what do you consider when considering quality

[Lizardlicks]

With ball pythons, other than genetic defects linked with certain genes (super cinny kink or spider wobble for example) there really isn't a whole lot of structural variance so there really isn't breeding for some rare, amazing feature that ends up leaving the animal crippled. With mammals, a lot of it is about exaggeration of traits through inbreeding and "the purity of the line". Snake keepers doooon't really track that stuff a lot to my experience. It's not important. A ball python is a ball python. A snake is a meat tube with a mouth on one end and a butt at the other.

When we look for quality in our animals it usually comes down to two things: the health of the animal, which is generally more related to it's keeper's husbandry than the snake's breeding (is it well hydrated, eating, free of mites, RI, stuck shed, damaged scales or other injury, etc.), and the clarity of the color/pattern associated with that morph. Is the pastel obviously a pastel at first glance, or do you have to tilt your head and debate on whether it's really just a blushed out normal? This snake is advertised as a two or three gene animal, but can you only clearly see one? Things like that. Each morph has it's own definition of quality, and then there are morphs for which personal preference plays a big role. I like my pied to have a nice white balance, but some people like them high white and others like low white. I like reduced patterns on snakes, even in normals. To me it just looks nicer and more clean. If I want a snake to breed, I like to look at the snakes parents if I can. An axanthic who's got really brown parents might look nice as a hatchling, but he'll be mud before his first birthday. I also like gauging the personality of my snakes. Each animal is an individual, but they're pets, and I like animals that are naturally more easy going and chill with handling and changes. Less likely to stress and become sick or stop eating as opposed to an animal that is never out of a ball or snapping at me constantly. Of course this can be changed overtime with consistent gentle handling, but starting with a docile little sweet heart goes a long way. With my future snakes' babies I would like to see if they can pass on their temperaments with selective breeding. I don't think that's something a lot of big names focus on much if at all.