I need some reassurance here..

I can't say how much I put into my snakes. I started off with het normals and babies. I raised the babies and traded 2 for one het female. I then traded that girl for a pastel. Most of my snakes I got from raising up from little and traded them. I now have 2 large females (I bought them as adults but got a killer deal on them) 1 beautiful normal, 1 mojave (again got on a killer deal), 1 pastel (traded), 1 pastel male (traded) and 1:2 rescue bp's.

I have spent what feels like a lot on equipement, but there is NOTHING like seeing the little snake pip. I have gotten about $200 back from the sale of my last clutch of 7 normals. I have NO idea what I am going to get out of this last clutch. I have 8 eggs and will split the clutch because I traded the breeding to an albino, mojave, and a pastel. So we have a HUGE question mark. I MIGHT get all normals, I MIGHT get all mojaves, or pastels. So I am slowly climbing up the ladder to get my albino (my main goal of breeding) I am really taken now with the mojaves and the pastels. So I can't wait to see the babies. If things go like they have in 3-4 years I will have broken even.

I put in 12K into my snakes, and this season I will bring in nothing. Was I planning to, yes, did I know that the chance of it not happening was the same as it would be, if not more, of course. Everyone has different breeding experiances, so really this poll cannot help because some people maybe add to it with two or three snakes breeding while some have 100's.

I find the poll really interesting, but it definitely has weaknesses. When looking at the results, one should keep in mind the large numbers of breeders who have come and gone because they lost interest for one reason or another. So I would expect the responses to be very heavily skewed to the positive side, since many of the people on the negative side aren't around to answer the poll.

I try not to think about how much I've invested in these animals and their care. I just buy what they need to live the best captive lives they can while they're with me. I'm always working to upgrade things I have for them. I bet if I were to actually sit down and crunch the numbers, it would scare me. Thankfully for me it's all about the snakes and not the cash. I'll probably never even break even, but that's okay.

My advice to people just getting into this is to not spend more than you can realistically afford to lose. It's kinda like gambling. Put love of the animals first, money second.

I havent bred yet, but the appeal and allure of breeding these amazing snakes and creating living works of art drew me into the hobby. I spent almost 700 bucks in the past month on snakes and everything to make a rack. I do not regret a penny spent, a minute passed caring for them. I cant fully answer your poll, but if you had an option for "doing it for the love not the money," then I'd choose that one.

My children are out of the nest so to speak, so I decided to get back into pythons, I got 2 back in Dec. now I have 10, some are re-homies, but I decided in the beginning that I would not go overboard(it's a true test)

After the first month or so, I decided I needed to cut expenses, so I started raising feeders.

I know I will probably never re-coup the money that I've spent, oh well that's ok. I know I'll get more enjoyment from buying a $400 snake than wearing a $400 purse.

My snakes are my babies now, I will continue to take in rescue/re-homies, they bring me joy & keep life interesting :).

I am not going to lie- we want to make money. DH especially- but he does love the snakes. I want to raise dogs too, and plan to some day. That's my passion; I'd do it for free happily- but wow, it does pay so even better. But I love both and enjoy the snakes. I would have snakes even if we didn't breed them, simply because I love them. But we wouldn't have so many or have gone out and bought all these snakes if we didn't think we'd at least break even and make a little... and if we can make a lot, why is that bad? Why is it assumed someone who makes money off their snakes (or dogs for that matter) is the scum of the earth? Can't you love animals AND make money? :)

BTW we know we're not going to make a fortune next week. We have long term goals, and hope to be well established in a few years. We're being realistic :)

IMO, with good business decisions you can make a profit. It would be pretty hard to make a living off of snakes, but could happen. You would have to invest a large sum of money to make a lot. One piece of advice I will give is breed codom morph to morph as opposed to codom morph to normal. This will give you more variety, and less normals. Also, simple recessive will not produce normals. Normal do not sell for hardly anything; for example, I sold normals last season at around $10 - $20 each.

How do you even sell your normals? With normal ball pythons being around the corner at every pet store, how do you get people informed about your normals? Or do you send your normals to the pet shops?