Color Breeding

[bill38112]

A recent, very lengthy thread, on this subforum got me to thinking about one of my main concerns with breeding corns. Before I start, I am not criticizing any individual breeder, I'm just sharing an observation about our hobby.

With the exception of a handful of notable breeders, few people are breeding snakes that consistently look like their parents, siblings, and offspring. By that I mean it is rare to see three snakes from the same clutch that are the same shade of the same color or to see a snake that looks just like its parent or offspring.

This is partly due to the age of our hobby. There just hasn't been enough time to establish true colors. However, it is due in large part to the worrisome practice of rushing to create the next lucrative morph without laying the proper foundation. Now I get as excited as the next guy when something new shows up, but when that new morph does not have a solid foundation of reliable color reproduction, how useful is it?

I have mentioned before that my main interest in corns are the shades of pink and purple that exist in the species. But what I want to see is a neon pink and a vivid purple. I don't want to see a tan or flesh colored snow. I don't want to see a muddy lavender. Is it too much to expect an opal to be the color of, say, an opal?

I know cat breeders who have bred nothing but blue Persians for 30 years. When you get one of their kittens, you don't need a photo. You know EXACTLY what color you are getting. This is what we should be shooting for in our breeding. So thank you Kathy Love, Carol Huddleston, and Rob Stevens for producing consistently the same colors and patterns. I know if I use one of your snakes in my breeding program, it is going to reproduce itself. For those of you that are doing the same kind of work, forgive me for not knowing your work better. For the rest of you, take notice. This is what selective breeding is all about.

 

[Susan]

I agree with much of what you are saying. However, selective breeding for consistency in color and pattern can take multiple generations...once you have even gotten the look you want. I got my first corns in 1995 and started breeding in 1998. Most of my breeding stock are "originals", F1 and a few F2. And I still haven't gotten the exact look I want for my pastel ghost motleys. I just hatched out some F3 ghost motleys, but the pairing was for another project, not the pastel ghost motley project. Basically what I'm saying is what you are asking breeders to do simply cannot be done quickly and, in the meantime, you will see "inconsistencies" in phenotypes.

You will also get the argument of "variety is the spice of life". The new and the different always stand out and get noticed before the same old ordinary thing.

 

[Topazfyre]

You will also get the argument of "variety is the spice of life". The new and the different always stand out and get noticed before the same old ordinary thing.

I agree with this as well.The variety among the same morphs is how phases like Okeetee, Miami, Sunglow, Flourescent, etc. are born. In the process of finding new things to work with we find a new look among the same genes. Also a lot of these genes haven't been around long enough for the selective breeding like that of the Okeetee's to have taken place. I do think you have a good point, though- perhaps some of us should take a look back at the morphs we already have and improve on them.

 

[toyah]

This is partly due to the age of our hobby. There just hasn't been enough time to establish true colors. However, it is due in large part to the worrisome practice of rushing to create the next lucrative morph without laying the proper foundation. Now I get as excited as the next guy when something new shows up, but when that new morph does not have a solid foundation of reliable color reproduction, how useful is it?

I absolutely completely totally agree. The "problem" (I use "problem" as some people won't think of it as a problem) is of course there's no set of standards, guidelines as to what each morph should look like, and in a related statement no shows or opportunities to have our stock independantly evaluated against that of other breeders/fanciers. But hopefully that will come in future ... I think a forum such as this one could be a great springboard for setting up standards, even if formal showing is something of the future.

Corns are getting to the level where, while the novelty value of something new is still high, quality is becoming something more and more important - and most morphs are now in the price range where it's possible to justify paying extra for an excellent example.

No, selective breeding is not a quick process, but once people start setting their goals towards it, it's amazing how quickly progress can be made.

I know cat breeders who have bred nothing but blue Persians for 30 years. When you get one of their kittens, you don't need a photo. You know EXACTLY what color you are getting.

All the same, even in a breed as old and colourbred as blue persians, variety is still the spice of life! While they are bred for type and colour to a very specific standard, to the trained eye there are many differences, to the point where the breeding lines of high quality examples can be picked out simply by looking at some cats, due to the different ways in which the standard is interpreted.

This is where it comes down to it though - in colourbred animals, you tend to find that only specific varieties ("morphs") are bred to each other. A brown tabby British shorthair cat is a gorgeous creature, and the same breed, technically, as a lilac colourpoint BSH - but breed them together and while you might produce an interesting rainbow of babies, you'll lose most or all of the selective breeding put into the parents. Are we willing as snake breeders to give up random "rainbow" clutches in favour of perfecting one or two particular morphs?

I personally have paid almost double for a particular morph (comparing the cheapest snake of a morph available vs. the snake I bought) simply on the basis of the colouration of the parents - the result is my fabulous opal boy Sebastian, who is a very bright and attractive colour, not one of these off-white opals you see. If I just breed him to any old snake then I am wasting his colour ... yes, that's gotta be done to produce new morphs or add new genes to his line, but I am more interested in getting him mated to my very pink lavender girl as I think they will complement each other and produce offspring as special as both of the parents.

Of course, that doesn't preclude variety. As much as my perfect lavenders and opals are those saturated with background colour, someone else might be breeding specifically for another aspect of looks - say their perfect lavender is one with a nice mocha saddle colour and as little frosting as possible. That's all well and good, and opens the door that in the future, linebred specimens of each line might be so different from each other as to be worthy of different names. The major genes are just a starting block, it's selective breeding that provides all of the variety and spice that we're looking for.