Pit, thank you for the photo references, that's very helpful! Your animals are beautiful.

So am I looking for brightness, contrast, and cleanness of pattern? I notice the flames/blushing on that first male is pretty much all over the body and basically covers the dark pattern entirely. Was he darker when he was young, like the other two, or pretty much that golden from the start?

I think I'm going to go back to that Petsmart and look at the BP again with a more scrutinizing eye and take pictures of it under the more normal lighting of the store rather than in its cage with the red bulb interfering.