Outlook On Breeding?

I think the biggest thing is not to try to become a huge breeder overnight. That's a surefire way to burn yourself out. In other words, don't go from the 3 you have now and put a second mortgage on your house to buy 50 more snakes without first trying it on a small scale.

My advice would be to use what you've got and see how it goes. Pins are a dominant morph so anything you breed a pin to would produce about 50% pins. Let's say you have an average size clutch and all goes right and you get a couple of pins out of your normal/pin pairing. Right there you're looking at a sale price of between $600 and $1000 for the two of them depending on the sexes, patterns, and everything else that goes into making each snake an individual (like if it has an exceptionally clean appareance or something), plus whatever you get for your normals that would be produced from the same pairing.

Since your pin is a male, you could even invest in another normal female to essentially double your number of pins produced at very little additional cost to what you already have.

Since you don't have that many snakes, you should be able to pull a profit from that type of breeding. It's when you invest in big high-end expensive stuff that your overhead becomes pretty large. It's no guarantee, but you might see some turnaround after only a year (assuming your snakes are already at breeding age) rather than waiting the 3-4 years somebody else mentioned. If you do turn a profit, you can use that to invest in other morphs, cages, racks, and everything else you might need to scale your breeding projects up in the future.

With balls, you're in a good position to "try it out" more than you would be with some of the larger pythons or some colubrids because of the number of eggs they lay. You can have a small-time breeding project like the one I mentioned above and not have to invest a lot into racks and all of that. Even if you get that second female, since they're first time breeders, you'll probably end up with fewer than a dozen eggs total (and that's not taking into account any that are slugs or that don't survive). With that, you can pretty easily use individual tubs or something like that to house them in without having to spend money on a rack.

I'm not breeding yet! But, I'm starting my collection to breed. I'm lucky, I live near a few well know breeders who are all awsome people and have shared some tricks/ secrets with me. I purchased my first Morph from Rockstar Reptile. She is a Black Pastel and I'm getting a female Lesser from them in December as well. I've talked to Lance Portal of Lance Portal Reptiles and Nick Mutton of Inland Reptile. Also this forum is AWSOME! I've asked a few questions and with in a day I've had plenty of feed back and in-depth explinations. Some, to in-depth! I just look at my computer completely confussed! The advice I've gotten from most people it don't buy the EXPENSIVE snake right out of the gate! Make it....I.E. I want a Blue Eyed Lucy! So, I am getting a female Lesser and a male Mojave to try and make my own! It will be cheaper and mean a lot more to me to produce such a beautiful snake. Like I stated, I'm not a breeder yet! But, I'm where you are and figured I'd share what I've learned so far. If you have snakes ready to breed. Try them! Then if you want to get into Morphs go for it! Everyone has told me to get females first, so you can raise them and know exactly how they've been taken care of and once they're at the proper weight. You can breed them!

Please dont do what i did and just buy anything and everything you can. If your going to get into it on a larger scale try and plan out what you want to create\breed before you buy anything. Had i done that i would not have 30 plus snakes and only have around 10 maybe 15 tops. Your work load right now for them is minimal but as you get more and more snakes the work load will increase. Im sure you know that already but trust me take that into consideration. You never know what might happen to you and if you are injured the work load of 30 plus snakes might be to much for you. Always keep that in the back of your mind. You dont ever want to neglect an animal so make sure you always have a back up plan. I was injured a few months ago in an auto accident which had put me in a position where I was about to sell off every bp i own. Luckily I have help from a few close locals to me that come to the house through out the week to help me with the large work load. But all in all. I honestly couldnt even explain the feeling of raising an animal from a hatchling and then watching it grow and eventually produce. The first time you see those eggs pip you are going to run around like a little kid. I know i did. Just make sure you go over everything you want to accomplish at least 10 times before you make a decision. Wish the best for you and good luck on any and all future breedings.

I say go ahead and do it! How many things are there in life that you can find yourself love doing and also could pay for itself and perhaps much more at the same time? And the accomplishment felt by creating your own morph one day is not what money can measure. But starting slowly with careful planning is the key, good luck.

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Originally Posted by BallsUnlimited

Please dont do what i did and just buy anything and everything you can. If your going to get into it on a larger scale try and plan out what you want to create\breed before you buy anything. Had i done that i would not have 30 plus snakes and only have around 10 maybe 15 tops. Your work load right now for them is minimal but as you get more and more snakes the work load will increase. Im sure you know that already but trust me take that into consideration. You never know what might happen to you and if you are injured the work load of 30 plus snakes might be to much for you. Always keep that in the back of your mind. You dont ever want to neglect an animal so make sure you always have a back up plan. I was injured a few months ago in an auto accident which had put me in a position where I was about to sell off every bp i own. Luckily I have help from a few close locals to me that come to the house through out the week to help me with the large work load. But all in all. I honestly couldnt even explain the feeling of raising an animal from a hatchling and then watching it grow and eventually produce. The first time you see those eggs pip you are going to run around like a little kid. I know i did. Just make sure you go over everything you want to accomplish at least 10 times before you make a decision. Wish the best for you and good luck on any and all future breedings.

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This is some DAMN GOOD advice. I appreciate it. I'm going to take my time and not put to much on my plate. I watched a close friend who had a lot of love for snakes. And he put to much on his plate and now he don't have the same love. I used to look to him for motivation and now it's depressing cauz i know the love he had at once. This is one thing i can actually say I love doing. Even if 2 of my snakes when they use the bathroom smell worse than mine lol. But i love Otis, Queen and Pinz to death.

Thanks everyone for the advice I need to hear different points of views!
:D:D:D:D:D:D

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Originally Posted by ace_singapore

I say go ahead and do it! How many things are there in life that you can find yourself love doing and also could pay for itself and perhaps much more at the same time? And the accomplishment felt by creating your own morph one day is not what money can measure. But starting slowly with careful planning is the key, good luck.

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Thanks Ace,

I'm going to take my time and get combos that I want to breed! :D

i been wanting to get into breeding to but mine wont be able to breed for 3 years but even if i dont want to breed i still have my favorite morphs.