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Man I feel like I have looked at a million Pastels the last two years....both my own and pouring over web classifieds. It feels like out of no where appears the Blonde Pastel.

Frankly, I just don't see much of a difference.....is this a promo gimic or what? Who has the claim of fame for producing this "new" morph? First we had the Pastel....then the Lemons....now the Blondes.

Hey?....maybe I could produce a slightly different shade of yellow/orange with some blushing and call it the "Vanillas".

Maybe someone can set me straight on this one....some great pics pointing out the distinctive differences from a regular pastel and the Blonde. I flat out could be wrong...but I just have not seen it.

Jim

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Well said.....pretty much my take.

Does anyone have contrary evidence. Who proved out the Blonde Pastel? What makes it different from any other pastel, other then price of course.

Jim

Heh. This is my feeling on pretty much all morph/designer snakes

Heh. This is my feeling on pretty much all morph/designer snakes

That is pretty much my feeling about every single industry or facet of life that involves humans. Some are better than others. I think the snake industry is just fine. I'd rather make money at breeding snakes than contributing to making another car, or wood product, or agribusiness.
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Super form. It's too early to know now if one "kind" of pastel makes a better super, but if one does, then I'd think it would be worth more dough. I have definately seen some mediocre, as well as some knockout supers!! So when I think of the money-making abilities of pastels, I think of combos and especially the supers. Pastels are pretty in their own right, but being co-dom and relatively cheap, enterprising folks are thinking about the combos and the supers, and the super combos instead of what "quality" pastels they can make.

I don't think that right now there has been enough breeding to know if there are different flavors of pastel that should be worth more. What about the partner they are paired with?? What about variability within clutches?? We need more time to see what produces what with more consistency.

I have a pastel male who definately isn't the best pastel. I've heard that using a clean-looking normal female makes a difference in the way the offspring will look. We've all seen the pastel ghost, the bumble bee and the killer bee. Will it matter much in those combos wether you used a browned-out pastel, a lemon pastel, or a blonde pastel??? I don't think we can know that. . . yet. One or two or ten animals that show a trait (or traits) is just not enough to make that judgement IMHO!

Theoretically, couldn't you take the ugliest pastel in the world and breed out the "ugly" by being picky with it's mates and it's offspring's mates and it's offspring's offspring's mates? We shall see. Right now, I would not pick a lemon or a blonde over a regular pastel, just as I think it's crazy to pick a high-white pied over a low white when it's known to be a veriable trait. This is only my opinion of course. Maybe getting yourself a blonde or a lemon is only saving you the trouble of breeding out the "ugly?" It seems to me ball breeding is really just in it's infancy. Look at cornsnakes as a comparison. Their selective breeding has gone from breeding for simple recessive traits to breeding certain individuals for subgroups within those traits (eg. amel: sunglow, reverse okeetee, candy cane, etc.) Will balls get there some day? With smaller clutch sizes it will be longer before we find out, but I believe it's a good model to look at.

For example, I have noticed the mustache trait carries in several SK line axanthics and axanthic hets. Then there is the "belly line" suspected to link pied hets. My 03 normal pastel sibling has some pretty damn light eyes. There are a huge number of poissibilities in what subtle traits can be inherited and what can not- "blushing", black backs, "alien heads", bands, eye stripes that stop or eye stripes that fade onto the chin, etc. Some day hopefully we'll have the ability to know consistently what is reproduceable and what is not. Maybe then I'll hold lemons or blondes over normal pastels, but for now to me they are all pastels with a hundred thousand possibilities in store for them.

Wow! Very well communicated.

Pastel is a pastel is a pastel....I have to agree. I have seen "Normal" pastels kick both incredible and ugly pastels in the same clutch. Just because you get a nice one every once in awhile doesn't necessarily mean you slap a new name on it. You can however, begin to refine and improve the pastel morph as you indicated in your post.

I have to say though....as the ball market grows and the craze becomes magnified (it's a good thing) there is much more of a temptation for people to just toss a new name out there for the same old morph. Let's just call it what it is....."check out this great looking pastel!" It's not a lemon...lime...blonde...or sandy yellowish/orange pastel.....no...no...no...it's just a cool looking pastel.

Jim

A customer of mine purchased a c.b.b. neonate from the originator (?) in '98. Adam from Millennium Morphs acquired this animal and I believe he is currently producing from it. I don't know if they have ever been bred into the Pastel Jungles but are similar. They are dominant - poss. co-dominant as I do not know if anyone has ever bred them together. The most noticeable difference is that they do not have the "blushing" colour on the head. I have been told the colors intensify w/ age but I have not seen any adults. Most Pastel Jungles get fairly dark (especially down the back) around 3 - 5 yrs. of age. Blondes are SUPPOSED to keep their colouration better.

The blonde pastel line originated from a wc import, this line was started by Matt Turner. as an import it was unrelated. to the other lines of pastels. It is obviously the same mutation as the other pastel lines, in the same way that all ghosts balls are the smae mutation, that said theya re not all created equal. look at the variability in different lines of ghosts, the better lines consistently sell for more money , the same is true for the pastels, there a are at least 4 proven lines that I know of and perhaps a few more. I only work with the blonde line myself and have produced several cluthes from my male. They seem to average a little nicer than a few of the other lines and most hold their color a bit better. that said, there are very nive pastels from the other lines and some blondes that are less spectacular, all you are essentially doing is paying more to better your odds of getting a trophy animal. to my knowledge this line has not been crossed to the other lines and at this point nobody knows if they are compatable, I would not be shocked either way. I was a little surprised to find out how much the blonde line animals were selling for myself this year, I obtained my animal directly from Matt Turner in a trade a few years ago. But like anything else with the free market, its only worth what people will pay.
There is an exellent chance that the first "super" form this line will be produced soon this year, so we will see what that looks like soon enough.

Nick
Inland Empire Reptile Breeders

Jim