out some (he did.) But I personally love the blushing on my snake; it is something that, unlike pretty yellow, I know is not going to fade away. And one of the coolest snakes in my opinion is a super pastel Graziani with lots of blushing. My snake's sire was a SP like that, and his browns and darker areas actually made him look like an awesome snake.
I don't know. Everyone has their own preferences and people seem to dislike darkened pastels. But is it necessary to say that they are inferior per se? They might be valued less, I can understand that; they have less of the bright yellow that differentiates them from a normal. But though I personally dislike spiders with many spots on them, I do not go around spouting "spotted Spiders are ugly!" because there are people out there that might like that and they really are not "ugly" to me, just more "normal." I would not own a Spider that was very spotted, and would never purposely buy one; if I produce females this year out of my spotless male that have a few dots, so what.. I would still hold one back.. but it is not what I would prefer.

[Ginevive]

thanx jenn.. that is one of the best pics I've seen of him yet. he looks more yellow in that pic than the other ones I have of him. I guess the best option is to either get a really light reduced pattern normal female or a really bright pastel female or even a lemon or blonde pastel female and hopefully that will help get bright pastel babies. Heh Jenn.. you may have to make a road trip!! Fedex doesn't want to cooperate with you. O.o

I know; I feel so mad about them doing this. I feel like a real ass even though it is not really anything I can change.. I will send you a PM in a sec

[Sputnik]

I don't see why everyone refers to darker pastels as pieces of crap.

Well, I'm not. At not point do I call any bp a piece of crap.... it's a description to compare browned out color to great examples. In a so to speak way to get the message across.

Any bp that hatches has earn't the right to live as good a life as any other morph or normal out there.

[Ladydragon]

I guess its just "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" thing. Although there is something to be said for those bright pastels. they just seem to shine. live and learn I guess too.

[West Coast Jungle]

Pastels vary even within the same line. I have some that are browner than others and price them accordingly. I think yours is fine. I have graziani, bell, blonde and nerd lemon but i don't pick them by lines but more by the individual snake. if you like her thats all that matters.
Here is the jewel of my pastels, he is a Bell line orange ghost.

[rabernet]

Raul, I can see why you are proud of that boy! He is smoking!