Have you ever been overwhelmed?

I am a hobbyist breeder. This is my first breeding season. I have enjoyed it a lot. I've also been able to acquire some new snakes from a good friend of mine who was just overwhelmed. He meant to only have a dozen or so and before he knew it he had 70 snakes. He has a family and even a grandkid now and just doesn't want to spend all his time at home dealing with snakes.

So I am trying to learn from his and others mistakes. That's why I am asking here if anyone here has gotten overwhelmed and what that threshold was for you.

Thanks.

We have around 70 and the snakes have never overwhelmed us but the rats are another story. We spend a couple hundred or more a month on feed and devote a bare minimum of an hour a day to them. I think if we ever got out of snakes the rat colony would be at least part of the reason.

I have about 20 or so that I take care of by my self but never overwhelming. The person I buy my rats from also breeds balls said the rats are the overwhelming part as well.

Everybody has a different level of what they are able to do. We right now have somewhere between 100 and 150 snakes that we are keeping forever and always. So when you think it takes about an hour to give everyone fresh water 2-3 times a week, plus spot cleaning, record keeping, breeding, emails, phone calls, taking pics of the website and customers, doing advertizing, then participating on a forum like this as a mod. On top of a mentally demanding full time job, a wife, house, two year old, two dogs, a couple of gecko's. It can get overwhelming. The trick is to have a schedule, and times for doing things..other wise you'll run around like a chicken with it's head cut off.

We are planning to expand to around 100-125 in the next year or two as well as adding a small Burm project. (I know there is no small Burm project :)). But we are also planning to streamline our rodent colony a bit with the addition of a climate controlled rodent building which we hope will help a lot.

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Originally Posted by Amon Ra Reptiles

We are planning to expand to around 100-125 in the next year or two as well as adding a small Burm project. (I know there is no small Burm project :)). But we are also planning to streamline our rodent colony a bit with the addition of a climate controlled rodent building which we hope will help a lot.

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Question with the ban on Burms and Ohio trying to Ban exotics all together how does that alter your plans if at all??

Well Ohios recently proposed legislation wont ban anything really, what it will do is require expensive permits to keep or breed Burms, boas, retics, and rocks. That being said, it won't stop our plans but it will alter them sure. Before we planned to produce several clutches of albinos and granites along with labyrinth and some hypo stuff. Now we will be limiting ourselves to labyrinth and hypo projects. We will jump through the necessary legal hoops when and if we have to but the casual owner probably won't want to so that will severely limit our customer base. We can't sell them outside of Ohio either so we are definitely slimming down our production. I don't to be stuck feeding a couple hundred Burms for a year because I sell them.

Anything more than ten overwhelms me. Even the 8 I have right now I'm finding a bit too much right now. I work full time and am a recently single mom of two young boys, and I'm finding it hard to get time to even clean cages. I will be downsizing more.

I think there's a fine line between managing things and being overwhelmed. The biggest problem is that in this hobby/business/industry people are highly competitive. Because of that I believe people regularly pass that fine line acquire too many animals. This might be for business reasons, bragging rights, or some other inconsequential reason they justify. I can't count how many people I've seen buy buy buy and then sell sell sell just in the short amount of time I have been doing this. Collection sales regularly occur for the very fact that people jump head first before doing enough research. I know I've been interested and reading about ball pythons since the late 90s. I have waited patiently until I could house and properly care for the animals. This has helped me be prepared for and avoid all sorts of things that many people experience. If I'm going to do something I am going to do it right. That's just how I was raised and how I have always led my life.

I think some people are animal hoarders too. I'm not calling anyone out at all but there is that fine line between collection diversity and just flat out taking on more than you can handle. That is part of the reason I just have a single pair of Super Dwarf retics in terms of fun side project with something that has always interested me. I see a lot of people with a wide degree of interests but I believe to ultimately keep your sanity you need to focus on what you are the most interested in. It is sad to see the number of animals acquired and sold due to being a passing interest.

Great topic Chris! Thanks for getting some discussion started.

Regards,

B

well I can say befoer I fell in love with (4thesnakelad) I planned on spending up to 70 % of my free time taking care of the snakes. I was doing rescues/ rehomming snakes a lot. I have some for sell cause of car repairs bill and such. I am actually spending more time doing house work than I have in the last 20 years lol. I can say I traveled more the last 3 months than I have in 2 years lol. I spending weekends in Philly ( for a anothe couple months) I am now starting ot travel back home as I have to maintain my mother's, and grandmother's properties. so I gonigot have less time. My problem has been getting my rats to breed fast enough to keep up with my demand.( not had a overload on rats/asf at any one time . ) I only have about 20 ball pythons .