How many BPs did you acquire before actually producing eggs?

I had a decent small and diverse group of recessive and co-dom BPs before I joined the military. Since I decided to join I had to sell my collection, tear...

This year will be my first actually producing eggs (hopefully). In the beginning I started out with simple dreams of buying a perfect spider male (one of my personal favorites) and breeding him to a normal female or two in due time. Now he has grown to around 800 grams in about a years time and I have acquired many more morphs than originally planned (as you can see in my signature). I have been endlessly searching for females I "need" to have and I don't want to over do it. This year alone I plan to add to my collection many more females: albino, lesser, enchi, 3 normal breeders, and depending on the quality, a fire, YB pastel, and pastel hypo.

To most (not reptile people) this seems like a lot, I feel like I need to acquire as many females as possible to have the best results years down the road. Am I fooling myself? Should I take it slow, or go big or go home? All of these animals I am looking to acquire will have proper housing, temps, and food, these are the basics. I have been doing this too many years to skimps on husbandry. I'm not looking to make my money back, especially in the first 4 years. I would hope that after that time I would at least be able to pay for food and electricity to justify my habits. I just want to know I'm not kidding myself having this many snakes without actually producing one...

It has always been one of the all time things I need to do before I die, to hatch out a healthy BP or reptile in general. I was wondering how the majority of you started breeding, and the amount of animals you had (BPs or other) before producing.

Let me know!

I had about 20 ball pythons before i started breeding. I am pretty heavy on the females right niw and actually find myself asking what male should i get? I wouldnt ever plan on making money in snakes. Id say 10% of breeders make miney the rest dump tons if money into it. This is a hobby not a business really. Not to discourage you just saying.

I will start producing eggs this next season and i currently have 10 ball pythons right now.

Good, so far my pickup goals don't seem out of control. I will be dumping more money into additional genes then making money. I definitely don't want this to be a full time business, or even part time. It is for myself, and who ever else that shares my passion with me.

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Originally Posted by eel588

Good, so far my pickup goals don't seem out of control. I will be dumping more money into additional genes then making money. I definitely don't want this to be a full time business, or even part time. It is for myself, and who ever else that shares my passion with me.

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I agree with you. Right now this is just something Im doing for a hobby and, if im lucky my collection will eventually pay for itself. Of course money in return would be nice too:D

I had 10 I think, before I started breeding, now I have....let me count.....24 hatchlings, 11 juvi, 28 adults.

This will be my first year producing eggs and im so stoked!
Right now my living conditions have been screwed up so all of my snakes are at my boyfriends parents house. I hope this wont have an impact on my breeding but everything is set up there how i had it at home so a part from cramped space I have 11 BPs currently.
And one new male lesser on the way on wednesday.
I've stuck thousands into the snakes and setup i have and im so happy with it. To watch them grow, to plan and anticipate the upcoming year is just great. I know the day my first clutch hatches is just going to be so worth it and rewarding...I cant wait!
I have quite a wish list as well and I plan on at least doubling my collection in the next couple of years for sure. Its an awesome hobby and if even a few of the clutches go well I can make some money back, and if not thats really not a big deal for me. As long as I get to hatch out some babies :P

I believe the longer you are in this hobby, the larger your wish list/goals become. There are so many possibilities, and so many new combos being produced each year. It is hard to become settled or content with only having X number of reptiles.

sitting on 19 balls and this will be my first year

20 my first year.