Beginning Breeder picking out 1 Male and 4 Females, what would you suggest?

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Originally Posted by Amon Ra Reptiles

I say troll or 14 year old kid. Come to think of it either way...TROLL

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Hey I'm 14!...but I don't make fun of people on the web. And I know what morphs I want to breed. My advice is the same as everyone elses. Find what you like and breed it. I like super cinnys and bels.

Well, in light of all of the interesting comments posted to my question, I wanted to finish the blog with my intention on why I wrote it.
In any business you need to start off with passion of course, but then you need to ask a few questions; 1) what is my budget 2) time frame in which you wish to recoup your initial investment 3) price point.
Do I want to start from scratch and use the 35k to buy my racks (Freedom Breeder) and roughly 30 hatchlings ( 5.25). This would allow me to watch them grow and begin planning the pairings. Plus it would be cool to walk into a large breeding facility with a little coin in my pocket. This is why I gave the scenario of Bumblebee male < Pastel , Spider, Cinna, Fire, enchi, which would be just 1 group of the 5 that would purchase with the 35k. If you take the standard average 4 per clutch (which is on the low side a little I think) that would NET me 125 offspring in the first breeding season Down side 3 to 4 years). However, one cannot expect a 100% success rate in the first time out, so I’m guessing 50% or in other words 62 ish offspring. If my price point average is reasonable say $400 spread out over the 60 hatchling I would make just shy of 25K. Now I would keep the ones I wanted, but you see the thought process.
The other school of thought is to spend 30K on 5 breeding age snakes in which if all worked out you could breed the first year. Your number of off spring would be considerably lower, but you would have (3-4 years) of breeding in comparison to the above mention theory. You might produce 10 viable hatchlings the first year. Some you might want to sell the others keep in house for future breeding. The number would be greater in the years to follow. However, if you are producing snakes in the price range that no one can afford then that defeats the purpose of going into business.
The reason I am posting this is because, I just simply wanted to hear from the experienced breeders on this site, what they would do if they could start over. Isn’t that what a parent teaches their children, “learn from my mistakes, so you can be further along than I was at your age”. If I have offended anyone, I am truly sorry. Some of the comments I was not ready for- MY BAD.
Thank you and Happy Holidays.

Pick a couple morph females that you like the look of or want to create and a couple double gene males that you like the look of or will help you make what you want. Dont go too big you will get in over your head. Good Luck. (trust me spend a little more and get the double gene males and females, I got all single genes when I started and now I have way too many males just sitting around, you will save money and time in the long run and they look cooler and have way more combo potential)

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Originally Posted by Domepiece

Pick a couple morph females that you like the look of or want to create and a couple double gene males that you like the look of or will help you make what you want. Dont go too big you will get in over your head. Good Luck. (trust me spend a little more and get the double gene males and females, I got all single genes when I started and now I have way too many males just sitting around, you will save money and time in the long run and they look cooler and have way more combo potential)

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Wow Ok just read back through this thread, LOL. If your dropping that much you might as well get quad gene everything. Hope all goes well.

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Originally Posted by Domepiece

Wow Ok just read back through this thread, LOL. If your dropping that much you might as well get quad gene everything. Hope all goes well.

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Thank you, I was thinking of maybe going that direction with something like a nulear spinner (well he had one anyway), but then if I use the punnett square I might come up with hatchlings that no one could afford. your thoughts. Mikewilford has/ had a male for $6500

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Originally Posted by Domepiece

Wow Ok just read back through this thread, LOL. If your dropping that much you might as well get quad gene everything. Hope all goes well.

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I mean Mike Wilbanks on the Nuclear Spinner for $6500.

Well imo anything past triple gene....heck even some double gene snakes are out of the price range of most hobbiest. I know I want a pastel phantom but Im not sure I want to drop $4,000 on just one snake. You see what I'm saying?

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Originally Posted by Keneke Leide

Thank you, I was thinking of maybe going that direction with something like a nulear spinner (well he had one anyway), but then if I use the punnett square I might come up with hatchlings that no one could afford. your thoughts. Mikewilford has/ had a male for $6500

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True, but you can always hold them back and get some big normal girls to breed them to. Or get quad males and normal females. Personally I wouldnt care if I could market them especially if I got something really sweet out of the pairing. I'd hold em all back if I could.

How much money will it cost you to care for 30 hatchlings for 3-4 years until you can breed them and start seeing a return on investment?


Food
Once a week feeding, 30 snakes, 52 weeks in a year X4 years of food before your first litters
That's 6240 food items before you can breed your snakes.
If you spend on average of $1.00 per food item, you are looking at:
$6240 in food.

Plus your heating for the racks over 4 years
6 watt/ft of 3 inch heat tape.
30 tubs using about 1/2 ft a tub
15 ft X 6 watts = 90 watts X 24 hours = 2160 watt hours per day = 2.16 kw hours per day
.09 cents per kw hour
.09 X 2.16 = $0.1944 per day X 30 = $5.83per month X 4 YEARS = $279.84
$279.84 for the 4 years in electric.

(that's in a perfect world, where there is no heat escape, and your AC bill is NOT calculated in that. Your AC in other rooms will be working harder to counteract the Heating that is leaking into your house from your snake room.)

Rack Investment
Plus the amount of money you spent on racks (and amount of interest that money could have been making in the bank for that 4 years, or in a quicker investment).
$5000 in racks,
(Min of $350 profit over the 4 years in an CD at 1.70% apy compounded daily)


Snake investment
Amount of money spent on snakes that could be invested
Min of $400


What's your time worth cleaning weekly and feeding weekly for 4 years?
(say your time is worth min wadge ($7.25/hour). It takes 2 hours a week to clean everything)
52/weeks X 4/years X $7.25/hour
$1508.00

Start up cost 30 snakes at $200 each = $6000
Racks for the snakes $5000
Heat tape, 15 ft of 3 in = $35.00
Amount of money from the list above: $8777.84
So in the 4 years waiting for the ball pythons to reach breeding age, you would have spent MIN of:
$19812.00 NOT INCLUDING BEDDING, WATER DISHES, TONGS, OTHER MISC SUPPLIES

You’re probably looking at 20k in the first 4 years buying hatchlings, with a profit of 25K IF YOU ARE LUCKY!!!!!

You probably won’t profit until the following year.

Love the breakdown I should hire you to see how much Ive spent but then it would be on paper and my wife will kill me lol.