Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can anyone tell me why I see pastel females much more expensive than males? As far as breeding for pastel offspring, the theoretic yield of pastels in a clutch is 50% whether it's a male pastel bred to a normal female or a normal male bred to a pastel female. So why then do I see female pastels as much as twice as expensive as males?

Thanks for any help!

It's probably for breeding super pastels. People don't generally sell their females, so the demand is greater than the supply, so prices get high.
Justin J

Yeah I thought about that, and I see what you mean, but even for supers you NEED to have a male pastel, since the only way to get supers is male pastel female pastel. I had someone tell me that it was because of the role females play in breeding, but if that was true then why can you get male and female albinos for the same price?

And the more I think about it, why are females of expensive morphs more expensive in general? Het axanthic females are more, het albino females are more, het piebald females are more, het clown, stripe, and ghost females are all more expensive (at least where I have seen). Is it simply because they are the egglayers? And if this is true I still have a hard time with this because because no matter what you still need a het for the trait or a homozygous for the trait male.

Again, thanks for any help.

One male can breed several females. Once you have one pair, the number of additional eggs you can produce goes up quickest with additional females. So people like to have more females than males.

With albinos, they have become reasonable priced enough that many are upgrading from a het male to an albino male or are using albino males on normal females to produce hets so the demand for the males is high among people who might not own any of the more expensive morphs.

OK, I see what you mean. I hadn't thought of it in more then a one to one, male to female ratio. That makes sense that if you have one male you could produce more eggs just by having more females.

This is not the first python forum I have asked this question in but it is the first answer I have gotten that has made any sense.

You're comments are more than appreciated Randy.

Thanks!

Your right Justin....supers is one big reason. Another reason why Pastel females are so much higher is that they are a gateway to many new mutations.

Clown/Pastel...Pied/Pastel...Spider/Pastel (Bumblebee)...Stripe/Pastel...Mojave/Pastel...Hypo/Pastel...and the list goes on.

Having a crew of females Pastels gives you many choices, therefore, I see them sustaining their value for awhile ...particularly after people start kicking out these new morphs.

Jim