First off..........Awesome boas!!! The boas you posted would be very nice Pastels in my opinion. If I had the cage space, and the boss's (wife's) approval, I would buy them all from you at a normals price.
Here is my half a cup of coffee/trying to get the kids ready in the morning pastel "definition".
For me, since the Pastel term was coined by Ronne I have stuck to what his definition is. It is an animal that is line bred, which exhibits an overall reduction of black. Breeding two animals, which have this look, should result in some offspring exhibiting a more noticeable reduction of black. Pastel is almost a misnomer in my eye. It has nothing to do with color at all. This is a "natural hang up" due to the name. It is almost misleading. (Which I am sure it was not meant to be.)
It is a line driven "morph" plain and simple. THIS IS WHERE the labeling questions begin. Like you, I have also seen many, many animals being sold as pastels that I would never buy. Like you said, they look just like normals. This morph is a VERY buyer beware animal in my opinion. You have to know what a Pastel really is before you can buy one. It really is a sad truth. People will ride on the "coat tails" of know names to sell their animals. American Jungles, almost Motleys, Arabasqueish, and lets not forget Pastel. I have been around for quite some time. Luckily, I pretty much know a fake when I see one. (A side note" Since Jungles have been posted here so much it is my prediction we will see a lot more "Jungles" in the classifieds which will only end up being aberrant boas.)
Sorry, I am digressing. Here is where the "real confusion lies".
Since the pastel is a line driven animal all you need to start off with are a couple of boas that have a noticeable reduction of black. The some of the babies would/could be first generation pastels. Since it is a line driven animal. It does not have to come from the founder’s name only. (Even though some of them have. Ex. EBV reds) So, this is where the "different" pastel line names come from. Davey pastel is a great example of this. His bloodline has no association with Ronnes that I know of. But, they are an awesome example of the beauty of a pastel. Seeing some of Larry Keller's animals posted on here are a great example of a pastel. (But, I think he just labels them as nice normals only.) So, people use the description of the animal by try and show that this is their line.
Genetics????????//
Again, I will wait for the founder of the line to officially say how he thinks the genetics are. I can however share my experience with breeding pastels.
I had a Ronne Pastel bred to a male Church Pastel Anery. (The Ronne is a know line of pastels. The anery was always/still is a very light animal. Still a reduction of black on him) Breeding these two animals together brought about 21 babies. Only one looked like a normal boa. The rest exhibited the pastel trait from their parents. There was obviously a varying degree as well. In my opinion, there are lesser pastels and high-end pastels. All are differentiated by their overall reduction of black. Color was a nice byproduct. But, has nothing to do with being a pastel. It's just icing on the cake.

Here are things I look for in a pastel.
And, for the sake of the examle...I'm only talking about "normals". No Anerys....Etc.
1) Overall look. Speckling/black??? How light is the animal? How much contrast does the animal have?
2) Side medallions. Are they faint....Or, dark??? Do they have low/medium/high degree of black within it?
3)The belly. Is the speckling/black? Again, low/medium/high.
4)The side of the tail. Where the tail bands are. Is the speckling/black? Again, low/medium/high.
5)I erased five.
6)Saddles. Are they tan. How much black is there? low/medium/high.
7)I will even look at the "moustache". Is it all there? Or, does it appear to be smaller than normal. We've all heard this technique talked about with hypos.
8)Color. Now this has nothing to do with an animal being a pastel...But, I want it all!!

So it really is an overall reduction of black. And, there are many variables to it. It can't be helped unfortunately. So, I look at all these things and then think to myself....This animal will darken with age.....Will this be a light or dark adult?

Here's a good read on pastels from Ronne.
http://www.theboaforum.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=boapics1&action=display&num=1050880714

Hope my post makes sense. It's the ramblings of a "madman".
Take care,
John
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"To be the best..........You must lose your mind."

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