Dilemma male or female to start

I'm finally in a stage of my life where I can realize my dream raising an breeding reptiles. Im want to get into ball pythons as bp morphs is what attracted me to reptiles in the first place.


Now I have set out about 800$ to get start. This is gonna include all the initial equipment at the animals.
I'm not expecting to even break even for at least 2-3 years but I want to get start in the right way and make decision that will lead to me making profit in the future. For now I just want to gain experience raising the animals but I want to make sure the animals I pick will not be worthless or make worthless babies 2-3 years down the road.


As for what morph i want to see in my cages, I like every single morphs tbh and I don't really have one morph specially that I want to go after. So I figure I would start with the basics pastel mojave spider etc that I can build up towards more impressive morphs.


Im going to drop $350 on 4 tub rack from RBI and thermostat. That leaves me with $450 to buy the actual animals.

From my research the consensus seems to be that if I want to work to co dominat/dominant to start with male and if I want to work wth recessive start with females.

Since I want to play around with codom genes I'm thinking I need to start with a male?
I found some people selling proven male bumblebee from 09 for around $200
is it a good idea to start with an older male? I'm thinking of picking up an older proven male for cheap and than pick up 1 or 2 older normal female so in the best case scenario I can breed as early as next year. The males is already ready I just need to get the normal females up to size. Not to mention I will have $100 or so left for rodents and misc stuff I might neeed

am I oversimplifying everything? I keep on thinking that $200 for a bumblebee sounds too good to be true. Or I'm looking at this the wrong way. Any suggestion for this noob is greatly appreciate

Female is always the best choice to start with in my opinion


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Originally Posted by Solarsoldier001

Female is always the best choice to start with in my opinion

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I agree.

The way I look at it is - build up your female(s) first and then invest in a male. Your females take longer to reach sexual maturity and breeding size. Your typical female breeders should be (this is a 'general' rule) 1500+ grams, 18 months old or have had 3 winters, while males can breed as early as 6 months old in some cases.

I see a lot of people that get into the hobby and end up having a 'male heavy' collection due to good deals and variation in price with males vs females in single and double gene animals. IMO Its always better to be heavy on the female side as 1 male can breed with many females.

Also never plan.on breaking even or making money lol!

I prefer starting with babies and raising them up on my own. Always start with the females first and add males later on.

definitely females first. You want to try to produce quality animals at a rate you can handle not just buy the cheapest codom male and a bunch of normal females. That will produce the most snakes for you but they will probably be low quality and harder to sell at a decent price. So you will have to sell cheap just to move them or the feed bills and maintenance of the hatchlings will eat up any profits you hoped to make. Also the more hatchlings you produce the bigger you hatchling rack and incubator will need to be. One four tub rack is not going to house any hatchlings.

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Originally Posted by snake8myelbo

Also never plan.on breaking even or making money lol!

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I'm pretty sure if people never planned on this the industry would be a lot less lucrative than it has been for many.

To address the author from a similar situation. I would have to agree with everyone else, starting females first is the way to go to begin with if you plan on breeding. Main reason being your male is useless until you have females of proper breeding weight and health. This can usually take 1.5-3 years on average, that's my opinion. In this time that means if you go with all females and no males you are not going to be feeding an extra mouth for longer than you need to(save money here). Secondly it means that the market value of the particular morph will depreciate in value over the next season or two, due to more and more of the general public producing them.

Recessive or dom/codom I don't see a benefit to starting males.

P.S.

The 350 you think you're spending on the rack is going to be more than you think, try closer to 450-500. I'm not 100% sure about what your deal includes shipping, heat installation(flexwatt, tape, clips, cords), thermostat(can cost a good deal, mine was $350), the tubs themselves, hides, thermometers, water dishes, substrate. I thought I was good on just the rack materials that I used for building which was 250, then after I added all that stuff on it ended being close to $700.

Just some things to keep in mind. As well as shopping costs on snakes.

Im starting out also and I agree with everyone else get females first. try to get a 2 gene female so if you get a different 1 gene male you will be able to end up with 3 gene babies as opposed to a one or two gene that you would have origninally gotten. Or you can also save up while you get your female big enough and end up getting a 2 gene male and try to hit for a 4 gene baby.

I'm in the same boat as you just starting out! What makes most sense is loading up on females! So far I've got two HIGH quality hatchling females a Pastel and a Pinstripe! So far I've spent under $500 dollars on snakes, caging and feeders. I'm planning on waiting to get a Male until my girls are both around 900 grams (Both at 150 now) No sense in paying for extra feeders until my ladies are almost ready! I'm going to be adding 3 more females this spring. And I feel like I can add three more babies build a 7 level rack and stay under $800. $1300 Investment until getting any Males under budget is my goal, then spend $700 on the boys! If you plan on doing a small 2.5 breeding colony this seems the best way to do it! Yet I don't care if I make any money I just want to produce what I like!

MALES=== Mystic****Bumblebee het.Pied

Females== Pastel**Pinstripe**Mojave**Cinnamon** Het.Pied

Knowing breeders can help on snake prices also :)

Pretty good advice so far. I too would definitely go with a female or females first. Due to the time needed to raise them up and get to sexual maturity, it is an easy choice if you are going to breed them. Males only have to reach a third of the female's weight before he can reproduce. Good luck!