• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Question for breeders

Good post Kathy! I agree totally. Maybe the "bad economy" will wash out all breeders who are just trying to make a quick buck.


Like everyone I'm streamlining my collection also to concentrate on certain projects.

Now is a "buying time" if you have cash...money talks... I've seen GREAT deals- even I have bought a few new animals lately.

I was hoping to retire early (well at least in the next 10 years) and breed reptiles full time BUT it doesn't look like it'll be happening. The majority of the money I make goes directly back into the hobby (food, caging, supplies, new animals, etc.). This year- 2010- I didn't break even and ended up spending some out of pocket money... that's ok- I do this because I love the animals & the hobby.

I don't think there's any quick & easy money to be made in the herp hobby (well maybe some breeders that refianced their homes in the beginning of the Ball Python craze made it back many times over BUT thats over now)... If you're looking to breed animals START OFF SMALL... learn from the animals... and invest in the highest quality animals you can. Good luck!
 
You can't let money be the reason for it, IMO that is the wrong reason to get into breeding snakes. Do it because you love your favorite morph and want to improve it, because it's fun to do for you. I have always been happy to break even as far as funding the feeders and bags of aspen part of it. The first few years did not even begin to cover initial expenses like purchasing an incubator and setting up racks to keep the hatchlings, but even when I do make a little I usually end up investing it in more snakes anyway. Even if a few people make money because they have in demand morphs, right now is a really tough time to sell the babies. Be prepared to care for them long term. I too have noticed that at local shows corns are not in high demand. There's a lot of cheap ones and the typical show customer is way more likely to buy that $12 amel than a higher priced snake at a good breeders' table. People are more into boas and ball pythons right now, as far as what I see selling at the shows.
It's good advice to start off small, breed one pair incubate the clutch and see how much work is involved and whether it is worth it to you.
 
I think it also depends a bit on how you look at it. A lot of the time when people are explaining the break down of how much they have into their business & how much they get in return for the offspring, they count the price & general upkeep of their breeding stock. To me, the pet owner/small scale breeder should only count the price of the stuff directly involved in the breeding aspect & not the price of your personal animals. Because in most cases a person would have bought & paid upkeep on that animal whether they bred it or not, since they love that species. If that makes sense?
 
This year was my first year breeding. I had a clutch of 11, lost one egg to infertility, 1 to a microburst freak storm thing, and had 9 hatch. Of those 9 I traded 4 for a 20 long with lid and a 29 tall with lid. I sold one for $20 but $5 of that kept the hatchling fed until I could meet up with the owner. I kept 4, had one escape only to be found dead, and lost two to not eating. I have one keeper left.

This year I would definitely say I LOST money. Mind my hatchlings were just normals het Amel Mot or Stripe. Next year if things work out my hatchlings will be normals het Snow. Why? I am testing my male Amel for hidden hets. If I am lucky I will also get some Anery het amels. If I hit the genetic lottery I will get some snows lol. If I got 9 again I would probably lose money again.

Do I care? Nope. I get to learn more about the genetics of my snakes and can share my love of corns with others, and can breed some more snakes for myself!
I do not do it for the money, although I hope one day to be able to sell or trade hatchlings for snakes of other colors or patterns. Or at least sell enough to feed the ones I keep.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top