Beef about some morphs

[Ophiuchus]

Okay...I'm not big into morphs myself, but I'll admit there are some that look pretty cool and as long as there's no hybrids, more power to everyone that works morphs. But the appeal of some of these morphs are lost on me.

The first one is the woma ball. Honestly, the only beef I have about these guys is their name. I mean, there's already a woma python (completely different python species) and there are in existence, woma x ball hybrids (called "walls"). So...there has to be some confusion going around when someone refers to their "womas"; are they talking about a woma ball, or an actual woma? And likewise, when the name "woma ball" is mentioned, are they refering to a wall? I was just wondering what the thought process was behind the naming of the woma ball. IMHO, it looks nothing like a woma python. Does anyone else see this?

Second is that I know these morphs are dictating the ball python market and the industry in general, and thats great. BUt I think people are starting to split hairs when it comes to deciding these things. For instance, the yellow-belly, "russos" and the mojave balls; I've looked at these snakes and they look just like a normal ball to me minus a few minute subtle differences. And yet there's a difference of several hundreds of dollars in price. Am I missing something here? And the sable for example; its almost like someone was "well, this one's a little darker than the rest. Let's slap $500 on it."

Any thoughts?

[JAMills]

OK I see your reasoning on the naming issue... As for the Yellow Belly, Russo's, and Mojaves... Yes the YB and Russo's can be vague but look what they produce when bred together....WHITE SNAKES
The Mojaves really do not look like a normal at all... and they produce WHITE SNAKES also when bred to each other or certain other WHITE SNAKE producing morphs.....

[Shelby]

Well, yellowbellies are co-dom.. breed them together and you get an ivory ball.

Two mojaves make a blue-eyed leucistic, and two woma's make a pearl. that's part of the reason for the price. I personally think mojaves look nothing like a normal, and are one of the most lovely morphs. There are some not-so-pretty ones, but a really nice one is just gorgeous to me.

Some of the more 'bland' looking morphs can really shine when mixed into a pastel line.. or albino.

[coldbloodaddict]

It's all about the Supers and the Combos they make...

[littleindiangirl]

I wish I knew what kind of normals your seeing that look like mojaves. Those things are soooo nice looking!

[Tosha_Mc]

According to Kevin (NERD) he named the Woma ball after the Woma python because he saw a resemblance in pattern. Grant it - a lot of the ones you see now days haven't held that awesome reduced pattern of the originals. When one refers to the Woma ball they are referring to the morph not the hybrid. A Wall is a Wall a Woma is a Woma.

Second it's not about the subtle differences - its in the genetic make up and potential that make the price tag.

[Texas Dan]

Okay...I'm not big into morphs myself, but I'll admit there are some that look pretty cool and as long as there's no hybrids, more power to everyone that works morphs. But the appeal of some of these morphs are lost on me.

The first one is the woma ball. Honestly, the only beef I have about these guys is their name. I mean, there's already a woma python (completely different python species) and there are in existence, woma x ball hybrids (called "walls"). So...there has to be some confusion going around when someone refers to their "womas"; are they talking about a woma ball, or an actual woma? And likewise, when the name "woma ball" is mentioned, are they refering to a wall? I was just wondering what the thought process was behind the naming of the woma ball. IMHO, it looks nothing like a woma python. Does anyone else see this?

Second is that I know these morphs are dictating the ball python market and the industry in general, and thats great. BUt I think people are starting to split hairs when it comes to deciding these things. For instance, the yellow-belly, "russos" and the mojave balls; I've looked at these snakes and they look just like a normal ball to me minus a few minute subtle differences. And yet there's a difference of several hundreds of dollars in price. Am I missing something here? And the sable for example; its almost like someone was "well, this one's a little darker than the rest. Let's slap $500 on it."

Any thoughts?

Yeah man, Cinnamons are the same way to me.. they may make something else though. The local pet store around me has one for $500, which I thought was a little high. And as I was walking out, the guy said he would do $400. I told him I wasn't looking, but I thought that was odd.

It's my new favorite pet store though.. the local ones seem to be better than the chains.

[Ophiuchus]

So instead of putting a fancy name on it, why not just call yellowbellies and russos "normal het. for ivory" if thats really all they're used for? I dunno...I guess if the snake has a fancy name, I expect it to look unique. If I walk up to a table, and see "het. ivory" I know actually what that means. If I just see "yellow-belly"...I don't know what that means, but I think I'm looking at a normal and wonder to myself "why is this so special?" But then I guess I'm not inside the BP morph circle to automatically know all that ahead of time.

This kinda stemmed from an experience several months ago when I went to a show. This one guy had a bunch of baby red-tail boas (not balls, mind you). Most were like $70-80ish, but this one had a $499 price label on it. It sure didn't look very special to me, so I asked him why it was so much higher. His reply was "I dunno...I just picked that one out of the bag and it didnt look like any other RTB I'd ever seen." Upon further inspection, the boa did kinda have a interesting pattern....but certainly not enough to warrant a $400 difference...especially if it wasn't proven to be genetic or anything.

I'm not saying all dealers and breeders are like that, and I guess the price is worth it based on their potential for other more awesome morphs. But I'm just waiting for someone to slap an extra $50 on a BP just because it has a micky mouse shape in its markings.

[ctrlfreq]

Yeah man, Cinnamons are the same way to me.. they may make something else though.

A super-cinnamon is a black snake, so yeah, they make something different. They also make for some pretty stellar combos because their floating pattern tends to dominate over other genetics.

[ctrlfreq]

So instead of putting a fancy name on it, why not just call yellowbellies and russos "normal het. for ivory" if thats really all they're used for?

The reason why is because the trait is a co-dominant, and therefore the trait is expressed in the phenotype in both the heterozygous and homozygous states (just like pastel, cinnamon, etc.) Although these morphs may look normal to the untrained eye, they can most definitely be discerned by looking at the animal if you know what to look for, unlike recessive traits such as piebald, clown or alibino which can only be proven through breeding.