Breeding and losing track of fun and purpose

[hungba]

I recently read a lot of threads about the desert morph, saying that the female is a "useless" animal. I understand this because they can't (or shouldn't) be bred, due to the problems this creates of the eggs and the safety of the animal. But I personally find it quite disheartening to constantly hear the words "worthless pet animals".

I remember 6 years ago, when I got my first ball python, a NORMAL MALE. I loved him as much as love itself. I then was introduced to breeding (with yet no interest in doing so) and talked to various friends who bred snakes to see what morphs would make a nice pet (I remember lesser was my favorite). They talked pretty much like I talked now, about how much the offspring would sell for, about certain snakes like "Ivories" looking great, but not worth it because there isn't much to do in terms of breeding (I don't necessarily agree with this but their point was there was nothing much you could do to it and it just adds the YB gene to your collection). Some animals were worth a lot but looked like normals which I didn't understand at the time, everything was an ongoing pursuit of breed breed breed. I talked to a guy at a reptile show about a lavender albino, and he told me of the difference in price of male and female due to "usefulness". I didn't understand at the time. He asked me what I wanted to breed. I said I just wanted one as a pet. He was very surprised that anyone would want that and suspected me that I was lying in order to haggle on price.

I told him at the time, everyone seems to be in this ongoing pursuit of breeding breeding breeding, and never stop for a moment to enjoy the animals themselves. After all, why would there be any value in the morphs/combos themselves, if people weren't initially interested in keeping great looking animals as pets?

Now, a few years later, I am breeding myself. It's only been a year, but I am already talking and thinking like that. Now, Don't get me wrong, I don't think there is ANYTHING wrong with it. In fact, I think it's fantastic that people are working hard to get new morphs and combos going. It's great and it is what I am striving for myself. However, sometimes I think we should just stop for a moment, take a deep breath, and just look at the animals' beauty and appreciate them for what they are. My breeders are my pets too, not just "investments". I even have a male green iguana that I raised from baby to now almost 6 feet long and he isn't worth anything monetarily, yet I love him a lot.

I understand the danger of people breeding animals with problems in that regard, but that is more a matter of education and letting people know. The whole principle that "pet animals" are worthless just doesn't seem right to me.

But of course that is just my opinion. I don't even know why I shared that! LOL!