Money sources for breeder collections?

I loooove breeders that do payment plans. I've got several snakes I wouldn't have if it weren't for that.

I lucked out when it comes to the money aspect of affording them. I don't work (semi-retired I guess you'd call it), and my husband is a nuclear pharmacist. He's so supportive of my hobbies that he takes an extra couple days a month working as the temp pharmacist at the local Target pharmacy. He makes more in each day, than I used to make in an entire two weeks' check. That's my reptile "allowance". LOL Of course I do things for him in return, that I know bring him joy. I learned to do the hot stones massage because he has a disability that causes him a lot of soreness sometimes and it really helps. Nothing like a hot stone massage with aromatherapy, a nice mani and pedi, and a little reiki. Things like that. I wouldn't have anything if it weren't for him. Has no interest in the snakes, but loves to watch me get excited talking about them.

As for where I house them. Right now I've got a couple nice homemade racks, and one big one I bought from animal plastics for my big females. I'm getting ready to build another. I've found that I really enjoy making these different things the hobby calls for, and I love that you can choose the tubs you want and build from there.

The basement has become my dragon's den. :D

I started out with a normal male, started researching care and ended up here. Found the for sale section here and ordered me a spider girl for a lot of money cuz then they were super expensive, also read somewhere that normal females are the greatest way to build your collection so went hog wild and bought three or four here and there, started realizing credit cards were not the best way to get started. So did a few payment plans for hets that I liked, and just put whatever money I had left from working two jobs towards new stuff, and keep doing that. Before long I decided I wanted to practice a year before I tried breeding that first female spider, last year I produced two clutches, and mainly i learned more than I ever thought I could, got a nice holdback and sold enough to get a couple more female morphs. This year I finally have that spider going and a handful of normal females, and sixty some snake. So basically I did it as fast I possibly could without putting myself in a financial crunch, but not so fast that I couldnt prepare myself for feeders or rack space or whatever. Just a lot of hard work and plenty of mental planning got me to where I am now.

Sorry should have read better, we started out like everyone, one snake. The only thing we did different was built cages and bought cages first so we would have a place for them instead of running around when it got here. And of course a rack in quarantine so that they are in the same size cages as everyone else, just away from them. I have three extra racks in my facility, because juveniles will become adults and if I leave them in a small cage for to long they stop eating. My advise is get supplies first so you arnt running around at the last second. Hope its a better response than my first one.

Well, I'm a college student who's always lived on, shall we say, a shoestring budget. My half of the income is loans and grants.

That said, I made it up to 14 snakes one at a time. I didn't start out wanting to breed...I just loved snakes and wanted one or two as pets. But once I saw the Albino and the Bumblebee BPs and the Lav/Ghost and Opal corn snakes... well it took off from there. Also, my BF likes the idea of getting some money back from sale of offspring to go toward their upkeep. In other words, I plan to breed snakes for two main reasons:
1) to get the morphs I adore but could never afford to buy straight out.
2) to make this beloved hobby of mine self-sufficient.

If ever I make enough money to go above and beyond care costs...that will be a happy bonus since I do not intend to do this as a business.

My breeding group actually started with the pastel male I rescued/was given. Once I had him, I started thinking about Bees and getting a spider female. First, though, I had a wonderful opportunity to get a 100% het Albino girl for quite a low price and ended up with her and then her mate before the spider. When I finally got my cute little spider girl, I was presented with the chance to pick up a lovely little female pastel from a friend.
So, now I have the means to make Albinos, Bees, and Super Pastels! :D Not to mention a pair of normals (one that I was given) that will be my "test run" of breeding that will make some really pretty babies to sell cheap or give away to deserving new herp fans!

Oh, and as for caging - with my low income and love of making things, it's always been easier for me to make my own enclosures. I already have the cage system for my corns, and rack(soon to be 2) for the adult BPs. Someday I intend to have a display system for the BPs as well. :)

I started out with a trio of green tree monitors several years ago. They were wild caught and it was before people were breeding them. After a year or so they blessed me with lots of eggs. And they sold like hotcakes. They were too high maintenance so I switched over to leachies. (Giant Geckos)
I had no problem buying a dozen leachies right off the bat with the money from the monitors. And i picked up a trio of redtailed boas double het for snow.
After a couple more years I started selling off the leachie hatchlings.
With that money i bought all my ball pythons. 1.1 Yellow Belly,101 Mojave,
1.1 Albino.

I will always have some kind of reptiles. The older I get the more expensive they get. I try to make just enough money from my hatchlings to support my hobby.

well to answer the question of what to buy 1st get that rack! 1st off so you don't have to worry about buying it latter (or until you have more than 10-11 balls) i went the other way buying all the snakes first off then trying to house them all in big bulky glass tanks, a pain in the a** if you ask me and UTH'S WOW no thanks what a waste of money. i have 3.7 ball pythons and no rack, and i cant buy any more glass tanks. ( no room) soo till i get a rack setup no more snakes :tears::tears:

yes they are very addicting no doubt about it. i would say get the rack fill it and wait till they breed to get any more.
a normal rack holds about 9-11 tubs 11 ball pythons is a great start its what i'm working with.

Drew Lewis

i basically save up from my checks for whatever snake i wanna get. i just take a cut out of my check for anything that deals with buying a snake, food for the snakes, another rack and supplies ! i currently have 16 bps and cant buy anymore until i move out into my own place...then i can go all out !!! also alot of times, i have gone to show to buy 1 morph and came home with 1 or 2 free females... so that really made my collection grow fast, i know 16 isnt alot but for my basement it is right now...

save, save & credit !

I think anything over a dozen is a descent starter collection, so dont feel like a tiny collector. I hope to have a couple dozen bp's eventually.

I am curious about the free female thing though, if that is the case in a lot of places, maybe I should be thinking of trying to squeeze some more freebies out of my snake transactions.

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Originally Posted by ThyTempest

I am curious about the free female thing though, if that is the case in a lot of places, maybe I should be thinking of trying to squeeze some more freebies out of my snake transactions.

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Make sure you have excellent quarantine practices if you do this. I know a girl that loaded up on craiglist stuff and ended up infesting her whole collection with mites shortly after she got started.

Instead of paying taxes I bought snakes, now I owe the government a bunch of snakes, LOL!