Quality of breeding stock

[sorraia]

As someone who is new to the various morphs of ball python (honestly had NO idea how many there were!), I see part of the problem being the fact there is NO standard and everything is left up to subjective opinion. On the one hand that's nice, because if person A actually does like cheap muddy pastels they can find cheap muddy pastels, but on the other hand that's not so nice because then person B who likes very nice, clean, bright (and maybe more expensive) pastels may have a harder time finding them because too many persons A are buying and producing the cheap muddy ones.

I may or may not ever breed my snakes, I have at least a year (maybe longer) before any of my females will be ready. I'm not jumping into it half-assed or hurrying up just to make more snakes (or at least i don't consider myself doing that!), I am happy to wait and watch my snakes grow, and learn more as I wait. But that being said... I AM learning. I came from breeding rats and working at a horse breeding stable, where there ARE standards. So coming into this has been kind of a whirlwind for me, as I try to figure out what makes one more and what makes another morph. As an example... awhile back I posted a few pictures of some snakes I found in an ad. The ad was for a lot of 4 snakes, price was pretty decent (maybe even a steal, too good to be true), and at least 2 of those snakes were morphs I am looking to add to my collection for possible future projects. BUT something about a couple of the snakes in the ad made me question their quality. It may have been the pictures, it may have been the snakes, it may have been me being an uninformed newbie who is still learning. So I posted asking for opinions. And the opinions I got were split 50/50 down the middle. 50% of replies said "Yes, great snake! Beautiful!" and 50% said "Not so much, pass." Considering that... how can a newbie like me truly learn what IS good quality?

I may not have the best quality snakes out there, but I am trying too. To add the snakes I do have, I have perused so many ads, looked at so many pictures. My snakes are simple, mostly one gene morphs, a two gene morph, and a normal het pied, but I personally am happy with that. I personally would rather have a room full of simple one or two gene morphs that I LIKE and I think are GORGEOUS than I would a whole house full of multi gene morphs that just don't do it for me. So far, I am very pleased with my collection (posted new pictures last night even), and am more pleased with them as they grow.