Quality of breeding stock

[nykea]

Hi guys, I'm a newbie here, and a newbie to ball pythons, although I've been lurking around for years... I feel I have something to chime in here though, as I'm a geneticist, specialising in animal genetics and animal improvement. I agree with the general idea of this thread, buying my snakes I went to well known breeders partly to avoid pewter/sterling dilemmas, partly to know the bloodlines I'd be working with. All you've said is true, that is until rlditmars' post. I don't know if he magically edited it or if you read a different post to me, but I absolutely don't see why you laugh him up. He talks about one sided view on the word "quality". As been said before, everyone has a different idea of a "good quality" look on a morph. However, he points out that in animal breeding there is more to the value of it, than just the looks! That's what is causing so many problems in dog breeding...
I bought my snakes with an intention of breeding them. Obviously, I want them to look as good as possible. But, like rlditmars, the look of the snake in question will be just a fraction of my breeding decisions. I would much rather take an average looking female that is feeding well, and is a good breeder, than a splendidly looking female that would have to be force fed all the time and would take 3 breeding seasons to lay 3 eggs, out of which 2 would be slugs. With the first female you can work with, with the second... well, you can admire her.