Pastel Royal Pythons for sale in the UK
Pastel gives a royal python green eyes, a clean belly and warm browns and yellows, and two copies make a brighter, more faded Super Pastel. Paired with almost any other gene, it tends to clean up and brighten the result.
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- £45
- 24 for sale
All Pastel royal pythons
About the Pastel gene
One of the oldest and most common royal python (ball python) genes is Pastel. It is prized for turning a normal into a snake with green eyes and a clean belly that is warm yellow-and-brown. Two copies make a Super Pastel which is brighter and more faded. Because it reliably lifts the yellow and cleans up the pattern of whatever it is paired with, Pastel is also one of the most useful base genes for combos in the hobby.
Appearance
You can tell a Pastel from a normal royal python most easily by its white lips, green eyes, and bright yellow scales inside the dark alien head markings. Between those markings, blushing spreads through the dark pattern. The background ranges from blue-black to grey, with the colour of the animal varying from a vivid saffron yellow to a light, warm gold. Yellow flames reach up the sides through the dark markers, the belly is clean, and the tail shares the colours of the body. Although some animals keep the look of a pale hatchling, the head can darken and colours can deepen as they age. This variation comes from the several separate wild-caught founder lines of the gene. A Super Pastel goes further with a faded, pearl-like head, neon yellow as a hatchling, and heavy blushing that can have a purplish-grey cast. Its pattern fades more than the pattern of a single-gene Pastel.
Genetics
Pastel is an incomplete dominant gene. One copy shows, while two copies create the Super Pastel, which is a more faded and visibly brighter animal. Breeders still say "co-dom", the hobby's older, looser word for the same pattern. It is not in an allelic complex of its own. In 1997, the gene was proven out. Over the years, several separate wild-caught lines have entered the hobby under the Pastel name. Some of these are listed separately from Pastel itself because they are proven lines in their own right, such as Citrus Pastel, Lemon Pastel and Pastel Jungle. Many named combos include Pastel. It makes a Bumble Bee with Spider, and a Killer Bee is made by Super Pastel with Spider.