The Yellow Jacket ball python is what some might call a super-exceptional Pastel Jungle ball python. It is not, however, a pastel. It is a different blood line and it is actually a multiple-gene animal. Ian Gniazdowski from Outback Reptiles was the first to produce the Yellow Jacket and the exact ingredients used to make them is something of a secret. Very few have been produced to date and the photo shown here is the first ever Super Pastel Yellow Jacket. She hatched out of a clutch of six eggs in June of 2008 and was the only super in the clutch. Click on the photo to see a larger view.

Pictures can barely do her justice and she was even more yellow than the photo shows. In person she was simply stunning.

Unfortunately, this girl was born with a congenital defect that made it impossible for her to survive. She died about a day after this photo was taken. So, to date, there is no living Super Pastel Yellow Jacket. With a little luck Ian will produce some in 2009 and we will slowly begin to seem them available to the rest of us. I will be fighting to be first in line for the first super pastel yellow jacket male he lets go of.