I love Royals, but the amount of morphs that are WILD looking and the prices they demand are just silly.
I think a morph should only be considered a morph if its naturally occuring in the wild.
Other ones combined from the breeding of morphs together should just be fancy variations.
Its shocking the prices a new morph goes for, only to half the price the following year.
Next year, we will see 6/7 gene morphs and I think normals, in terms of breeding will go up in price as the potential of variations from a 5/6/7 gene snake would be cost effective then.
Just my view
To be fair, multi gene combinations can and do occur in the wild (obviously with far less frequency). In captivity it can take years of hard grafting and a lot of spending to get to the point where you can breed what you're after.
It's actually, IMO, fair enough of people have a chance to get their investment back (and a little extra even) given how hard it is. So long as their animals are healthy and well-looked after, i don't see a huge problem.
i do however see a huge problem breeding possible hets all over the place or just plain normals that you can't give away.
I believe that morphs are actually more likely, despite the price, of getting a decent home for any length of time.
As to the whole scaleless/spider/jungle debate...well that adds complexity, for sure. scaleless apparently do fine (and naturally do occur in the wild, though line breeding and other human tinkering are perhaps an issue...but perhaps not.) spiders don't ALL wobble to the point of it affecting their lives...neither do all jungles. perfectly normal snakes come up with health problems too, sometimes...
would i breed them knowingly? probably not...but i can see both sides having some decent points (though the burden of proof may actually be on those for breeding them).
morphs are annoying to me personally when people think that all that exists are royal(!!!! not ball!) morphs, and forget the plethora of amazing snakes that nature has provided us with. however, morphs aren't annoying when it comes to more balanced keepers, or people who just happen to be passionate about the species they are breeding morphs from (for instance, i am passionate about bloods...and i am hoping to produce some cool morphs from them. i also keep other species, and think wild-types are amazing in all species, so hopefully i don't fail my own criterion:lol2
this is such an endless debate, tbh i wish people would have their opinions but generally keep them to themselves, or at least respect the other side and not just think that the one side is only in it for the money, or that the other side is irrationally prejudiced. we all have tastes, and we all i hope are passionate not just about snakes, but about their health and wellbeing as well. if we can agree on those points...than the rest should just be friendly discussion (if it's even needed, which i doubt)
