I wish there was shed tests instead of trying to look online for pictures . Can anyone confirm this is a pastel Axanthic Conda ? I’m planning to breed. But want to make sure his genes are what they say they are.
I can say the Conda is definitely there . Due to black belly and spot reduction . Axanthic I can see because of how silvery white he is . But how can you tell if it has Pastel ?
Do you have his lineage info?
That might be the best way for us to say for sure if he has RBE Pastel.
Otherwise he does appear to be Axanthic Conda.
Conda is the only gene in your animal you could test for, though it does appear you have an axanthic conda. RBE pastel is a polygenic trait, so it’s not a case of simple het/hom and there can be varying levels of expression. I don’t do that much work with it, so I will tag @ghsaltie to see if Erin has any insight for you.
Ah I wish I could help but unfortunately I am not familiar enough with RBE to spot its markers. I have an RBE pastel toxic myself and I couldn’t tell you what specifically makes him RBE. I can say that your guy looks standard for an axanthic. That’s not to say he doesn’t have it, there’s just not anything jumping out at me. As @noodlehaus said lineage information would help as some breeders have very strong RBE traits in their lines.
Thank you for your reply . Would you mind showing me your toxic pastel . I figured he was just a regular Axanthic conda . I wanted to pair with another pastel just get a pastel toxic .
Okay so I went down a rabbit hole this morning lol. I read the page in John Berry’s book (rest in peace) on RBE and he describes it as such:
This is an example of an RBE axanthic
And the description on MorphMarket too:
Here is my Arctic toxic. And I had to double check my records but his breeder said he is likely RBE, as he believes it’s in his lines, but not confident so didn’t list him as such. Having Arctic makes it a bit trickier but his saddles have a sandy/creamy color to them in comparison to an Arctic toxic, no known RBE lineage, that’s more of a slate silver/grey in the saddles.
So its noticeable features are lightening the background color, creating more contrast, a yellowing pigment, and sometimes it can alter the headstamp (like seen on the axanthic above). They tend to hatch out dark or “normal” and lighten significantly with the first growth shed. This actually has me wondering if one of my breeder males has RBE 
but anyway I digress.
With the information available I would lean towards your guy may not have it or is very low expression. RBE is a polygenic trait, so it’s not as simple as a parent passing on a copy or your guy being heterozygous/homozygous for the gene. It’s like extreme red, it’s a trait that you breed like animals together to produce similar offspring with more concentrated features.
So without having the knowledge to see if he has it, it would come down to lineage. If he came from a mom&pop shop for example with no record of breeder or parents I’d be less inclined to think he has it. Or it’s not well expressed. If he came from a reputable breeder who has been incorporating RBE in their line for several generations then that’s more information to go.
Also to your comment of you’d like to produce toxics, if your guy does not carry toffee belly he will not unfortunately be able to produce toxic offspring. Toxic is made up of recessive genes Axanthic and Toffee. The offspring has to receive a copy of both Axanthic/toffee from both parents to be Toxic. The closest you could get to that would be pairing him to a toxic (all offspring would be axanthic het toffee), toffee het Axanthic (you’d have some axanthics all het toffee), or an Axanthic het toffee (all offspring Axanthic pos het toffee).
@ghsaltie off topic but what is his book called?? 
Designer-Morphs Western Hognose Snakes. There’s a 1st and 2nd addition which just came out last year.
Tysm, I’ll have to check both out.
Definitely getting this book now . Thank you !!!
Yeah my guy was sold as a RBE pastel Axanthic Conda het Toxic. I was sold on the fact that he had the white / silvery look to him so I didn’t care much when I bought him cause that’s what I was looking for anyway . But as I started digging deeper into genetics and morphs and all that I started to question if he really was RBE . I’m planning to get a Hognose from JMG as he has most unique morphs with proven lineage. So hopefully when breeding time comes I’ll have a nice clutch .
That’s great he’s het toffee! He’s beautiful regardless of whether he has RBE or not. That would just be an extra bonus.
