Thanks. I hope it helped.
Yes, another fun thing that "clouds" the pastel description.
Both animals by definition have a reduction of black/melanin. My biggest comparison between the two is that the hypomelanistic boa has been proved to be co-dominant in nature. Pastels have not. Past that, you are correct. It is a hard definition to differentiate.

Generally yes. You get a little extra added "umph" (is that a scientific term? LOL!) out of your hypos when you add the pastel gene to them. The pastel hypos I just had have no speckling as of yet. But, it's still early in the game. I will never go on record saying that pastels will erase all speckling from animals. It just wouldn't be true. But, in my opinion and limited breeding experience....The pastel gene sure "cleans a boa up". With pastels what you are really hoping for is a good amount of black/melanin reduced. This pastel trait will add to any morph or normal as far as I am concerned. We have seen it with anerys, ghosts, normals, pastels, hypos, etc.
Here's my biggest reason for me wanting and enjoying the pastel trait. I know that all boas will darken with age. For my collection, I want to own a full grown boa that still looks nice and light. I don't want a dark adult. (I love normals. Don't get me wrong.) It's just my personal preference. That is what I am drawn to. Babies are great, and they generally look great. I'm into big boas. There's nothing better in my eyes. If it's light and colorful........I'm a happy guy.
This does touch on something that should be stated as well. If you breed animals that have an overall reduction of black they should not darken up as much as adults. The mother pastel is now six years old. She looks dark now because she just gave birth but she is a real stunning 6-7 foot animal. I imagine this will hold true with her. Time will tell. But, that's my goal with pastels. Nice clean babies that grow to be nice clean adults.

Color is a byproduct. But, it's a nice one. LOL! I specifically selected Ronne's Lucy bloodline because they are great pastels first. Second, they are really colorful. It's the best of both worlds for me. This is where line breeding comes into play again. There are pastels out there that are not so colorful. Davey has his own bloodline of pastels that are high yellow. But, they have a "drab" look to them. I am in no way saying this in a bad way. It's late and I'm not articulation well. I love his pastels. I want some!! But, it's a totally different pastel look. I can't even imagine what his hypo will turn out being like. They will be amazing!
From Ronne's description it is the continual washing away of the melanin that brings about the color. I think it's this as well as other line driven traits. Heck, I do that. From my last litter I picked two of the cleanest babies out of the litter. They are also very colorful. So, in future breedings I will be passing on the pastel trait as well as color into another bloodline.
Hope that helps somewhat. Forgive all the spelling and grammer mistakes. It's late and I'm being lazy. I don't want to spell check.
John


>>Thanks for explaining all of that. It makes it a little clearer for me. LOL. My one question is explaining the difference between hypos and pastels to other people who don't know anything about boas. I was explaining pastels to my little brother the other day and he said "Wait, I thought hypos had reduced black." I really didn't know what to say. He could see the difference between the two but if I didn't have pictures to show I would have no idea how to explain the difference. Hypo meens reduced black pigment and pastels have reduced black. Any ideas on explaining the difference?
>>Also, obviously(sp) if you breed a pastel to a salmon you get pastel salmons. But its hard to explain this one too. They both have reduced black, now do the babies have extra reduced black (I know that didn't make any sense). But my point is that I have heard that pastel has NOTHING to do with color. But all of the pastel salmons I have seen have an extra pink and red look to them, so in my mind it does have something to do with color. Any thought? Thanks.
>>"Britney" my salmon het sharp and "Willy" my sharp albino Michael Burton
>>
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"To be the best..........You must lose your mind."

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