Help me confirm / or identify boa morph

[Karliereptiles]

Hello! I’m trying to confirm or identify my new boa’s morph and what kind of boa she is because I’m really new to them and the bcc, bci etc confuse me. She was sold to me as a “Pink Pastel” but I haven’t been able to find anything online relating to pink pastel.

 

[AbsoluteApril]

"pastel" is a line bred trait in boas for low black which usually results in a higher pink showing through. It's not a dom/codom trait, it a normal variable in boas. Some lines are refined enough that names are attached to them. Looks like a very pretty normal boa to me, (Bi which used to be BCi, the classification was changed).
I hope this helps!


edit- I also moved this to the discussion forums

 

[JCCS]

Agreed. I wouldn't call your boa a pastel, but it's a highly subjective term that has unfortunately allowed a lot of people to use it very loosely. It's a nice little common boa.

 

[richardhind1972]

Nice little pick up there,
Doesn’t look very pastel to
Me either I’m afraid


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[Karliereptiles]

So from a few people now I’ve been told she’s a common boa. Can I ask what makes a common boa ? I’ve been looking at pics of them and she just doesn’t really look like any of them


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[Karliereptiles]

Like her tail doesn’t have as much red as they do for example


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[JCCS]

A common boa just means a normal. They can be extremely variable as at this point there is a lot of different blood in the pool. Primarily Colombian but also a lot of central american and even Suriname and Guyanan blood mixed in. When you look up pics like that, you're probably getting pics of some of the best examples and a lot of people like lots of color in the tails, so those would be more desirable and thus more apt to have pics taken of it.

 

[richardhind1972]

Boas are very variable as already mentioned above and if you have put boa constrictor into the search engine then the normally come up with loads of pictures of the Surinam/Guyana as already said.
These are a few of the common boas that was in my litter last year

This is my red Pastel boa as you can see there is a massive difference in the red Colour she is with my boa longicauda in the picture

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[JCCS]

With that last snake being hypo as well, it's not the best comparison to show a pastel. Here's a couple pastels I produced through the years and a couple pastel hypos from my Ferrari line just for fun.

 

[JCCS]

And this is a fun pic for all the people that used to hate "normals". There is only one boa morph in this picture and it's the most "normal" looking boa.

 

[richardhind1972]

Stunning boa collection you have there jccs and what fantastic pics, I actually love my so called normal too even tho she is a grump


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[JCCS]

"Had" is the operative term, lol. Several factors led me to leaving boa breeding and now I have one very old nicaraguan that was rescued by a dear and departed friend and an albino cornsnake, lol.

 

[richardhind1972]

That’s a shame,they was stunning.
This is my normal mum to them babies

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[Karliereptiles]

Okay. I’m fine with her being a normal it’s just she was sold to me like she was something else. Should I confront the breeder? It’s not too big of a deal because it’s not like she was sold to me as a super nice animal or anything but still. I didn’t think this would happen because the breeder is pretty professional & seems reputable and they deal with super duper nice boas


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[AbsoluteApril]

I didn't say the boa *wasn't* a pastel, it has some reduced black and may color up nicely once the baby grays fade off, but it's not one that I would look at and say 'oh hey, that looks like it's from a pastel line'. It looks more like what an average baby boa would look like with some nice light brown fading of the saddles.

I was mainly trying to point out that unlike ball pythons where Pastel is an actual morph, pastel is not a morph in boas. "Pink pastel" is just a descriptive term. Some people sell pastels from lines that have been bred for generations to make high pink boas, others sell anything with reduced black as a pastel.

If I was you, I'd ask the breeder for photos of the parents to get a judge of what kind of coloration you may be able to expect for you baby (assuming there's no hypo in the mix).

 

[JCCS]

It's hard to confront people on things like pastel as it's not a morph but a description of a few physical traits. If he had sold it as a hypo or a jungle, there would be an easy argument. Like high red bearded dragons or high yellow carpet pythons, it's more of an individual opinion. What some would call high red, people who have been working with high red beardies for a long time would not. I developed two lines of pastel boas and have owned animals from many other bloodlines. For me, that animal doesn't meet my standards.For someone who doesn't work with boas much and is used to very dark animals, they might call that animal a pastel which they've heard used for nicer normals and that's all they know of the whole thing. Basically, I doubt the person purposefully misinformed you but just either didn't understand what pastel was or just have very low standards for what they call pastel. It's more of a spectrum than a hard separation, if you get me.

 

[Karliereptiles]

Ahh okay thank you! I appreciate all you help


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