Quality of breeding stock

I agree with this post. I think my snakes are all of pretty decent quality. I plan to only holdback offspring thats just as nice, or hopefully nicer than what i have now.

I think we should also take into account the fact that different people have different tastes though. Not all morphs should look one way. Some people like high white spiders, some people like low white spiders. I love blushing so i'd rather own a pastel thats not super yellow but has a ton of blushing, rather than a bright yellow pastel with no blushing. Some of it is personal preference.

I also agree with what nikki said about normals. Pairing a fire to a really light normal would probably produce nicer fires than if you paired it to a darker or more brown normal.

I think I've been loud enough on the forums about my opinions on quality, but just in case anyone had any question about my beliefs.... /ditto what Jinx said.

I am constantly telling people to wait for the snake that makes you (literally) say "wow". Don't settle just because you haven't found one yet that made you say that. WAIT. I've been looking at spiders, and bees, for one that wow'd me for 8 months. I think it's a valuable gene to work with, as everyone and their mother seems to be in love with the spider gene. I have yet to find one that I would want in my rack. I know what I want, and when I finally find it, I will has it :P I came across *my* perfect honeybee (and I'm not even into the hypo gene yet), but sadly it was scooped up before I could get the payment info, let alone pay for it.

I pride myself on the quality of my snakes, and hopefully...they don't all turn out to be accidental two gene purchases...lol but if they do, I will continue to breed up, pairing them with normals / prime examples to achieve the highest quality offspring I can.

Excellent point and completely agree. We have spent hours scouring countless shows, classifieds, and auctions for the best examples of the morphs we want to add for our breeding plans. We pick a gene and focus on finding a phenomenal example of that morphs even if we pass up 30 low quality cheaper examples. The thought being that if you build your collection around great genetic examples then your future breeding's will be quality and intense. We recently went through this with our leopard and OD and passed up several examples that didn't look top notch to us until we found the perfect examples!

I think it comes down to a low price doesn't mean a good deal and have an excellent background and description of the genetic qualities before buying.

I really would like a grading system for babies although it would need to be monitored and policed by the most experienced breeders in each morph. The logistics would be a feat, but to sell a "A" quality enchi would be that snake is an excellent example of the morph and meets certain qualities. A "C" quality would be pet quality or something similar.
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Oh, and agreed on the preference variation on color, pattern, etc. I tend to prefer the medium white pieds (60%) but I know a lot of people prefer the high white or low white examples. There has to be some understanding that it can be a beautiful example of the gene even if it doesn't match your preference.

However I see way too many pastels that look like normals or axanthic that look like a poor pastel. This is where the line should be drawn.
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Originally Posted by Mike41793

I agree with this post. I think my snakes are all of pretty decent quality. I plan to only holdback offspring thats just as nice, or hopefully nicer than what i have now.

I think we should also take into account the fact that different people have different tastes though. Not all morphs should look one way. Some people like high white spiders, some people like low white spiders. I love blushing so i'd rather own a pastel thats not super yellow but has a ton of blushing, rather than a bright yellow pastel with no blushing. Some of it is personal preference.

I also agree with what nikki said about normals. Pairing a fire to a really light normal would probably produce nicer fires than if you paired it to a darker or more brown normal.

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I agree. A beautiful snake to me might be an ugly one to you. A lot of it is personal preference. I personally love all of the animals in my collection and bought them because I think they look great. However, if you prefer more reduced cinnamons over funky pattern, super yellow pastel over high blushing, etc, you wouldn't like my collection. While there are animals that I think we can all agree are very poor quality (i.e a completely brown pastel, a sterling that is indistinguishable from a pewter), most depend on what you personally look for in the morph.

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Originally Posted by Joshua Jasper

I really would like a grading system for babies although it would need to be monitored and policed by the most experienced breeders in each morph. The logistics would be a feat, but to sell a "A" quality enchi would be that snake is an excellent example of the morph and meets certain qualities. A "C" quality would be pet quality or something similar.
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I completely agree, but wonder how hard that would be to instill. It's a fantastic idea though!

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Originally Posted by liv

I agree. A beautiful snake to me might be an ugly one to you. A lot of it is personal preference. I personally love all of the animals in my collection and bought them because I think they look great. However, if you prefer more reduced cinnamons over funky pattern, super yellow pastel over high blushing, etc, you wouldn't like my collection. While there are animals that I think we can all agree are very poor quality (i.e a completely brown pastel, a sterling that is indistinguishable from a pewter), most depend on what you personally look for in the morph.

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:8::rofl:

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Originally Posted by Joshua Jasper

However I see way too many pastels that look like normals or axanthic that look like a poor pastel. This is where the line should be drawn.
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Agreed. I think low quality pastels are the biggest issue. They are cheap so people pick them up probably more than any other morph and they can cause the biggest trickle effect of low quality morphs.

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Originally Posted by liv

( a sterling that is indistinguishable from a pewter).

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O boy lol

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Originally Posted by nimblykimbly

I completely agree, but wonder how hard that would be to instill. It's a fantastic idea though!

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I have thought a lot about it but would need participation from the big breeders on defining the "A" standards for each base morph that we could then use to compare. There would be a certain reliance on honesty on our part, but we should have a morph description and way to accurately and fairly grade our clutches. I would definitely grade one of my babies a "C" if I felt it was a poor example.

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