Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a question with respect to the pastel gene. What do we know of it? Is it a co-dominate, dominate, or recessive trait? One of my snakes mother was a pastel but the father was not. This little guy still seems to have some of the pastel traits that mom did. If anyone has anything to say about this feel free.

Josh

Generally speaking, the "pastel" is a line-bred trait, meaning
boas were bred together (not necc. related) that shared a
certain look the breeder was going for (ie, low black, reduced
side diamonds, high pink, etc) in hopes of producing babies
that also express those desired traits. Basically, it does
not work in a simple recessive or co-dom fashion, it is just
a natural (albiet very pretty IMO) variation of normal.
breed two high-pink boas and the chances are most or all of
the babies will inherit the high pink characteristics. If
you breed a 'pastel' type boa with a normal (dark) boa, the
babies will most likely be a blend of the two parents, with
some probably showing more influance from the pastel and some
looking more like the darker one too. Jeff (boaphile) has
pastel-lines he has refined for generations to produce his
boas. IMO the best way to breed a pastel is with another
high-pink or nicely colored boa to get the best results.

True pastels are the result of line breeding (Jeff Ronne produces the best pastels) they are a cleaned patterned, usually more colorful snake, that is not codom, dom, or recessive, but it seems to act as a co dom trait, when you breed a pastel to a normal you can end up with anywhere from 10% showing the pastel trait, to 90% showing the trait....

you can read Jeff Ronnes thoughts on them on his boaforum at www.boaforum.com

Later Randy T.
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You never experience life until you have kids..then you realize what you should have done rather then what you did do