Ball Python Shows

[salt]

Rats have shows, rabbits have shows, heck even ferrets get shows (this is shows as in dog shows with breed confirmation). Why aren't there ball python shows? They are a popular pet that come in a variety of colors. Could have a "morph standard" for individuals to be judged on with cash prizes or whatever. Also the distinction and honor of winning. Would be good for the market, draw more people in.

So what does everyone think. Pros and cons.

[calmolly1]

I think the stress to the BP and risk of passing diseases would limit the amount of participants. Just my thoughts.


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[hozr]

Unfortunately I think calmolly is probably right. I would like for there to just be more reptile trade shows but alas it will not be.

0.1 normal 100% het pied (Nayo)
0.1 Mojave (Zillo)

[salt]

It is a valid concern, but it doesn't seem to stop people from taking their animals to expos and such. Do you think the illness that afflict ball pythons are worse than those for other species that have shows? Honestly asking because I don't know.

[pythongal]

It's an interesting concept. I spent close to fifteen years raising various mixed tropicals, and know all about fish shows. Fish are some of the most easily stressed animals alive. Yet, we have betta shows. I know bettas don't cost as much as ball pythons, but some koi at koi shows cost thousands of dollars. However, koi or betta shows aren't really popular outside of their niche.

I would love to go to a snake show!

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[satomi325]

People who take their animals to show have to (or at least should be) quarantine their animals after. And most people never take their breeding animals or permanent residents to expos and only take sales animals, which a lot of people house separately than residents.

I'm heavily involved in the rat community. I've had friends who had rats die from diseases transmitted at shows.

Even if there was a show for snakes, I wouldn't participate. I'm too paranoid of disease transmission. Snakes can't be vaccinated like dogs.
I have too much invested in my animals to risk their health and wellbeing.

And as for standards. There's just way too much variation to come up with a uniform look in BPs. And what someone interprets as nice could be totally different from another's nice. For example, having a really reduced pattern can be a desirable trait. But busy patterns can look outstanding as well. So how do you determine what is the standard?

And is the show going to be judging strictly phenotype and genotype or conformation as well? How does one breed for conformation when it can take years for an animal to reach adult size. But in contrast, adult balls tend to not be as attractive as babies. And as mentioned before, stress is a huge issue in ball pythons. Judging phenotype will be best with babies. But they stress easily and can go off feed, which can be detrimental in such a young animal.

In theory, it sounds good to have a snake show. But it's not practical.

[Running Elk]

I feel like there is a huge explosion of mutations/morphs being discovered all the time. There is always a new gene, genes that are so rare and valuable that no one has access to them except big breeders, many have not been proven out or worked with much, etc. There is no real way right now to make a standard. It would be really hard. There is also a lot of variability in things like size, shades and colors within a specific morph, patterns within a specific morph, etc. And yet there isn't a huge amount of structural difference usually, like if you were to compare two very different dog breeds.

In ferrets, body and condition are judged, and the categories are broken into colors/patterns (like sable, panda, silver, blaze, albino, champagne). In fact, those are pretty much the colors. So you'll have a bunch of ferrets in whatever category. One will win. Then there is probably best in show among the winners of all of the color catagories.

Rabbits, like dogs and cats, have different distinct breeds, and each breed has a few standardized (show legal) colors or patterns. They show each breed by color, so a rabbit can win best of their color type within the breed, and then is judged as "best of breed" among the other winners of the other color categories within that breed. These judgments are based on everything from health, coat quality, and color to body structure and weight, and with some breeds, body movement. Some breeds' standards are based on muscle/fat/bone ratio if the breed originated fairly exclusively as a meat breed. It takes YEARS and a specific process to get a just new color accepted by ARBA as "show legal".

TL;DR Morphs come out constantly, there are a million different versions and combos of said morphs, there is not an easy way to standardize anything, especially when everything is constantly growing and expanding.

I'd imagine showing would be considered more if the market for new morphs ever became stagnant (there reached a limit and no more new morphs were really coming out frequently) and instead of seeking breeding something new, people instead decided to "perfect" what they already have, and made a general consensus of what "perfect" means. Most of the animals who have been standardized and are now shown have been "domestic" for a very long time (at least a couple hundred years, such as with rats and mice, or thousands, like cats, dogs, ferrets, and livestock). Where as many people in the BP hobby remember when there were only a couple morphs available, and only for a very high price.

Rats have shows, rabbits have shows, heck even ferrets get shows (this is shows as in dog shows with breed confirmation). Why aren't there ball python shows? They are a popular pet that come in a variety of colors. Could have a "morph standard" for individuals to be judged on with cash prizes or whatever. Also the distinction and honor of winning. Would be good for the market, draw more people in.

So what does everyone think. Pros and cons.

[calmolly1]

I've noticed certain morphs have slightly different conformation too. Heads seems to vary the most.


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[albinos_rule]

Personally it seems a bit silly, but then again dog shows seem silly to me too. All my snakes are pets, first and foremost, and I don't care if someone thinks my ball python is better than some guy named Bill's python. As long as we all love our animals, and take proper care of them to the best of our ability that is all that matter...just my two cents worth

[Running Elk]

I know some morphs like super cinnamons and super black pastels can have facial differences, like the "duck face". One combo is prone to small eyes, and BELs might be prone to buggy eyes (I feel like I read that somewhere).

I've noticed certain morphs have slightly different conformation too. Heads seems to vary the most.


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