Question About Visitors In Your Breeding Facility...

This is a yes and no situation. I have 2 young children, and fire arms in my home. I also have my BPs. Would I let COMPLETE strangers around my babies? I would say no. If the person that wants to buy a BP from me and has communicated well, and met me in public first and I felt comfy with them then I might. My In laws hate my BPs, but they wouldn't intentionally injure, or release them from their cagings. The biggest "party" I've had was with the people that got me into BPs. They came over for dinner. If and when I can build a room off the back of my house that will be locks, barb wired, and in accessible to anyone but me. Plus I have a very protective Doberman that doesn't like strangers around her pack pups (my babies), so I don't think anyone will be stupid enough to ty and come in my house, and what she doesn't get I will. I have a conceal carry, and haven't missed my mark in 17 yrs. I'm prior military and we had to be good or we were out.

I don't even let strangers in my house, let alone in my reptile room. I could be selling them a dirty sock - I'd still meet them in public. My local sales are all through Craigslist so that plays into it as well. Frankly, I don't trust people in my personal space. I wouldn't invite a co-worker over to my house unless I had broken down certain trust and social walls first. Trust is earned for me, not a given.

If I had a facility that wasn't in my home, I would probably let motivated buyers in to see a particular animal or two. I would not be giving free tours for kicks and definitely would have some state of the art security features. Think how quickly you could slide open a tub and pocket a snake. I have a small collection and check them daily, but assuming I had a separate facility from my home - there is a good chance there would be enough animals in there that it might take me a few days before noticing that one is gone.

As far as making exceptions at home for friends and family, I kind of pre-screen people to see if they would enjoy or be disturbed by the animal room. I mean, I have a bin with thousands of roaches in it. I have teeming hordes of rats in there. There is a snake watching you from behind at all times (racks on opposite sides of the room). This kind of stuff just isn't for everybody. If they're in my house, then I respect them enough to not try to get some shock value out of showing them things they don't care about or are made uncomfortable by.

My family has no interest in the snakes, in fact, we are now banned from hosting holiday gatherings. Had I known that would be the result when we brought the first little king snake into the house years ago, I would have gotten one ten years ago. :D

We do have a few friends who also keep reptiles, and we're familiar with their QT practices and know they have healthy collections, so they aren't a concern.

We're in a rather unusual position with respect to our other friends, as most of the folks we know are through our home-based firearm business, so at some point we've run a background check on them. Felons are cut out of our social circle so there aren't many concerns with theft. Our firearm customers are turning into a nice little pool of prospective/first-time local BP and boa purchasers because we have let these people see and handle the animals in our collection if they express interest - we have one boaphile enclosure in the office. Plus the overprotective momma in me prefers to make local sales so I can keep track of my "babies" to make sure they're being housed correctly.

Melinda i have a secret clearance would that get me in lol

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Originally Posted by Mephibosheth1

So you rely completely on Internet sales or Reptile Expos for your income from the snakes?? I would think that people would like to come and interact with the snake first/see it in person before committing to purchase, especially if they were in the area. We did that with our cats we got from the breeders...

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I can understand with the breeding of dogs and cats, you want to pick your animal based on it's personality but I breed snakes, so my animals are chosen based on their genetics and looks not their temperament or temperament of their parents so pictures are really all it takes. ;)

I do rely on internet sales only, and I do deliver/meet in public places of my choice, however since a breeder was shot last year when delivering this is something I am also very careful with. (I always bring my special friend with me ;))

I think people often mistake store fronts and breeding facilities.

Store fronts are open to the public whereas breeding facilities are usually not. If the breeding facility is on your private property and is considered a home based business there are restrictions also.

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Originally Posted by Deborah

Store fronts are open to the public whereas breeding facilities are usually not. If the breeding facility is on your private property and is considered a home based business there are restrictions also.

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Good point. If I were to take up snake breeding as a business and registered as a home business with my city, the home occupation permit that I am required to hold with the business license actually prohibits me from bringing people to my house to do business. This is in the interest of maintaining residential zones and preserving the "quiet enjoyment" for my neighbor's homes.

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Originally Posted by MonkeyShuttle

Melinda i have a secret clearance would that get me in lol

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No problem.

The only people I let into the room where I keep my small collection are my friends kids. They are always respectful and don't instantly think I am crazy for having a bunch of pythons as pets.

Mine are in my bedroom closet where my gun safe is. So it's a no go for people going in there lol. Also my cat only allows family in her space thank you very much. My girl is in the living room where I can easily check on her. She was my first and is still my baby. She's a normal so no one knows about what else I have. Also she's not as "valuable" as my others. This is another reason for having my Dobie. She has a bed in there and every room in the house. If I ever breed, and can build that building I want people would be too scared to go back there and rob me because she has full time access to the back yard, and would be able to go into that building too. She's been raised around snakes, cats, and other animals so knows notto hurt them. Humans, and coyotes are faor game lol.

At the end of the day if im trying to make money y not. .. u cant be scared everyone is gonna rob u .. most people that are in this business isn't gonna rob ur house .. not like were selling something thats crazy popular on the streets lol .. but I dig the fact of having strangers in ur house that weirds everyone out .. but if ur trying to make this a business and trying to make money then u gotta do what u gotta do and if im planning on spending anything over 3/400 $ on a snake to someone that lives close by u better believe I wanna see how they keep there animals so I know what im getting into .. and if it was someone from this site that wanted to purchase from me I would have no issues with letting them in my home .. I talk to u guys more then my own family I think lol ...