What qualities do you look for in a morph?

[Aryia]

So I've been wondering for a while. When you look for a, let's say, mojave ball python female, what do you look for to determine if the animal is a good quality animal of that morph? Do you look for evenness of pattern, contrast, and that sort of thing or what do you generally look for? *Mojave is just an example, I was curious about in general*

I see a lot of variations in pricing even when the animals come from the same breeder (same morph), so I assume there is some clear distinction between quality animals and not so high quality individuals?

[Tigerhawk]

You will know quality when you see it. After you have seen several Bp's of a morph the best will stand out, and really appeal to you. Point in case I was at an reptile show looking at the various bp morphs. I come down an isle and there it was. It was a bright pastel lesser male. I was not worried about the price he was coming home with me. My point is after a while your eyes will tell you when you see quality. True there are certain things you look for in a quality bp. Which I'm sure others will comment on. May I also ask what morph are you looking for. As that will others to comment in detail about what to look for in certain bp's.

[Morris Reese]

Colors and markings are important. Don't get me wrong with that point. One thing I look at is size. I'm not talking about a older snake that is sub adult and larger. I'm talking about juveniles. I like to see a snake that is well fed. A lot of breeders (and pet shops) will feed the minimum and I understand keeping cost down. I'm not saying I would not buy a snake from them, but when I see a young snake of a good size I would pick it over the ......smaller one. I just like the assurance that it's a good eater!

[aalomon]

Its the animal you cant get out of your mind when you are at a show or looking at classifieds. You want the animal that stands out in the mass of morphs out there. I actually just posted a thread on a pastel het red axanthic girl I bought yesterday at Repticon. I spent a couple hours at the show and she was the only girl that hit me. She looked nothing like any other pastel het red I had seen before. I will say that I paid more than pastel het reds normally go for, but who cares!


(Sorry, couldnt resist the pic!)

[989josh]

This is my Mojave girl just went to a show and she clearly jump out at me. I pick her because of how light she is I believe she will be a good choice to make pastave


Sent from my iPhone

[J.P.]

my benchmark for other morphs is as far from normal looking as possible, meaning the highest expresion of the morph's trait. for color morphs, i like the lightest colored pastels, fires, lessers, mojaves etc. and darkest looking cinnys and black pastels. for pattern morphs like clowns, spider, pins and enchi, it's cleanest and reduced pattern. albinos - high/sharpness of contrast between white to yellow. for subtle morphs like yb, it's the most amount of flames, blushing and busy belly markings. i like medium white pieds the most, and prefer high whites over low white pieds.

[Aryia]

Thank you all for your helpful answers!

I purchased a couple basic morphs (lessers, butters, mojaves, mystics, special, axanthics, hidden gene woma, the list goes on) to try for a couple different projects: Lithium Blaze, Mystic Potions, Soulsuckers, and Axanthic combos.

Does the "look" of the parents carry over to the offspring in your experience? For example, if you had an unusually bright mystic, would the resulting mystic potions be brighter than normal too? And markings, do the babies' markings resemble the parents' at all? For example if the parents had very irregular patterns, would the babies end up with that as well?

Thanks again : )

[Mr Oni]

Things I look for in a morph depends on the morph.

I search and look at the selection of what I have in mind and really it's all on what pops to me.

Some may want reduced and depending on the morph I agree but I am a fan of busy wonky patterns.

I grab what speaks to me visually.

[KING JAMES]

Its all in what you want. It might be a great example of a morph according to a bunch of people but if you don't like it don't get it. I always go by one rule when buying snakes. If I have to stand/sit and think about whether I like the snake then I don't like it enough to buy it.

I guess I am still lacking on the business approach to this breeding thing. If I cared about the $$ I would get snakes that fit the mold of what most people wanted and would not worry about what I personally liked. Luckily I am still in hobby mode and only buy morphs that I think are purdy

For the record I love really reduced pattern snakes with really light flaming and blushing.

[Powerline Reptiles]

It depends on what you like. I like contrast, with dark rich tones, blushing and flaming. I get really excited about meltiness. But, again, it's a lot of opinion. Do you like reduced pattern or crazy patterns. Bright and light mojaves or dark and brooding ones? Bananas with spotting or without. I think we can all agree that you don't want super browned animals that should be yellow or anything really dirty or over speckled.