Quality of breeding stock

[nykea]

There are 2 sort of reasons why to breed animals. They're based on conformation or performance. Usually breeding for performance are working lines of animals. For example, race horses or dogs who herd.

But if you look at show animals. Any show animal(live stock, dogs, cats, rats, ferrets, etc etc) its based on body and look.

I'm involved in dog breeding and this division you are talking about is the cause of many many many problems we see in pedigree "show" dogs. Sure, most show-line breeders will tell you that they breed for looks and general health, but what do they mean? Usually that the dog in question is able to walk from the van to the ring and run around the ring without tripping over its own legs, or without overheating. There is a growing number of people who actually test breeding dogs, but this is partly due to the outcry of general public, which until recently was blissfully unaware, that e.g. 75% of English Bulldogs are unable to give birth naturally, or that skulls of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels are too small to contain their brains... IMHO if we decide to breed animals, their health and wellbeing should ALWAYS be a priority.

But as long as an animal is not suffering or is able to thrive and live a quality life, there is no reason to stop breeding certain morphs.

Agreed. I'm not saying that we should stop breeding morphs at all. I'm just saying that when selecting out of 3 pastels, one muddy looking with good feeding response and good clutch size, one with good, but not outstanding colour and good feeding/clutch, and one with outstanding coloours and pattern, but tricky to feed and breed - I would definitely go with the second one, breed to a better coloured male and use seleciton on the babies, improving on colour and keeping "fitness" as it is.

If you want a 'defect free' snake, breed normals. All morphs are genetic defects after all.

Not sure why you say that. I didn't say anything about mutations or "defected morphs". By the way, mutations can be neutral to fitness and deleterious. Majority of morphs are neutral mutations, at least in captivity (in wild they could be deleterious as they would make the snake more visible to predators) so I see absolutely no problem in breeding them, that's what I'm planning to do! I'm just saying that while breeding ANY kind of animal, dog, snake, wild type or morph, the looks should NEVER be the sole factor in selection decisions.

If the second snake was that much of a problem, she probably would have died on her own or should be culled from a young age. That is not a good quality life if she can't thrive on her own. Especially as an adult.

Hm, I'm lurking on several forums now and I have seen numerous topics where a breeder admits that a female was a nightmare to feed, laid one or two clutches with mostly slugs, but she's sooo pretty that they just HAVE to try again and again, until they get offspring from her...