Am I ready?

[TexanLady]

Ok, so I know most of this breeding season is over, and while I could have bred my normal females with some of my morph males I chose to hold off. I have been keeping snakes for over ten years now. Purely out of love. I love the animals, I love the hobby, and it all simply fascinates me! So a few years ago I decided I was going to work towards breeding ball python morphs so that I could A) hopefully break even on my hobby and not be pouring thousands of dollars of my own money into it every year, and B) hopefully produce my dream morph! So ten thousand dollars later and I have all the racks (including the never before used hatchling racks), the incubator, and what I'm hoping is a nice sized collection. As it stands right now I have

1.2 Pieds
0.2 Het Pieds
1.2 Spider
0.1 Spider het albino
0.2 Pinstripe
0.2 Pastel
0.1 Pastel het G-Stripe
1.0 Albino
0.1 Het Albino
0.3 Lesser
0.1 Mojave
0.3 Normals
1.0 Lesserbee
1.0 Kingpin
1.0 Bumblebee

I have enough hatchling racks to house 150 babies, and all of my adults are in very nice adult size racks. I also have a spare adult rack ready to go for the NARBC in February where I hope to pick up a really nice four gene male, and maybe a few females. I also have a very reliable rodent breeder nearby, and my freezer is stocked for all my adults for the next year. Not to mention I received about $1,000 in gift certificates to my local rodent breeder for Christmas, so I'm not worried about my monthly food bill at all. I'm good for at least the next year and a half.

So I guess my main question is am I ready? I decided not to attempt to breed this season since I am planning to move in March, and I didn't want to take on too much. I am graduating in May, and buying my own house this year, so my plate is pretty full, but I can't get November 2014 out of my head. I have spent years, literally, preparing for this, and now I have cold feet. Wow, that is so totally an understatement. Again, I'm not going into this expecting to make so much money I can quit my job and suddenly live carefree. I am neither that naive nor that optimistic. My hope, frankly, is to make back some of what I've already spent, maybe make enough to pay my rodent bill each year so I'm not paying out of pocket, and hopefully trade or sell a good majority of the offspring each year so I can get some of those designer morphs I've had my eye on for years.

So I guess my question is for other small breeders out there. What are the odds I'm going to be stuck with some 100-150 hatchlings I can't sell and can't trade? I am totally open to trading most of my babies to big breeders for my dream morphs, especially if those morphs go towards my dream breeding project, but as I have only one breeding season (one normal pair) under my belt I am a bit skittish. I don't want to end up desperately trying to sell 100+ hatchlings on craigslist in a year. God! The idea terrifies me!

So I was hoping to have some other small time breeders weigh in as to whether or not I'm ready to embark on this journey. I'm not looking to grow into some huge operation like NERD. My hope is to slowly replace my single gene females over the years so that I have a breeding stock of 20 double and triple gene females max, along with some killer males! I don't think I could comfortably care for any more adults and hatchlings than that, and the health and safety of my animals is paramount. So for any other small time breeders if you have any words of advice before I take the plunge in November 2014, please weigh in. I know this seems like overkill with me asking this all the way in January, but I am one of those neurotic people that has to prepare for everything! In my mind there is no such thing as being too prepared!

Thanks ahead for any and all words of advice. I hope to hear back from people soon!

[KingKuma]

honestly you seem more than prepared i wish you all the best of luck!

[pytoxic]

Hi all.
I am also starting out with BP breeding and my collection currently consists of;
0.1 Normal
0.1 Pastel
1.0 Fire

My snakes will only be ready to breed in 2015 so that gives me a year to prepare myself. I think that you are way more prepared then I am and that you seem pretty ready to me.

BTW you have an awesome collection

Regards
Nic

[Crazymonkee]

OP you are definitely ready... we can't tell you if the hatchlings will sell or not unfortunately but having good quality and good customer service (a definite must) will go a long way. Forget craigslist... post here, Fauna, kingsnake, places like that.
Good luck!!!

