First off, no, that was not directed at you. I know that you work hard at a valid job and etc and could easily afford any of these snakes. I had said that many people that can't afford them often put them down and such as this is often the case.



And yes, this is a business. Sure. But it's a love and a hobby first and foremost. The business end of it is just so that I can make enough money so I can sit home and play with my snakes all day long every day for the rest of my life.



Now, the important aspect of the morph market is this: The regular burmese and rocks became overproduced and are priced at a rate that has rendered them "expendable". The morphs drive up the prices and force the consumer (in most cases, I realize there are exceptions) to view the snake in a much more valuable light and thus "non-expendable". If I were to just breed normal rocks because 60% of the consumer found them more attractive I would be adding to the problem of ultimately abandoned and abused snakes. I would be forced to sell them for 30 to 60 dollars because other people do and this is the very thing that I am trying to bring to an end. That and mass importation. So if by breeding morphs I can keep the prices higher and make the snakes less expendable then that is what I am going to do. Aside from which I really dig a lot of these morphs a lot. So it's also a joy to keep and breed them and work on multi-generational mega-morph projects.



The bottom line with you Rob,.. I have always respected you and what you do, both in the public eye as well as in the shadows with your personal projects. It is unfortunate that I have a personality conflict with a close friend of yours. I was always hoping that this would not have an affect on our professionalism toward one another here. It seems it has not and I admire that.





>>I took a bit of an offense of what you said (it sounded like it was directed at me) but you are entitled to speak your mind. It is not a question of being able to afford a certain designer snake, not even close (I have plenty of resources to purchase many of the high end herps on the market; I just choose not to). I have no idea what these patternless rocks are being sold for so taking shots at an animal that I can't own is bogus...my only point was that it is a real shame that captive breeding has stooped to such lows that we selectively breed "out" the most desired traits in a particular snake. After all, even as beautiful as a normal colored rock is, people won't pay the same price as a much drabber looking "unique" morph that just comes on to the market place. It really has come down to the almighty dollar. The same can be said for what we have done to the beautiful corn snake...now all we have are a bunch of mutts on the market. Try to find a pure, classic looking okeetee phase that isn't het for some ridiculous sounding name. I have been in the hobby and profession for many, many years. I basically eat and breathe reptiles and now that I am a bit older, I feel much wiser (and bolder) in voicing my opinions and I will just say that while we have made some wonderful advances in the hobby, particularly with the knowledge we have in captive breeding and some of the many excellent husbandry supplies and equipment, but, we have also taken some major strides backwards. But, in time, there will be a new movement to go back to appreciating "normal" colored herps the way we typically find them in nature. There will be an emphasis on keeping fewer animals in more naturalistic set ups and enjoying these "few" animals. The days of mass production of herps, I believe, will come to an end or be significantly reduced (or end up completely destroying what pure bloodlines we have left)....some of this reduction, unfortunately, will be due to much more strict regulations against keeping of certain types of herps (rocks, burms, retics, anacondas). I better shut up....Sorry that my original point was somewhat deluded by my strong opinions.
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