Start up costs for small time breeding operation?

I am a new snake addict, still on my first normal ball. I obviously plan on getting much more experience with these beautiful creatures before I ever try to breed, but I'm just trying to do my research and was wondering what the full start-up costs for a small breeding operation would be? This would include buying a few of the more common base morph snakes, racks, feeders, incubator, and anything I haven't mentioned. Assuming I could get most of the equipment gently used how much would a setup run in you guys experience?

Probably around $100 for a DIY incubator.
Rodents you should plan for the worst at $1 to $1.50 each for once a week, or twice a week for around 6 to 7 months.
A rack cost will depend on how you get one. DIY? Buy one pre-made? On average, they go from $150 to $300 for a cheap melamime one. You can get into the thousands for a professional one.
Not to mention a baby rack, breeder rack, and a quarantine section.
Also prepare for vet bills. Checkups can be ridiculously expensive.. You never know what might go wrong. Mite outbreak? RI? Be prepared for anything. I havean emergency fund of $200 for a checkup and possibly anything the vet gives me. $200 isn't much, but at least I don't have nothing :gj:.

Depending on what/how many pairings you wanted to start with I would say anywhere from $500-$2,500

I'm still mid-process but here is a breakdown of what I have done:

$550 - animals (1 normal female, 1 male spider, 1 pastel male, 1 pastel 100% het clown female)

$1,200- caging (Animal Plastics PVC caging/thermostats/RBI hides/ceramic water dishes/digital thermometers) (this could be done for much less)

$300 every 6 months - feeders (very rough estimate)

Price for incubator varies greatly depending on if you build your own or buy one (I would budget at least $250 including a good thermostat to run it)

There are other costs, but they are relatively minor.

You could spend far less than I have and still be successful... I'm not a huge fan of racks, so if you use a rack you could easily cut $500 out of my listed caging cost, if not more.

If you want a small breeding group of about 10-15 animals, look at investing somewhere around 5,000-10,000 dollars if you buy everything pre-made and pick up some decent animals. Not exactly the cheapest hobby in the world hahaha. I haven't even begun to dent the amount of overhead that I have Vs. snake sales. haha. Hopefully next year I will profit a little.

If you want to actually start a business designed to grow and make money, rather than simply a hobby that pays for itself, I recommend you start with a minimum of 20,000 to invest.

If you run it correctly (as a business), you can expect to grow your business, make back your investment, and begin making a profit in 3 to 5 years. Barring horrible luck, it will support itself without putting in more cash, and enable growth, within 1 year.

I have a small modest collection and am just hoping for a break through next season. I honestly have probably invested at least 10K. with little to no return for my first two years. I have had a horrible start with my breeding so just realize that if you have 10 females breeding size doesnt mean that all 10 are gonna give you eggs. Out of 13 last season I only had 4 go.

IMO with you just having just gotten a ball python I wouldn't even entertain the idea of breeding.
Learn how to care for them, maybe even get a few more so you have an idea how it is to care for a small collection.
Many people invest a lot and try to do it too fast and fail miserably, take your time, grow slowly and learn everything you can.

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

If you want to actually start a business designed to grow and make money, rather than simply a hobby that pays for itself, I recommend you start with a minimum of 20,000 to invest.

If you run it correctly (as a business), you can expect to grow your business, make back your investment, and begin making a profit in 3 to 5 years. Barring horrible luck, it will support itself without putting in more cash, and enable growth, within 1 year.

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This ^

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Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

IMO with you just having just gotten a ball python I wouldn't even entertain the idea of breeding.
Learn how to care for them, maybe even get a few more so you have an idea how it is to care for a small collection.
Many people invest a lot and try to do it too fast and fail miserably, take your time, grow slowly and learn everything you can.

