Quality of breeding stock

[nimblykimbly]

Perhaps something like this -

Pet Quality - These are the pythons with the least favorable coloring/pattern, but the most affordable.

Beginner Breeding Quality - These pythons are mid range, showing decent coloration/pattern for the morph. The majority of our babies fall in this category. Market price.

Superior Quality - These pythons go above and beyond the morph standard, showing excellent coloring/pattern. Our breeders come from this group. Priced according to market, with additional quality mark up.

Holdbacks / Breeders - These are our personal stock. Sometimes we will have pythons here we have bred in the past, who have been replaced by their offspring. All of these are Superior Quality, and priced accordingly.

Pet Quality - These are good quality python representatives of their morph; below breeding quality. (I wouldn't want even my pet to be lowest quality... lol Even BP owners with only 'pets' are super proud of their Balls )

Mid Quality - These pythons are mid range, showing decent coloration/pattern for the morph. The majority of our babies fall in this category. Market price. ( don't know if I'd label these as breeder quality; am I wrong? We're trying to weed out people buying 'lowER end' snakes to breed (I know we can't stop them, but like you said, make them think)... should we try to hold that to Superior Quality?)

Superior Quality - These pythons go above and beyond the morph standard, showing excellent coloring/pattern. Our breeders come from this group. Priced according to market, with additional quality mark up.

Holdbacks / Breeders - These are our personal stock. Sometimes we will have pythons here we have bred in the past, who have been replaced by their offspring. All of these are Superior Quality, and priced accordingly.

This is a fine idea; however, theres a pretty obvious problem. How would you make sure that the pet quality snakes aren't bred? Its not like a dog where most families buy a "pet quality" dog and never even consider breeding it.

Just curious; do any breeders out there cull babies that are pet quality or lower? Or does anyone know of any breeders that do?

We can't MAKE them not breed them, unfortunately... but like Rosey Reps said... if there is a standard, maybe it will help potential new breeders to think twice and subconsciously strive to acquire higher standards for their breeding practices. We'll be hard pressed to completely get rid of bad breeders. Heck, people do it with dogs, too. Unfortunately there is no 'spay/neuter' program for snakes....

There will be plenty of people who buy the pet quality and go ahead and breed. Just like there are plenty of people who buy the pet quality from fire and ice dragons and breed them. The thing is, when you show people different quality levels, some of them do have a tendency (I know I do) to look at all the tiers, then they sit and think...well damn, for $50 more I could get that beginner breeder quality, and that one really is prettier *think think*. If that scale makes people *think* about quality at all, I'm happy with it. Even if they decide to go for the lowest price, that planted the seed that quality does matter, and then maybe one day, even if it's years down the line, they will make that switch from BUY ALL THE BROWN PASTELS!!! to hey...lets focus more on quality now that we've had a few clutches...happily ever after.

Besides, if I grade my own snakes honestly, at least I can sleep at night knowing that I was up front about the pet quality. And in the end, that's all that really matters. Sleep.

Yes