Hi

I have always loved snakes. Ive kept in the past a couple of colombian boas, a burm, and a couple balls..unfortunately had to give them up before college. Anyway..getting my own place soon, wanna get my rack built and set up in my soon to be 'snake room' A couple questions:
1) Can you name a couple morphs that are affordable and good for beginners to get into, and marketable as well as should i buy a homo male + normal/het females, I mean just some thoughts on my first 3 snakes i buy

2) Kinda random, but was wondering....no sort of 'egg box' for bps, even on newspaper? lol just let em pop the eggs on on newspaper?

I'm not sure what you mean by beginner morphs, they're all the same in terms of personality. If you mean cost-friendly you can look into pastels, mojaves, spiders, cinnamons and there are some others.
Depends on what you want to pay for them.

On the second note, it's easy to get morph males, and then normal females, or het. females.

I'm not sure what you mean by the second note, about the egg boxes on newspaper.:confused:

If this is your first year the most cost effective and best way (IMO) is to buy virgin females. Males get ready for breeding a lot faster then females so your better off that way.
Also if you get hatchlings you can have the fun of watching them grow up! And you will know that they are healthy. They will also get use to your schedule (I think).
About the eggs, let em pop on the paper ain't no problem there.
Good starter morphs (purely my opinion) are norm females, pastel females, mojave females, spider females, pin females, yellow belly females.
I wouldn't recommned getting a male until you know your going to breed.
Wow I'm all over the place hahaha.
But anyways. Those morphs I listed will pretty much stay at a good price and they shouldn't drop too much.

Just my opinion :-).

P.s. Welcome back!

Thanks guys. Yeah man. The problem is that I'm not going to want to wait a whole 2 years on females to mature, maybe ill just pick up a couple yearlings. And a baby male. Put a year into raising them before i breed.

To clear up what i meant by beginner morphs, lol, because I really went into no detail. I was referring to some with affordable, fixed prices. Id like my first couple of seasons to be profitable, before I get into higher end snakes (which i may end up hanging on to for further breeding). Id rather have 2 or 3 cluthes of pastelxpastel than 2 or 3 different clutches (pastelxspider pastelxpastel cinnyxspider). If i stick to one specific morph, at least in the beginning, I wont feel like i have to hang onto half of my animals.

I LOVE ball pythons, but fancy morphs are not as important to me as having a hobby i enjoy, that I can also make profit from for the rest of my life.

Edited to add in another question. Should I build an incubator or just buy one. Either way, which method (or company if purchasing one) would you recommend for someone who wants something VERY VERY reliable.

This hobby isn't profitable as a hobby. You will invest way more time and money into feeding and keeping than you will make back. :gj:

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Originally Posted by Turbo Serpent

This hobby isn't profitable as a hobby. You will invest way more time and money into feeding and keeping than you will make back. :gj:

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hehe time isnt an issue. because i love it. and i beg to differ on profits. many people turn profits on ball pythons and geckos every year. although not many make a living purely off of herping, i do believe it can be a fun profitable hobby for anyone.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Turbo Serpent

This hobby isn't profitable as a hobby. You will invest way more time and money into feeding and keeping than you will make back. :gj:

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Mind u i only have 2 but i disagree. Spend time? Well thats why its a hobby say he works 9-5 he has from 5-lets say 10 to take care of em thats 5 hrs a day

Feeding yes unless he breeds his own.

I think if you invest a lot of time and breed ur own feeders it could be profitable

If you are going into this thinking you are going to make a profit, take a step back.

Ball python morph prices have been in a downward spiral for a few years now.

Last year a bee was worth well over $1200, now you see them around $600. That is a 50% decline in price in a year.

You will NOT make a profit unless you are working with high end morphs that not many people have yet. If you get beginner morphs, you will most definitely not make a profit.

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Originally Posted by Kaorte

If you are going into this thinking you are going to make a profit, take a step back.

Ball python morph prices have been in a downward spiral for a few years now.

Last year a bee was worth well over $1200, now you see them around $600. That is a 50% decline in price in a year.

You will NOT make a profit unless you are working with high end morphs that not many people have yet. If you get beginner morphs, you will most definitely not make a profit.

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lol i'm not talking about a 'puppy mill' here. I'm talking about a small breeding colony that I enjoy caring for and selling a couple of clutches every year to cover costs and have a bit of spending money off of. I feel like if youre smart about it, you can make money off of this, just like any other hobby out there. People make money breeding dogs...i make money teaching guitar lessons. I think it would be easy to do if you keep a business mind and dont get caught up in minimizing your profits by constantly over expanding yourself trying to have every morph out there with nobody to sell them to. :P

I didn't say you were talking about a puppy mill. I was just showing you that you might buy a few nice morphs now, and by the time you have babies to sell, they will be worth much less then what you paid, meaning you will not make a profit.

You might make enough money to support the hobby but that is assuming you can even sell all of the hatchlings you want to sell.

Wether you like it or not, the ball python market is pretty saturated. Just don't expect to make your money back.

Initial start up costs are going to be high. A nice rack is over $300. Combine that with heat and a thermostat and you are looking at around $400-$450 for a basic rack setup. Food is also going to be a major cost, probably about $25 a month if you go with frozen. If you breed rats, then you are going to need to buy food and bedding and housing for them too.

Then there is housing for the babies. The most cost effective route is another rack, but those are still going to cost you a bit. You also need to be prepared in the event you can't sell any of the babies. You need to be able to properly house them for their entire lives.

As for an incubator, there a lot of nice ones you can buy but again, they are very expensive. You can make your own with a mini fridge or freezer, but you will need another $100 thermostat and heating to go in there.

As for the egg laying box, ball pythons don't need a lay-box like a gecko does. They will just move the substrate out of the way and lay right there.


I am not trying to shoot you down, believe me. I have 5 ball pythons right now and all are "basic" morphs. I won't be breeding until this fall. I am very excited to breed these animals but I am not looking to make a profit. If anything, I will be extremely lucky if I break even. Don't just think that because you buy a couple nice looking snakes and breed them that you are going to make any money at all. You might not even make a cent. THAT is a business mindset.