When do the stop becomming pets, breeding etc..

We fall into the catergory mentioned in the OP. We have a little over 100 BPs right now with about 60 of them being full time breeders, about a dozen grow ups, and the rest for sale. All of our breeders have names and we consder all of them pets. They are all handled once or twice a week but generally do not leave the snake room. Our biggest problem is when we have babies hatch is to remember they are for sale and not turn them into pets too.

Someone mentioned above the people that do it for the money...There are very few breeders that have worked hard enough to build a business breeding snakes that will support their family. The majority of us do it becuase we love working with the animals and if we make enough money to break even we are tickled to death.

MY BP's will never just becoming breeding, money making machines. I take much pride in having them as pets and breeding them. All offspring are part of my big ole family even after I sell them--no one is neglected in my house!:D

I guess it all depends on what you define as a pet. I don't put snakes in the same catagory as a companion animal like my dog or my cat. They're not as interactive as the birds, but they're more interactive then the fish and I still consider fish to be pets even though I think of them differently and interact with them differently then I do with the mammals. I think that the term 'pet' is a very broad catagory that can be defined in many different ways by many different people and none of them are wrong. Animals enrich our lives in many different ways.

Define, Pet..
You can't take fish out and play with them and it would be against better judgement to take dart frogs out and hold them as well..

Frankie hit it right on the head that's how I feel about my animals too. Everyone of mine is treated like if it were my one and only. I breed to produce the stuff I love.