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

[satomi325]

Your prep work sounds good.
BPs can breed year round so you don't have to wait till the winter to breed.

I do have a suggestion though. Try getting your name out there in the mean time. This can help you sell babies more efficiently in the future. If you have a Facebook, make a page for your breeding and snake endeavors. Participate on the online forums and various groups.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[jtipton]

You seem to be prepared. I would suggest just breeding 2 or 3 females to start with and see where it goes from there. That way if they don't sell then you won't be over run with hatchlings.

[TexanLady]

Thank you all for the replies! I am planning on advertising on Kingsnake, Fauna, here, and the other places, and I'm looking into setting up a website and Facebook page as well. However, I was hoping to hear some stories from experienced breeders about what their first few breeding seasons were like. What were some of the issues you ran into? What problems should I be planning for now? I have the housing and food totally covered. Right now I am anticipating vet bills being a problem, though in my ten plus years of keeping reptiles as pets I have only had one respiratory infection (from my adopted red tail boa Cookie) and other than that clear sailing. Of course I probably just jinxed myself with that little nugget of gloating. I have the food bills covered for the next year and a half, possibly two, and I have two thousand in cash set aside for vet issues if they arise, as well as a CareCredit card that my vet accepts with a $5,000 limit that I hopefully won't have to use. Though since I've never used it before I will have 14 months to pay any bills off without interest. Still, I know there are things I am not preparing for.

I guess I want to hear some breeders weigh in as to whether or not my hopes for my first breeding season are realistic. It is my hope to trade 90% of my stock for some four gene snakes. There are some clown, sugar, and coral glow morphs that I am positively drooling over! Then I want to keep only about 10-20 to sell in an effort to cover the following year's food bill and maybe make back some of that ten grand I've already put into this. Then my second year of breeding I'd like to trade 50% of my stock for more cool morphs. The other 50% I'd like to sell to cover the following years food cost, and again, recoup some of my investment. Then year by year trade less and less of my stock in favor of selling. I'd like to recoup my investment in the next six years, and then everything after that would go towards purchasing some of the more exotic reptiles I'd like to have in my collection. I would kill for a pied retic! I know it is a $25,000 snake, but I just think it would look so beautiful taking up half of my living room! Then of course I'd like to build an outdoor greenhouse at my new house with an artificial rainforest and a large pond so I can get a Caiman! My brothers can build the greenhouse for me for a few thousand, but the Caiman is going to be expensive and it will definitely cost to feed him! Ok, getting off track now. Back to the original question, from an experienced breeder's point of view, are those realistic goals? Or am I setting myself up to have three hundred snakes two years from now that I can't sell or trade?

Again, thanks for all the advice!

[bcr229]

The best advice I got was to set up the incubator and make sure it works before pairing anything. I'm glad I did as it did take a bit for me to get the thermostat dialed in so the temperature was where I wanted it.

[TexanLady]

Thanks, I'm not too worried about my incubator. I bought a 60" Hot Box incubator. Overkill, but I figured if I'm going to do this I might as well go big. Besides, my mom paid for half of it as my Christmas present, so I basically got it for half off. Which was great. I don't leave it on all the time right now, but I do turn it on one day out of every week to make sure it is running right. I also use my temp gun to double check the temp. Any other suggestions? How does everyone keep track of their hatchlings? I'm planning on using colored stickers and index cards on the tubs to keep track of males/females and the hatch/feeding schedules, and then keep a database on my laptop to keep track of everybody. What are some of the methods other breeders use?

[TexanLady]

Oh, I also wanted to add that I have two homemade incubators in the garage in case of a freak accident and my Hot Box goes out. They should keep my eggs warm until I can purchase a new one if something happens. Also, I have a plan in place in case of a major power outage in winter. I have several extra large rubbermaid bins and hundreds of snake bags and hand warmers to keep everybody toasty if I have to pack everybody up if the power goes out for more than a few hours. And yes the rubbermaid bins have holes in them to provide air. Though here in Texas it rarely gets that cold. This year has been a huge exception.