Why are females more expensive?

[simplechamp]

Like the title says, why do females almost always cost more than males?

I know people might say it's because they produce the eggs, but I still don't get it. The male provides equal amount of genes. Both sexes have equally important genetics when breeding for recessive morphs and homo forms of codom morphs. And as for het forms of codoms, a male het x female norm produces the same offspring as a male norm x female het so I don't see any more value in the female there.

So what's the deal?

[Adam_Wysocki]

Supply and demand.

There are fewer females available on the market, because the breeders that produce them hold more females back than males (if they even hold any males back at all).

For example ... I have a lesser male (or three or seven or something like that) ... if I breed him to a bunch of normal girls and produce 10.10 lessers, I'll sell off all the males (because I have males and don't need them) ... I'll want to keep all of the girls because I can breed them to all kinds of other stuff and make designer mutations ... but, I do have to make some money here and there, so I'll offer a couple for sale ... but for a little more than I offer the males for ... because they have more value to my breeding programs than the males do.

Hope this helps.

-adam

[mainbutter]

Exactly what I was going to say you only need 1 male to breed a bunch of girls.

Good ol' free(ish) market driven prices.

[abhorrent]

You can stud a male to more than one female, but a female can only take one male a year maybe?

[Beardedragon]

Would you rather buy ten male pieds and one female pied, or the other way around?

[simplechamp]

Ahhh there we go, makes sense. Males tend to be in surplus because most codom morph breeding is started by doing codom male x norm female clutches. Females are more rare therefore more valuable.

You can stud a male to more than one female, but a female can only take one male a year maybe?

One weird thing though when you look at it from this point of view... if you bred a pastel male to 5 normal females you will get 5 clutches of 50% poss. pastel, whereas one female pastel can only be fertilized by one male normal to produce one clutch of 50% poss. pastel. The male pastel has the ability to pass his genes on in many clutches, whereas the female pastel can only pass her genes on in one clutch. When you look at it this way the males should be more valuable, since they can pass their valuable genes on much more than females.

[simplechamp]

Would you rather buy ten male pieds and one female pied, or the other way around?

One male pied has the ability to fertilize 10 pied females. The male can pass his valuable genes on 10 times, the females can only do it once a piece. It's weird the males don't cost more since they can reproduce their valuable genes in many clutches as opposed to one.

[Adam_Wysocki]

One weird thing though when you look at it from this point of view... if you bred a pastel male to 5 normal females you will get 5 clutches of 50% poss. pastel, whereas one female pastel can only be fertilized by one male normal to produce one clutch of 50% poss. pastel. The male pastel has the ability to pass his genes on in many clutches, whereas the female pastel can only pass her genes on in one clutch. When you look at it this way the males should be more valuable, since they can pass their valuable genes on much more than females.

Still a supply vs demand issue ... there are less females available, so the price is higher. Breeders only need but so many males of any given mutation ... when it comes to females, as a breeder, there is no number that I consider "enough".

-adam

[simplechamp]

I agree, it comes down to supply and demand, and as far as $$$ goes females win.

But wouldn't you agree that at least genetically, mainly in regard to being able to pass on valuable genes more readily than females, the males are more valuable?

[Adam_Wysocki]

I agree, it comes down to supply and demand, and as far as $$$ goes females win.

But wouldn't you agree that at least genetically, and in regard to being able to pass on valuable genes more readily than females, the males are more valuable

I wouldn't agree.

In the short term, and if you don't have any other male mutations, it may seem that way ... but long term, making rare combinations by crossing a morph male with different morph females has far more "value".

I have a ton of morph males, and can't get enough morph females to breed them to. It's far better to breed a single male mutation to 5 female mutations than it is to 5 female normals.

-adam