Pastel Morph?

are these pastels?

I need a good side shot to tell if the full stripe is pastel or not. The partial stripe does not appear to be pastel but is still a killer boa.

Chris

The partial stripe does not appear to be pastel but is still a killer boa.

well what makes it NOT a pastel? they both have almost no speckling and even seem to have a decent amount of black removed from thier saddles. the cream coloration from the tail even spills into the body color.

apparently i should ask Jeff because based on the thread i read that he posted, pastel is merely a linebred reduction of black pigment (melanin.)

when i took a looked at the litter (maybe a day after they were born) there were varying amounts of speckiling from neonate to neonate. the more abberant examples of the litter had, coincedentally(?), the least amount of speckling. the partial stripe, that you (JCCS) said WAS NOT a pastel being the best example of this.

i got one of them. here she is (i just snapped this picture and my girlfriend was the only black surface around at the time)...

NOTE:the picture i took of mine was indoors while the striped and partial striped sibling's pictures were taken outdoors.

Speckling has very little to do with being pastel. I look at how washed out the side diamonds are, how faded the saddles are and how clean the stomach is, among other things. The partial stripe in your picture, while being very nice, is not in my opinion a pastel. These pics show a couple of mine which I think display the above traits. Remember, this is all a matter of opinion. An animal that I believe to be pastel somone else may not, and vice-versa.

Chris

how clean the stomach is

from speckles?

anyhow thanks everyone. im going to try to goto the source of the pastel, the boaphile, and find out what i have.

Bottom line: There is no genetic trait in Boas that results in a pastel "morph" specimen, yet. It is strictly a line bred quality so far, therefore I do not consider it to be a morph. In my opinion morphs are specifically genetic traits that result in a visual or otherwise apparently different specimens. Everyone has their own opinion or beliefs however, to each thier own. I just think keeping it simple is a more honest way of conducting the trade of such animals... Especially in a day when people like to create names & titles for everything different they seem to run accross that has yet to be proven.

morphs are specifically genetic traits that result in a visual or otherwise apparently different specimens

ill go with that... there are color phases or mere variation in a litter unworthy of a name.

but what about polygenic traits?

i agree that maybe they should be called "pastel phase" boas but what are you gonna do?

They are not a true morph but rather a specific variance of a colombian or other ssp that many people(myself included) find to be very appealing.

I agree with you Chris, as in my post on the first page I quoted above. I believe that Pastel is just a good name for that specific look of boas.

Chad, I have seen pastel boas with a decent amount of speckling, some were rather heavily speckled. Usually they have fairly clean stomachs though. I am interested to find out your results with Jeff, please post his reply.

Chris

well i just checked the bellys on both my full stripe and my 1\3 stripe and they are both very very clean esp. the 1\3 stripe i could probably count the speckles, theres is hardly anything, i wish my digitai cam didnt break or i would show it off ill have to wait till chad visits brentwood till i or he can post better side shots and belly pics