Need advice on this Firefly I just purchased

I need advice because I jumped on a "good" deal and I'm unsure of myself.

I bought this Firefly here and THE STORY basically is I got him for the market value of a Fire male. In the moment I was like "how can you go wrong?" I'm a little worried I saddled myself with a male that has a poor Pastel gene, which seems to be a bad thing. The seller was very, very nice and I will do business with them again, they didn't misrepresent the animal at all. I have little experience with Fireflys this little guy is 180 grams. What do you honestly think, I need validation, lol.

http://i1316.photobucket.com/albums/...psb91a5b6a.jpg


http://i1316.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1d2430f9.jpg

Are you a little worried that you saddled yourself with a male that has a poor fire gene too?

Honestly, I dont think that he is a snake you would want to breed. He doesnt seem to have a good pastel gene or fire gene. IMHO you have a nice pet on your hands.

Honestly I wouldnt concern myself with what others think of the animal. If you like the looks of the two genes represented then breed him, if not use him in a trade. I have a "low" quality female pastel that I intend on breeding strictly for her eyes. I will be crossing that with another pastel line that has better color in hope of keeping the eye color through selective breeding, and the end goal being super pastel pieds with the original hets eyes. It all really depends what you want. I would put this male to work, and if needed breed out the undesired traits through selective breeding. Its all up to you, I think you got a good looking firefly at a damn decent price.

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Originally Posted by V2 HeX

Honestly I wouldnt concern myself with what others think of the animal. If you like the looks of the two genes represented then breed him, if not use him in a trade. I have a "low" quality female pastel that I intend on breeding strictly for her eyes. I will be crossing that with another pastel line that has better color in hope of keeping the eye color through selective breeding, and the end goal being super pastel pieds with the original hets eyes. It all really depends what you want. I would put this male to work, and if needed breed out the undesired traits through selective breeding. Its all up to you, I think you got a good looking firefly at a damn decent price.

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Agree. While there are some pretty banged up looking Pastels out there, people seem a little too willing to put down any Pastel that's not mind blowing. Is that the best Firefly EVAR!?!? No, but I'd have no problem at all breeding him...

it also depends on what you want to do with it.

for example, if the goal is to produce super fires, i dont think the quality of the fire gene really matters. some super fires have more yellow on the back, others less, and its kinda random, and many people actually prefer the super fires with more yellow. the quality of the fire gene really doesnt seem to affect it at all.

Not the greatest example of a Firefly, but......

IMHO people tend to go a tad overboard on the quality of Pastels. I have seen awesome Pastels put out crap looking babies, and mediocre Pastels put out awesome babies. I'd give him a go breeding (maybe to a nice Fire or Pastel girl for simplicity and hit some Super Pastels or Super Fires).

I have 0.5 Pastels that all put out very nice babies..... even "Big Brown" here (our poorest Pastel) makes some nice babies.... 0.1 Pastave- sold in less than an hour after I put her up FS. She is currently being paired with our 1.0 Nuclear Pinstripe ("off season" girl who lays in October). Based on her looks alone she would be on the selling block. Based on her babies, she is here to stay.

0.1 Pastel (AKA Big Brown):
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...pse6d8d18f.jpg

Just an example of her hachlings... Very nice fading and bright yellow colors. Her sire had nothing to do with that. WOBP surely returns some much worse examples of the Pastave morph.
0.1 Pastave:
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...ps25c1ff53.jpg]

Selective breeding can go a long way, but it isn't a guarantee that beautiful snakes will produce beautiful babies, nor that "ugly" snakes (is there such a thing?) will produce ugly babies. Also, while selective breeding is partly about starting out with good breeding stock, it is also about starting out with whatever you've got or can get your hands on, and working to improve it.

I think your little guy is nice. Not super-duper, but definitely attractive. I'd decide what traits you like in him and which ones you think need improvement, and pair him with females that will either emphasis his good traits and/or improve his weaker ones.

Remember there really isn't "good" or "bad" so much as personal preferences. Many people think a high quality pied is synonymous with a high white pied. Me? I do see the attraction of the high whites, but I'd take a 50/50 with even distribution over a high white any day. And low whites? I think of them almost as a different morph, and I LOVE their wacky pattern.

I think he would not only make a fantastic friend, but fun to breed because he is special looking, hehe. I'll bet he'll have the most fantastic looking babies, yet.

Thanks, I forgot to check my post because it takes days sometimes to get replies in here :D. He has a home with me, I do have some awesome females growing like weeds at at some point we'll see what he can do and I'll be sure to post results with a link to this thread, good or bad.

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Originally Posted by grcforce327

Are you a little worried that you saddled yourself with a male that has a poor fire gene too?

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Little sarcastic? Or am I reading into this statement too much? I'm totally new to (python regius) but I've successfully bred stuff like Northern White Lipped Pythons and Chondros in the past so I'm confident I'll have success and I hope this guy does well.