Quality of breeding stock

[rlditmars]

I have seen the word "Quality" used on this forum since I started lurking here. It cracks me up because all "Quality" means on this site is pretty, prettier, and prettiest. Nothing more. When you hear the word "Quality" used in other consumer references it means many things like better materials, tighter tolerances, longer performance, faster speeds, etc. Is there one breeder here who can say and back up with evidence, that their snakes eat better, live longer, lay more eggs, slither faster, use more efficiently the caloric intake of the rats consumed? No! In fact there are many of you who raise and breed animals with a known neurological disorder and talk about the "Quality" of your Bees, Spiders, etc. What they mean when they say "Quality", is they have a pretty example of a particular morph and likely have used good husbandry practices producing it.

That in mind, "Pretty" is pretty subjective. What you are supposed to look for in a quality pastel, is what the first people in the hobby decided was, in their opinion, a quality pastel and have now imposed as truth on those that followed. It is no different then what Vogue tells you is beautiful. And if Vogue were to use the same logic being applied to this thread, then heavy women and people who don't have good symmetry in their facial structure, are low quality humans and should only be regarded as "Pet Quality" and never be bred. Too bad as Stephen Hawking would be low quality.

Just my 0.02.