pastels

Don Kaye Reptiles

Pastels

Here you will find the many different lines of Pastels we are working with. If you are looking for a Pastel
as a pet, get the one you like because genetically a Pastel is a Pastel. They are all Co-dominant and
are compatible. However, if you are looking to produce nice Pastels and Super Pastels, the linage of
Pastel(s) that it comes from will make all of the difference. It will also make a difference if you are
crossing them into other morphs.
This is refereed to as selective breeding. An example of this would be breeding a Pastel to a Spider to
make the Bumble Bee. The Spider trait is only the pattern of the Bumble Bee, the color is all from the
Pastel. There are Bumble Bees that look nice until they reach ~ 800 grams and then brown out to the
point that they do not look as nice as a normal Spider. Besides how the linage of Pastel will affect the
morphs you cross them into, it will also make the difference in the Super Pastels that are produced.
Genetically a Super is a Super, but they will also vary in how they look based on the linage of the Pastel
parents. No matter what linage of Pastel you choose there will always be some variability in each clutch
that is produced. The Normal parent, when breeding a Pastel or Super Pastel to a Normal, will also
influence the look of the clutch, but it will only be a small influence and the overall look of the Pastel
offspring will be based on the Pastel parent linage. Below you can read a brief description on the
different Pastels we are working with. The offspring from each line will vary in price per the individual
and which line(s) it was produced from.

N.E.R.D. Lemon Pastel

The N.E.R.D. Lemon Pastel is a very well known line of Pastel from N.E.R.D. This is a very high quality
line that will not have any orange on them, so they will not brown out. The hatchlings start out slightly dull
but, will get brighter in color with every shed. This is the reason why this is a great line of Pastel, not
only for their own looks but also for crossing them into other morphs. The only down side to the Lemon
is the Super is not one of the better looking Supers. However, the breeding power of a Super Lemon,
when it comes to selective breeding, is almost unmatched. Our original adult female was purchased
from N.E.R.D. and was produced by N.E.R.D.'s original imported Lemon Pastel.

Blonde Pastel

In '02 I purchased a male Pastel from a breeder in Michigan that is now no longer in the business. From
the picture in the add this was the brightest Pastel I had ever seen. He was a yearling and weighed 450
grams. I had already bought into other lines of Pastels, including true Lemons from N.E.R.D., and did
not need another male. However, this one was so bright and not priced much higher then the average
Pastel at the time, I had to have him. When I made the purchase the breeder would not tell me who
produced him but, did say that this snakes Pastel father was an import, making him a first generation
new blood Pastel. The Blonde name I gave to this line was solely given as a descriptive term. After
producing some offspring from him I, at one point, thought he might have been from the well known
Matt Turner "Matrix" line of Blondes. I never sold any of his offspring as that line of Blonde Pastels
since I had no proof of him being from that line. Now that several of his offspring are adults and
producing their own babies, there are enough differences to state that it is highly probable that this line
of Blonde is not related to the "Matrix" line. As stated at the top of this Pastel page, all Pastels very,
even within the same clutch, and you will get the occasional not as nice from a nice line. This line is not
any different. However, after producing many hatchlings from this line and seeing several with their
adult color, I can safely say that this is an amazing line of Pastel to produce and work with as well as it
is one of the best available.

Graziani Pastel

This is the original line of Pastel. This line produces nice babies, however they darken up considerably
as adults. This line is well known for its trait of passing on or increasing the amount of blushing into
what ever it is bred with.

Blonde X Graziani Pastel

At this time the snake pictured below is the only Pastel we have produced from breeding our original
male Blonde to a Graziani female. We have, however, produced a few Super Pastels from this pairing.
This snake is the sibling to our breeding male Super Pastel from this pairing. She ended up with the
best of both worlds. She has nice light coloring (~2,800 grams in pics below) as an adult and has some
nice blushing that the pure Blondes have very little of.

Super Pastel (Blonde X Graziani) Offspring

There is a large variance in the offspring from our male Super Pastel. He was hatched from a pairing
between our original Blonde male to a Graziani female. When breeding him to Normal females, you will
see some influence from the Normal in the hatchlings pattern but, a big variability in their color due to
the Super coming from two different lines of Pastel. Almost all of these Pastels are bicolored. The
dorsal half of the snake will be a greenish color while the ventral half will always be yellow. How light or
dark the green will be as well as how bright the yellow will be is completely different on every hatchling
even within the same clutch. It just depends on how much that individual was influenced by either the
Blonde or the Graziani or both. These hatchlings are a perfect example of why you should know the
linage of Pastels you choose to work with as talked about at the top of this Pastel page.

Bell Pastel

As a general statement the Bell line is a very average line of Pastel. There are lines that are brighter
and lines that are darker. As already stated, there is always the exception to the general statement. The
female pictured below is 100% Het. Ghost.

N.E.R.D. Pastel

First, these are not the Lemon Pastel that N.E.R.D. is well known for. These represent a different line
that N.E.R.D.brought in several years ago. The two adult females pictured below were produced and
purchased directly from N.E.R.D. and the adult male was purchased from an individual who produced
him from a male he purchased from N.E.R.D. Second, as you can see from the pictures of the past
offspring that we produced, most offspring start out with an orange to orange/yellow color. The pictures
clearly show that the orange will always turn to a medium to a dark brown, referred to as browning out.
This would be a great example of a line that will make nice hatchlings that will brown out as adults,
average Supers, and what not to use when crossing into other morphs.

UPDATE
As of March 2008, Kevin McKirley, owner of N.E.R.D., paid a visit to my facility. I showed Kevin the
adult female Pastels I got from him back in 2002. He explained to me that he has always kept his
Lemon line pure. However, he also explained that all of the non Lemon Pastels could have been from
the other line of Pastel that he imported and/or from the Graziani line since he had some of the original
Pastels produced by Greg graziani as well.