Black Pastel is one of the foundation "dark genes" in the ball python hobby — a gene breeders reach for specifically to deepen contrast and darken a combo, and it's been doing that job since the early 2000s.
A bit of history
Black Pastel was originally discovered and proven by Gulf Coast Reptiles in the early 2000s. Breeders quickly recognized its potential in dark-morph projects, and pairing it with Cinnamon became the foundation for the nearly all-black "8-Ball" combo that was a major talking point in the hobby at the time.
How it's inherited
Black Pastel is a co-dominant (incomplete dominant) gene — a single copy shows visually, and breeding two Black Pastels together produces a homozygous "Super Black Pastel," a dark, dusky-black animal with a clean white belly.
What it looks like
Single-copy Black Pastels are high-contrast animals with a dark brown to almost-black background and rusty to chocolate-brown blushing, muted golds and yellows, and often "melted" or distorted alien-head markings with connected or broken dorsal striping. Bellies frequently show peppery or speckled markings. Black Pastel is closely related to Cinnamon and often compared to it — the two are separate lineages with the same style of inheritance, though Black Pastel tends to show less fading in the lateral markings.
Why it shows up in combos
Black Pastel's main job in a combo is adding darkness and contrast without the health concerns associated with some other dark-morph genes. It's one of the five genes in our Pompeii line, where it deepens the base color and sharpens contrast against the combo's lighter elements.
Care
Standard ball python husbandry applies — no known health or neurological concerns tied to this gene.
See current Black Pastel and Black Pastel-combo ball pythons at diabloexoticpythons.com.
