Pewter Pastel

This is our third signature mutation produced here at Graziani Reptiles.

The Pewter Pastel is the product of breeding a Cinnamon Pastel to a Pastel Jungle. The Cinnamon Pastel appears to have removed all of the yellow from the Pastel Jungle, leaving an almost silver looking ball python with peach or salmon colored sides. The Pewter Pastel is the first double co-dominant mutation produced in captivity.

On June 27, 2003 Jacki and I sat looking at 8 eggs wondering what a Cinnamon Pastel /Pastel Jungle cross would look like. We expected the brown & burnt orange of the Cinnamon Pastel combined with the bright yellow of the Pastel Jungle to create a fiery orange ball python. Well, that’s not exactly how it ended up. It was day 50 and we cut all of our eggs on day 52 and they usually hatch between then and day 56. It was driving us crazy so I called my good friend Mark Mandic and we started discussing what if any damage would be caused by cutting them two days early. After discussing it with him I called Dan and Colette Sutherland (The Snake Keeper) and they were really pressing me to cut them that night. After an hour of contemplating the pros and cons of cutting the eggs, Jacki and I decided to cut them. On most of the clutches we fight over who is going to cut them so we decided to alternate after each egg. So Jacki cut the first egg and as she opened it the light exposed what was inside, and we were both shocked. We were looking at the side of a silver and white ball python. I quickly pushed her aside and started cutting the second egg, another silver and white ball python. Now her turn again, another silver and white baby. Now we’re thinking, “what’s going on here?” I cut the fourth egg and it too, is a silver and white ball python. The fifth one is a Pastel Jungle, the sixth is a Cinnamon Pastel, the seventh is normal and the last one is a Cinnamon Pastel. I immediately took pictures and sent them to Mark Mandic and he is blown away by what he sees. I then emailed some pictures to Dan and Colette and they too are dumbfounded by what they see and the odds. On paper we should have gotten 25% Pewter Pastels, 25% Cinnamon Pastels, 25% Pastel Jungles and 25% Normals. We got 50% Pewter Pastels. Boy, was luck on our side that day!

On June 29, 2003 the first Pewter Pastel crawled out of its’ egg. Now came the challenge, what to name this new mutation. Let’s see, Cinnamon Pastel Pastel Jungle sounded a little redundant. Technically this was a “Cinnamon Pastel” but we already blew it by using that name for the Cinnamon. As I sat at the kitchen table holding this amazing new ball python morph wondering what to call it, the little ball python crawled off of my hand onto a pewter picture frame sitting on the table. The colors matched perfectly and Pewter Pastel it was!