Genetic Quality Over Lesser Quality Multiple Gene Animals

[Shewter325]

As a fairly new BP breeder, it took me awhile to figure out where i want to go with my breeding. At first, just like many other BP breeders, i wanted multiple gene animals thus giving me more options to immediately increase my genetic diversity in my collection. But that was a tricky path for a 19 year old college student working full time trying to not blow through all my money on ball pythons. At first i decided to just try to find the cheapest multiple gene balls that i could find. Eventually I had a cheap mojave female that was a poor example of the mojave morph, I had a cheap as dirt browned out bumblebee, and i had what was supposed to be a cinny but if it was then it didnt have any great attributes of the cinnamon morph. So i came to the point where i decided to change my direction as a breeder. By doing this, i had to give up some of my higher quality morphs that i was planning on keeping. But i am finally to the point now where i can feel good about the quality of the morphs in my current collection. My collection goes as follows:
1.0 Super Pastel
1.0 Pewter
1.0 Lesser
1.0 Yellowbelly
0.1 Lemonblast
0.1 Vanilla
0.1 Cinny
0.1 Yellowbelly

I just felt like sharing my experience because i think that is what is the difference between the Ralph Davis', Greg Grazianis', and Mike Wilbanks', and the breeders who are just trying to get the newest morph. Genetic Quality is going to prevail in the BP industry and this should be something every breeder strives for. Instead of just trying to be the first one to find a morph or the fastest way to make a quick buck. Thanks for reading, if you want some pics, i have some on my profile but a lot of them are old. I will post some of my current collection if your interested.

[Andybill]

Everyone enjoys a nice collection pic thread! I think we can all agree that quality is key. I do have some snakes in my collection that are not the best example of their particular morph but in the coming years I can replace them with better ones. I think for the most part however that I have done pretty well on picking up some great examples of the morphs I do have.

[Mike41793]

Post away, we love pictures!

I too am a 19y/o college student. I fell in love with so many of the sweet combos at shows but couldnt really afford most of them. I decided to get my hands on single gene morphs i thought were good examples of the morph to make my own multigene combos. This will be my first year breeding and im stoked! Im really hoping for a few two gene combos

[Mike41793]

Everyone enjoys a nice collection pic thread! I think we can all agree that quality is key. I do have some snakes in my collection that are not the best example of their particular morph but in the coming years I can replace them with better ones. I think for the most part however that I have done pretty well on picking up some great examples of the morphs I do have.

Exactly. As you breed you can holdback what you want and clean up your lines and then mix in new, equally nice, blood to produce super hot bebe's!

[RoseyReps]

This is also what I find myself repeating. I am constantly pulling myself back from purchases because of quality. Yea, it's 100 cheaper than most others in that morph, but it doesn't begin to show what that morph is capable of looking like. Fewer snakes with higher quality mean more to me than a slew of snakes at sub par quality. I often find myself telling breeders "I'm really picky" lol.

[WingedWolfPsion]

There are three ways to go when it comes to quality--
1) Buy the best quality animals you can from the start. This is expensive, and should be.
2) Start with medium quality animals, and breed selectively to get what you want. Develop your own line.
3) Strapped for cash? You can go with lower quality animals. Try to get ones that come with lineage information, and records. You want to be very careful how you pair these animals, because it's your job to get them to produce offspring that are better than they are. This is a challenge, and can even be fun. Pair a poor feeder with an animal that's a garbage bin. Pair a muddy animal with really clean one. Too dark? Pair with a really light animal. Too light? Pair with a dark one. Boring albino? Put to a clean super-dark animal, and produce high contrast albinos from the offspring. This is why selecting really good normals to put with your morphs is so important. It will take you a lot longer to get where you want to go with them, but they may just surprise you, and the journey is bound to be fun. This is a path for hobby breeders, of course, rather than business breeders.

Remember, it's not just about the quality of the morph you buy, it's also about any normal breeders you choose, and you can make big improvements in a morph line by choosing the right normals to pair them with.

[rabernet]

Quality is first for me EVERY time. I don't believe in buying sub-quality animals and try to breed them into quality. Save your money and shop the snake, not the deal. My cinnie and lesser took me over a year to find when I decided I wanted to add those genes to my collection. I was super picky and knew exactly what qualities I wanted.

Quality in = quality out. Sub par in = sub par out. You do get what you pay for.

I still sold NICE lemon pastel males for $200 this year, because my buyers wanted the quality that I was producing. They knew what an "average" pastel sells for, and chose to buy from me instead. When I delivered some lemon pastels to a customer at a show last year and we were out in the common area looking at them, multiple people stopped and asked my buyer "where did you get those, because those are the nicest pastels I've seen and I didn't see any like them in the show".

I will agree - even with the best that you can find - you need to also breed them to the best you can find and not "dirty" them up with just any normal or average critter.

[digizure]

I'm a new breeder and I'm curious to how you "judge" quality? What do you look for? Thanks! I'll try and post pictures of my new collection and I'm curious to see what you guys think.

[RoseyReps]

I'm a new breeder and I'm curious to how you "judge" quality? What do you look for? Thanks! I'll try and post pictures of my new collection and I'm curious to see what you guys think.

I'm new to everything, but in my opinion...
There is no cure-all for quality. It depends heavily on the individual morph, and what you are looking to do with your breeding. Some of my personal opinions (and this varies GREATLY depending on whom you ask)
Lessers I like to be clean patterned (no brown in the alien heads)
If a morph has a tendency for dorsal stripe, the more full the better (IE Mojos, lessers, butters, black pastels etc)
As an opposite, I also look for black back (no pattern on the dorsal) Different project, but still a good quality imo
Overall brightness or darkness
Flames
blushing
It really comes down to what you are looking to do. For instance, my dark project, I want a nice deep black black pastel. One that won't blush out much as an adult. So I would steer clear of babies that are already showing signs of blushing. And preferably buy from someone who has produced in the past so I can get an example of their adults.
High contrast is another thing people look at, as well as speckling.

In the end, it comes down to what you are looking to produce. What I may think is a sub par looking bumblebee, another might think is perfect. It is a matter fully based on opinion with most morphs.

So the question really should be... What makes YOU go "Whoa"? Now go buy that, or buy pairs that have similar qualities and work towards it

[Dave Green]

Always go for quality, you'll spend many years looking at that animal and producing offspring hopefully. That small amount of extra money spent will be long forgotten. Plus, I never saw a post saying "I'm glad I bought the ugly one".