Warning: This question might be dumb: Males vs. Females

[vpjimmyd]

Ok, so it's pretty much universally accepted that female morphs are more valuable than their male counterparts. What I'm not quite getting is why.

A male morph can fertilize any number of females, producing numerous valuable clutches, whereas a female morph can only pass on her genetics to a single clutch per year.

With that reasoning, it seems to me that a male should cost more than a female. What am I missing here?

[lesserlover]

Demand and supply. The mere fact that a female can only produce one viable clutch a year versus a male produce up to 8. You need more females.

[Freakie_frog]

That's all well and good when it comes to male Co-dom's if all you ever want to produce is single gene Codoms.. But at some point you need that female morph..breeder's know this. So you pay a premium to play the game.

You'll never produce Pied's with out a female het or Pied. Yes you can produce and hold back but when you write a check your 100% guaranteed to get a female.

[wendhend]

I think you make a good point about the males being able to spread their genes more. If I had a super rare variety of snake, I would definitely want it to be male for that reason. However, for the very same reason, we just don't need quite as many males around.... since we can use one male to breed several females. Since males and females will hatch in pretty equal ratios, we end up with a surplus of males.... and thus they aren't quite as valuable.

[lesserlover]

If you take a look at the market price for phantom males and females, the males are more expensive. This tells me that it is all about controling the market and making people pay more to play the game as mentioned. If you want to get a head start on a high-end male, you will be taxed. A female phantom will be great if you buy a hatchling now in two to three years. A male phantom will deliver within 20 to 30 meals. He will be breed to 5 to 10 females and produce many phantoms hopefully.

[vpjimmyd]

Thanks for all the great feedback. That makes a lot of sense.