Do you talk about BP prices with NON snake people?

My parents don't like that I keep snakes, so they have no idea that I have 14 or that I've spent a buttload on them. They think I have three or four, lol. I've tried to explain that I can potentially make some money back through breeding them, but as I have mostly young females, it'll be a long time before I can prove that to them. If they knew the extent of my snake budget this past year, they'd have me committed.

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Originally Posted by Apple

My parents don't like that I keep snakes, so they have no idea that I have 14 or that I've spent a buttload on them. They think I have three or four, lol. I've tried to explain that I can potentially make some money back through breeding them, but as I have mostly young females, it'll be a long time before I can prove that to them. If they knew the extent of my snake budget this past year, they'd have me committed.

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Me too. My mother thinks I have only 5! Thank god that when she comes over to my house she stays out of the snake room!

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Originally Posted by Apple

My parents don't like that I keep snakes, so they have no idea that I have 14 or that I've spent a buttload on them. They think I have three or four, lol. I've tried to explain that I can potentially make some money back through breeding them, but as I have mostly young females, it'll be a long time before I can prove that to them. If they knew the extent of my snake budget this past year, they'd have me committed.

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My family don't know that I've gone from 6 to 8 recently and they would kill me too if they saw my snake expenditure with being a student with a very part time job. I can still aford to feed them and myself, pay my rent and bills so they can't say too much but I would be highly judged by them!

If someone asks I reply as it is. Don't see a reason why I would lie ;)
My money and I choose how to spend it :P

Maybe even more I like to say how much they cost and get some contributions from family/friends ;)

If someone asks I tell them. I'm not ashamed of how much I've spent, and I don't care if they think it's too much. My roommates like to give me a light teasing because they know I want a motorcycle and could of bought one this year if I didn't buy three more snakes.

A lot of people will ask why I want to breed. I tell them to make certain combos. Often I'll pull up a pic of an axanthic firefly and tell them that if I were to just buy my dream snake outright I'd have to drop 7.5k. Seems more logical to them after that.

Could careless what people think... they will get over it.

If someone is actually interested enough to ask, I'll tell them, but it's not usually something that comes up.

But the whole concept applies to most hobbies and interests, if it's not something you personally care about it seems insane to spend thousands that will never be recouped. Perfect example for me is horses. In the jumping you can expect to pay $30k+ for a decent young prospect ($100,000 and up for proven talent). Which is why I showed the hubby a lot of ads for jumpers the day before I showed him the ad where I'd found my axanthic pastel girl listed, after seeing those prices he felt like she was a bargain.

Many years ago I bought a pair of Az mountain kingsnakes from Bob Applegate, I picked them up at the airport during my lunch break and brought them back to work with me. I was showing them off to one of my friends and he asked about the price, he thought it was funny to spend $250.00 on a pair of snakes and got a good laugh out of it. It wasn't a week later that he came into my office to show off his brand new Ping putter that he had just spent $250.00 on. :rolleyes:

We are careful with who we reveal our animals monetary worth to for security reasons. I do however bring it up to show how big this industry is. Usually the pricetag blows any ideas of hoarding out of their minds, as hoarding usually involves keeping lots of crap that isnt monetarily worth anything. I thinking hoarding is probably the most common perception snake breeders get from the general public.

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Originally Posted by OctagonGecko729

We are careful with who we reveal our animals monetary worth to for security reasons. I do however bring it up to show how big this industry is. Usually the pricetag blows any ideas of hoarding out of their minds, as hoarding usually involves keeping lots of crap that isnt monetarily worth anything. I thinking hoarding is probably the most common perception snake breeders get from the general public.

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A valid point.

My family has concerns about me living in squalor surrounded by animals that are kept in rotten conditions because the collective workload and financial responsibility is too much for me to handle. They've raised further concerns about "how on earth are you going to manage to move somewhere else when it's time? Are you going to take them with you?" (I've already moved with them once, along with a much more difficult to move aquarium, and that's why I installed wheels on the rack of course!)

I think that's a valid concern in respect to acquiring numerous animals of almost any other type so you can't blame'em I guess. Best not to throw kindling on it though.