What do you consider quality?

For me, #1 is health. I want an animal that is strong, robust, feeding well, and just overall in great condition. Sound genetics/breeding is a bonus, if it has healthy parents with minimal inbreeding the better.

#2 would be how well it represents the given morph or what hets and such it has. Or how well it would fit into any projects I have going on. Most of the time it's usually whatever catches my eye as the nicest example of color and pattern.

#3 I'm sticking breeder in here, but really that can change determining on where I'm shopping or what I'm looking for. If I'm at a show I'll make sure they know they're stuff, but if they're not a big name it doesn't matter to me. I want whoever honestly cares about their animals, and can answer any questions I throw at them. Having that face to face interaction helps a lot.
Online I do tend to drift towards more reputable breeders, because that face to face time is lost and I can only gather what I can from their website or whatever reviews/opinions I can find.

Price is totally not an issue, I'll pay whatever I need for a good quality animal :)

Quality is a relatively general term. :) Kinda like "nice", it gets tossed around a lot..

I personally think that quality, means that a snake is healthy, free from defects, shiny-eyes with no retained caps.. clear-skinned (no marks or scars) and grade-A, A-1 Nice. Feeding regularly, and if it is a morph, posessing the necessary traits of such morph.

A quality snake is a snak that's ready to be sold. A non-quality snake would be one that needs rehab, needs skin to be soaked off; etc. To me, at least!

Genetics are very important.

Then the representation of the animal itself. Color as well as physical aspects all matter.

There is no single thing that you can place, that makes an animal quality, without a need of any of the others.

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

I'm just WAITING for actual reptile shows--ones with judges. <lol>

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haha seriously.. and a written standard for each morph... next there would be a registry for them lol...:rolleyes:

At least iHerp has a lineage database now--really, it's about time. The corn snake registry Kathy Love started is a great idea, but we DO need one for ball pythons. It's not about being overly fussy--it's about actually tracking bloodlines and ancestry. It's an important tool for breeders.

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Originally Posted by rabernet

I guess I just haven't run across enough truly "non-docile" ball pythons to give temperment a second thought.

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Just wait until you do. It's such a treat. lol...

Woah, I think we're basically talking about the same thing, only using different words.

I'm not looking for a snake that tries to tag everything in sight, defense or not--but for it to at least show a reaction towards its surroundings, which includes being curious/outgoing. A curious/active/paying attention/even a slightly shyer snake, if nothing else, tells me it's more normal and a safer bet than the odd one out that sits there unmoving or slow when you reach for it.

However, my main concern is sometimes, to people who can't tell the difference (or even people who can) how do you figure whether a snake is just extremely tolerant of being handled by a stranger because this animal is super-docile, or because it has an underlying medical condition? Unless I consistently keep up with how it feeds/how it reacts usually, when buying an animal, I'd prefer to be on the middle ground--it might give a little less room for error.

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

I'm just WAITING for actual reptile shows--ones with judges. <lol>

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That would be awesome.

if you like it or not,very simple

and in the poll it states assuming it is in good health

Well, a healthy snake will have good muscle tone, will be clear-eyed (if it's not opaque), well-fleshed, and its skin and scales will look shiny and healthy, with no degradation, redness, cracking, etc. Clear nostrils, no swelling, nothing odd about the mouth, and a normal amount of tongue-flicking.
I don't necessarily want the snake to form an impenetrable ball when I pick it up--that's a scared snake. I prefer one that is more outgoing and curious. I have one funny snake that does indeed just sit there when you pick him up--in the exact position it was in when you touched him, rigidly, without moving. You could hold him by the middle and he'd stand up in the air, lol. I think they're better adjusted if they move around a bit and show a sign of being more curious than afraid.