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And this too ^



Just to add, I owned a ball python for over a year, then added 3 snakes and raised 'em for 2 and a half years. Now I'm at 13 :D. I'm pretty confident about my knowledge of ball pythons. I don't know everything (who does?), but I know enough about their behavior and personalities to want to try breeding and raising up my own baby ball pythons that I personally hatched :P. That's the dream right now :gj:. Once that's out of the way, my goal will be producing my favorite snakes :D.

Start-up cost is one-thing, but a solid business plan is what will make or break you. Grade A equipment and top quality morphs will cost you a pretty penny depending on what size of operation you want.

My tip to you and/or anyone wanting to start a business would be to review and complete the checklist below...

What should you do? What's in it for you?

1 Write a sentence describing what products or services your business provides. You have a short statement that tells people-investors, customers, family members-what you do. You'll use it all the time.

2 Write down who your customers are and why they will buy from you over the competition.(Price, quality, innovation, service, convenience?) You get a mental picture of the ideal customer, including demographics, and the way the customer thinks. It's very helpful in your marketing and other decisions such as pricing, distribution and so on.

3 Research your market before investing in resources. For example: products, customers, competition, traffic patterns, parking, rents, employee availability, labor costs. The more you know, the better. Try to get real numbers, not estimates, to use for your projections.

4 Decide how you will get your product or service to your customers-how will they learn about your product or service. For example, directly to customers through retail, distrbution arrangements or over the internet. You can now put some costs to these items and make sure the methods you chooese are linking up to the customers you have identified and their reason for buying from you. You will also begin to recognize any problems or bottlenecks in your strategies and develop solutions or alternate plans.

5 Decide where you will conduct your business. Can you work at home or do you need an office, a plant or a store? Choose a location that balances all your important criteria such as budget, traffic and visibility. This will lead to concrete information about the cost of rent or real estate, labor and distribution. You may also be able to determine traffic patterns, customer parking availability and other important considerations.

6 Forecast your finances: Create realistic income statements and cash flow projections. What will your costs, sales and profits be for the first two or three years? Will you have sufficient cash flow to survive the start-up? What is your break-even point (the point at which you begin to make money)? Talk to your accountant and banker. These will prove to yourself and indicate to lenders and other backers that your ideas are based in reality. You must show that your plan has a definite timeline and will make money and pay back investors.

7 How will you obtain raw materials or other crucial supplies? Are there backup sources to draw upon? With a list of suppliers and alternatives, you are prepared if one goes out of business or cannot meet your requirements.

8 Decide how many employees (if any) you need, and find out whether it is easy to hire people with the required skills in your market area. You will know what skills you will be looking for and you will have a better understanding of what you will need to pay, including benefits, to attracts employees and fully staff your company.

9 Set up your advisory team: Get professional advisors, partners and mentors behind you. You get the benefit of their experience with other companies that have gone through similar situations.

10 What are the key risks your business will face? (Consider problems such as the failure of a key supplier or customer, product-performance issues, legal disputes and illnesses befalling key employees-including you.) What will you do to deal with these risks? You will be prepared for most foreseeable situations. You may wish to buy insurance for certain risks. Check with your small business advisor or insurance representative.

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Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

IMO with you just having just gotten a ball python I wouldn't even entertain the idea of breeding.
Learn how to care for them, maybe even get a few more so you have an idea how it is to care for a small collection.
Many people invest a lot and try to do it too fast and fail miserably, take your time, grow slowly and learn everything you can.

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Like I said in my original post, If I ever end up breeding at all it will be a few years down the road. I just am trying to do my research to see if it would ever be feasible for me.

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Originally Posted by el8ch

Start-up cost is one-thing, but a solid business plan is what will make or break you. Grade A equipment and top quality morphs will cost you a pretty penny depending on what size of operation you want.

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I'm an MBA grad and am currently getting my masters degree in accounting so business related things are my strong suite lol. I just have to brush up on my snake knowledge and get more experience handling the snakes. If I ever do breed it would be more for a hobby rather than a business anyway. I would plan on selling snakes more to finance my own collection rather than to make a living off of it, but as I said previously, that is a few years down the road at least, I'm just trying to do my research.