Still unsure of what we had we took the 7 animals to the National Reptile Breeders Expo in Orlando and displayed each of them with a $2,500.00 price tag. Quite a few people were interested in them but were skeptical as to weather or not this was genetic. After the show I learned that NERD produced 3 eggs from their animal and only 1 egg hatched and it looked identical to the 7 animals that I produced about a month earlier. Kevin McCurley was calling his animals Pastel Jungle ball pythons. So that every one was on the same page we elected to change the name of our animals from type 2 Jungles to Pastel Jungles.

As the snakes matured their yellow color brightened up immensely. All 7 of the babies were much brighter than their father. I sent Dan and Colette Sutherland a picture of the babies at 1 week old and then at 8 months old. The difference was night and day. Dan and Colette were very interested in the snakes. At this time I had 2 clutches from our male Pastel Jungle in the incubator. He had been bred back to the original female that produced the first 7 pastels and to another unrelated female. I explained to Dan and Colette that I was not sure of the genetics of this mutation and would not know anything until the 2 clutches hatched. Dan and Colette were sure that this was genetic and purchased 5 of the first 7 babies. On July 7, 1998 the eggs hatched from the original female that was bred to the Pastel Jungle for the second time. 7 eggs hatched and 3 were Pastel Jungle and 4 were normal. The second clutch hatched on July 21, 1998. 5 eggs hatched 3 Pastel Jungles and 2 normal. This proved the mutation to be dominant.

In 1999 NERD bred 2 Pastel Jungles together and produced the first Super Pastel Jungles. On August 13, 2000 we hatched our first Super Pastel Jungle ball python. Out of 7 eggs we hatched 3 normal, 3 Pastel Jungles and 1 Super Pastel Jungle. The Super Pastel Jungle is awesome. It has all of the characteristics of the Pastel Jungle but they are expressed to a greater degree. The siblings to the Super Pastel Jungle are also more vibrant than any of the other Pastel Jungles we have produced. It is believed by many breeders that the Super Pastel Jungle is the homozygous form of pastel jungle. If this is the case Super Pastel Jungles should produce 100% Pastel Jungles no matter what they are bred to and this would prove the Pastel Jungle mutation to be co-dominant. It would also be the first “designer” ball python mutation. A co-dominant mutation is one in which the homozygous form of a dominant mutation is visibly different from the heterozygous form.

Pastel Jungles were proven co-dominant in 2001 by Kevin McCurley of NERD when a Super Pastel Female bred to a Spider male resulted in 100% Pastel Jungle and Pastel Spider offspring. To date no other ball python morph has been used more than the Pastel Jungle to create new designer mutations."