question

[corn king 73]

females tail

[corn king 73]

bigger pic

[corn king 73]

this is the bigest i can get them.

[Linds]

'Pastel' boas were actually a selectively bred line by Jeff Ronne. So to have a true 'pastel' boa you would ideally need to have one of such lineage. You can have light coloured boas, or pastel-type boas however. There are so many opinions, and controversies surrounding all of that, I generally just avoid using that term altogether.

'Circlebacks' are not a morph or even a trait that demands any higher price tag. All it means is that the saddles are connected on the sides and they arc in the way so that from the top they look like circles going down the back. Many Bci display something of that effect, some more extreme than others.

Though it is hard to tell since she is directly under the light, your female looks to be quite light, your male looks average however.

[Invictus]

Sorry, the pics are too blurry, and I can't see how much black is in the tail.

Jeff Ronne didn't "invent" the pastel line, he merely defined it. A pastel boa doesn't have to be from Ronne. He goes into great detail on his site of what constitutes a pastel boa, and he describes it basically as I did - almost no black, especially in the side of the tail.

[corn king 73]

lol i wish i had a better camera lol.

[bighillreptiles]

here is one of the littermates to the male and here is the litter mate to the femalepaul next to no black thay will lighten up as thay grow

[corn king 73]

see paul i like that female but the male is to dark lol.

[Linds]

I haven't been to his site recently. I do recall several years back though having the 'pastel conversation'. It had been brought up that he was the first person to actually apply the term 'pastel' to the boa market. If I recall correctly, quite a few people were up in arms about non-Ronne animals being called pastels back then, maybe things changed since. I haven't really kept up on what's happening there. I know he has his 'pastel dream' line, which he did indeed create through selectively breeding his own animals. By the definition you gave however, it would fit that of a true hypo boa I'll go check out what Jeff has on his page as well. Maybe I will still be confused. LOL... tis why no-brainer morphs are the way to go! Ya can't say an albino ISN"T an albino

Corn King,
Both animals are 'normals'.

[corn king 73]

linds how about the two pix that paul posted ?pastel or normals?

[bighillreptiles]

pastel is a term for nice looking bci that are bred for their reduced black and color and nice clean look to them unless they are hypo's as far as i know

[JaredAren]

It is now generally accepted that there are multiple bloodlines of pastel boas that have been created through selective breeding. Ronne sell his line, Whashington Pastels, and Tudehope Pastels on his website. Others that have pastel lines are EBV with thier Red Groups and Davey Fig with his Davey's Pastels. I think in general people have been given the ok to use the term pastel for boas that fit Ronne's description and people then identify their seperate line with a new term before the word pastel. It is my beleif that normal boas can throw a few pastelish babies and selecting these and breeding them with similar animals is how nice pastels have come along. Ronne describes on his website how he did this himself through selective breeding and he describes the fact that when he breeds a pastel to a normal or even to another pastel the offsrpiong are not all pastels. They have a varied amount of pastelish qualities, from freakin awesome to pretty much normal looking animals. Pastels are my favorite "morph" if you can even call it a morph. It is my opinion that nothing beats a nice light normal Pastel BCI.

[JaredAren]

Here is an article written by Jeff Ronne:

PASTEL BOA

I purchased my first "Orange-Tail" Hypos three or four years ago. I had heard of them before but had not seen them until that time. When thoughtfully looking them over I realized what made the hypos or what the net effect of being a Hypo was. They have an overall wash involving a reduction of black pigmentation over the entire Boa. They also have reduced black in the black rings around the tail blotches. I had been selectively breeding my Boas for many generations already and had primarily selected for one thing in particular that other people didn't really look for. Most breeders like contrast. I like contrast too but the Boas I enjoyed most were the babies without contrast because they generally tended to be much lighter and or more colorful than those with great contrast. I have raised a number of Boas with good contrast in the past and they usually turned quite dark, as they got older. I never liked that. I wanted ‘em light and or with great color. I was fortunate from the beginning in that I had acquired a number of animals that had great color already and through breeding them with other nice Boas was able to produce even nicer, lighter, more colorful babies with each generation. Which brings me back to my revelation. I was looking over the "Orange-Tail" hypos I had acquired when I realized I had Boas with the same overall reduction in black. In particular, the blotches on the sides that typically contained black were very washed out in the "Orange-Tail" hypos. Many of the babies I had been producing had this same characteristic. The blotches on the sides just had far less black than did normal Boas. They also had the overall wash reducing black over the entire animal. They do not have the large reduction in the rings around the tail blotches like the "Orange-Tail" hypos have nor do they muddy up like the "Orange-Tail" hypos when they get larger. These Boas, which I named "Pastels", were fairly rare. The trait seems to be a recessive genetic characteristic which works like skin color in humans. Lighter skin color is a recessive trait but not simple recessive like blue eyes are for instance to brown eyes. Each generation I have been able to produce slightly more than the previous generation using selective breeding. Occasionally I will get an unusually patterned "Pastel" which I have kept for myself. I still have not bred a "Pastel" with a "Pastel" so I don’t know yet what will happen when I do that but it can only get better. The best part about the "Pastel" characteristic is the reduction in black. One side benefit has been in producing Pastels I have babies with much more color coming through than most other Boas. Don’t confuse the orange and or pink colors I have produced with the "Pastel" characteristic that reduces the overall wash of black allowing the underlying colors to come through. Not all Pastels have great color. Many are just very light and or washed out.

Article compliments of: Jeff Ronne

[JaredAren]

If you have a lot of free time here is some info about psatel boas from Ronne himself.

http://www.theboaforum.com/cgi-bin/y...880714;start=0

A quick quote from the text:
"I have been reticent to make dogmatic statements about how the "Pastel" trait works. This has and remains to be a learning experience for me. I still don't have all the answers regarding this genetic anomaly and am not sure we will ever know exactly how and why it works like it does."------Jeff Ronne

[JaredAren]

Another quote from Ronne:
"Now certainly some Pastel bloodlines have more red than others. That is obvious. However the red or orange does not make any Boa "Pastel". The reduction of black makes Pastels Pastel. The red or orange makes them better but do not define them. Pattern anomalies, while desirable for many of us and perhaps more common in Pastels, do not define it either." --Jeff Ronne