Desert Morph, what are your thoughts?

[Serpent_Nirvana]

I love the desert gene. The deserts themselves are awesome looking in person, and the combos are unreal -- some of my absolute favorites.

That said, I'm not investing in even a male right now, and I may not ever.

I agree with what's already been said, that right now, the prices are dropping and are going to keep dropping -- fast. I don't know if I think it's a "dead end" project per se, but I do think it's a poor investment at the moment. I think the prices will keep going down as more and more people learn about the issues with females and even the males become tougher to sell. I predict (and as always, reserve the right to be wrong) that next year, deserts will be cheaper than cheap. This is the first year, AFAIK, that the evidence has become so overwhelming -- that enough people are showing their dead or slugged out desert females -- that we can all pretty much 100% agree that the females can't breed. I think the dust is still settling, so to speak ...

I find it difficult to envision that such a stunning morph could completely disappear off the map, so I don't know that I think that'll quite happen. I *think* (though again, could be wrong) that they're just too pretty for the whole community to abandon the project entirely.

What I've been waiting on is not only for the prices to stabilize, but also to see how we, as a community, are able to handle the concept of females being truly "pet only." Yes, with caramel females you have a pretty good chance of getting slugs -- but at least she's not any more likely to die laying than any other female. IMO, there's no ethical problem with breeding caramel females; it's just the economics of the initial investment.

With desert females, it seems like there's a pretty good chance that a female will die if bred, and that, to me, makes trying to breed them a serious ethical issue. Thus, if I, as a breeder, produce female deserts, I have a responsibility to ensure that they ALL go to homes where they will never be bred. Right now, I sure don't believe I could ensure that. The ball python hobby is focused on breeding, breeding, breeding, so with the lifespan of these animals and the number of times they change hands during that life, I think it's only a matter of time before she winds up in the hands of someone who either doesn't know about the issues, or knows but figures he'll "give it a shot" anyway.

So, I love to look at deserts and I think they're absolutely gorgeous. I wish I could add a desert project to my collection, but I definitely won't be doing it for awhile -- because of the pricing -- if ever -- because of the female issues. If I truly thought that I could successfully place 1/4 of all of my desert clutch offspring in a pet-only home, I'd breed them, but I don't know if that will ever be the case.