At what point?

[Kaorte]

I can see how a 5 gene animal would be appealing as a male powerhouse.. In terms of aesthetics... yeah I understand what you mean. Sometimes too many genes, or the wrong combination of genes just ends up looking awful. I think anything more than 4 genes is in the territory of "what is even in this??"

This kind of relates to a concern I have for myself as a small breeder. One day I will have some 3-4 gene males cycling through my 1-2 gene females.. Eventually I am going to have a clutch where I don't even know what genes are in which animals. That day is going to be both awesome and terrifying!

[bcr229]

Eventually I am going to have a clutch where I don't even know what genes are in which animals. That day is going to be both awesome and terrifying!

You're not alone - if you read through the BP facebook forums there are several folks with that problem now, especially when the sire and dam both have at least 3 dom or co-dom genes. Makes for some very interesting discussions, never mind the pictures...

[Mephibosheth1]

How would you figure that out anyway??

Is there a place that can genotype the snakes to find out what their actual genetic morph is??

[jason_ladouceur]

I guess on some level I get what people are saying. But I can't honestly think of anouther group of people other than bp breeders that could justify spending 20k on an animal that even they think is ugly just because of its potential lol.

[sho220]

I guess on some level I get what people are saying. But I can't honestly think of anouther group of people other than bp breeders that could justify spending 20k on an animal that even they think is ugly just because of its potential lol.

That's the business side of bp breeding...it's the same reason people will pay millions of dollars for ugly little rocks like these...

[digizure]

On the positive side, think about the rack space you'd save with the 5-gene animal. Then again, with the $ you put into the 5-gene animal, you could get more racks.

[rlditmars]

I am in the camp for less genes per snake. I agree that often everything just gets kind of muddled looking. The other thing about a 4 or 5 gene animal that I see as a draw back, is how do you know what the parent of the specific gene looks like? I realize that breeders try to use beautiful animals for every gene. But you can just as easily make a 5 gene animal from animals that you may not have chosen the single gene form.

I always consider the Ivory as an example. The two ugliest yellowbellies you could hand pick, will still produce an Ivory.

I personally like single and double gene myself. I can appreciate the beauty of the specific morph better. Just my $0.02

[sho220]

The base morphs are simply the paints laid out on the palette...it's up to the artist (or breeder) to figure out what to do with them...and one of the biggest traps an artist can fall into is over-working a painting. The key is when to put the paint brush down and call it done...

Floyd here knows what I'm talkin' about...

[Artemille]

When it comes to animals with tons of genes stacked on, I think I'd prefer to add them in one at a time instead of jumping in head first with a 5-6 gene male.

I've been thinking about this lately when deciding if I wanted a ghost pinstripe, or a ghost lemonblast to pair with my fire honeybee girl. If I get a ghost pin, the best I could get would be a fire ghost spinner. I don't know if any exist, but I know what it will look like. I don't know if I could tell the difference between a fire ghost spinner and a fire ghost spinnerblast. They would be equally impressive looking, but thats basically five different shades of yellow at the same time.

[hypersomniacjoo]

i wish you had a pic of this guys specter yb enchi fire pastel. i know when making combos, i am reluctant to breed anything that will be especially difficult to identify if a 3 or 4 gene combo will ensue, and you won't be able to tell if its 3 or 4 genes, aka you can't tell if your snake is worth 2k or is a world's first and is worth more because of that.