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I have had her since she was a yearling but never knew the genetics of her parents. Can she be identified as a pastel by looking at her or would I have to find out her parents genes to know if she inherited it? Otherwise, she has a very clean pattern and has a lot of pink thats hard to see in the photo.

Thanks,

Mat

Hi Matt,

That is a really nice looking female, very robust and the side pattern is very clean!

As for pastel... well, IMO, pastel is a line bred trait. So without knowing the lineage of the boa, can't call it a pastel. The whole 'pastel' thing has been thrown around so much in the last few years. People have called my boa below a pastel (I always show the same pic, but I can't help it, I love this one) I just call her a high-pink normal. She was a rescue, so I don't know if she is from a 'pastel-line' or not. Lots of 'normal' boas have good amounts of pink on them, does that mean it's a pastel? You could breed your high-pink boas and down the line call it "Matt's pastel line" or something like that. Anyways, this is all just my humble opinion.

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'There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."' -Rainshadow

"Pastel" is and has always been a marketing term used by people to justify extended monetary worth/value to otherwise exceptionally "colored" Colombian BCI.
Sorry but its the truth.
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TnK

they had a pic posted about 1.5- 2 weeks ago to see if people thought he had a pastel or not. Pastel is defined as having a REDUCTION in black pigmentation. So in that case any snake with black in their side markings is how I use rule of thumb in determining pastel or not. So I'm saying that the side markings are all brown and contain very little black speckles if any. What you think about that?
Bob

I agree 100% pastel is so overused it has almost no meaning anymore. Both your boas are beatiful but if they are not from a known line I would say they are not pastels.