Thinking About Starting A Small Breeding Business

I've had a passion for and have been keeping reptiles since I was a little kid. Over the period of this last year or so I've really thought alot of trying my hand at breeding bp morphs and misc colubrids. I've added some really nice animals to my collection. Im basically all set up for breeding now and will be ready for the 2011/2012 season. It's still just a hobby at this point but i would love more than anything in the world to make a living breeding reptiles and maybe one day open a reptile and supply store. I've been putting back money every month and as far as that aspect goes I can make it happen. My family thinks im crazy for even imagining I can make a living at something like this. I know the market is pretty flooded with all the breeders out there today. Just wondering what your guy's opinion is on this. Do you think a 31 y/o guy who has a passion for reptiles like nothing else has a decent chance at starting at the bottom, probably w/ an online store and actually being able to turn this into my lively hood?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nor_cal1980

I've had a passion for and have been keeping reptiles since I was a little kid. Over the period of this last year or so I've really thought alot of trying my hand at breeding bp morphs and misc colubrids. I've added some really nice animals to my collection. Im basically all set up for breeding now and will be ready for the 2011/2012 season. It's still just a hobby at this point but i would love more than anything in the world to make a living breeding reptiles and maybe one day open a reptile and supply store. I've been putting back money every month and as far as that aspect goes I can make it happen. My family thinks im crazy for even imagining I can make a living at something like this. I know the market is pretty flooded with all the breeders out there today. Just wondering what your guy's opinion is on this. Do you think a 31 y/o guy who has a passion for reptiles like nothing else has a decent chance at starting at the bottom, probably w/ an online store and actually being able to turn this into my lively hood?

---

In my opinion, it would be pretty tough to make a living at breeding snakes. That is not to say that it couldn't happen, but it would take a lot of work, and would cost a lot to setup. You would need many high-end morphs to start with. Morph selection would be key.

Advertising and building your reputation is the only way that you will make it in the online snake business. This takes time. If I were you, I would start off small to see how you like it, and then expand over time. This would give you time to build your reputation. I would not jump right into it. Many people have tried jumping in to realize that it was not what they thought. That is why you see so many collections for sale all of the time.

Good luck.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Wh00h0069

In my opinion, it would be pretty tough to make a living at breeding snakes. That is not to say that it couldn't happen, but it would take a lot of work, and would cost a lot to setup. You would need many high-end morphs to start with. Morph selection would be key.

Advertising and building your reputation is the only way that you will make it in the online snake business. This takes time. If I were you, I would start off small to see how you like it, and then expand over time. This would give you time to build your reputation. I would not jump right into it. Many people have tried jumping in to realize that it was not what they thought. That is why you see so many collections for sale all of the time.

Good luck.

---

Thank you for the advise...I think ill definitely just keep my collection where its at now ( maybe pick up a few more key co- doms along the way) * grins* and see what I can produce and how it goes. In the area were I live there are lots and lots of reptile enthusiasts and the nearest real reptile and supply store is 50 or 60 miles away....Im just hoping I can successfully breed some nice animals and one day open my own shop....I know it sounds like a pipe dream but it is what i would love to do with my life...thank you for the input....allways appreciated!!

My opinion, you can be successful at anything you decide to set your mind to. It takes time and some patience in this industry along with some luck here and there and the drive to be competitive because there's alot of competition out there. It's like the old saying "Rome wasnt built in a day,"

Where in CA are you located? I don't see many people from nor cal on here, it's nice to have someone else! haha

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gardenfiend138

Where in CA are you located? I don't see many people from nor cal on here, it's nice to have someone else! haha

---

Im up in the foothills in Calaveras County....I love Santa Cruz and the Santa Cruz Mountains.... Your lucky to live in such a beautiful area

My parents use to say " You can do anything you want and be what you want as long as you set your mind to it." " Make a goal for yourself one that is attainable, and don't stop at nothing till you obtain that goal, and when you do set another goal, and another and continue, till all your goals are obtained, then set another." " You will not get nothing in life given to you, unless you work at it and give it to yourself, trust what you can do, know your limits, and strive to stretch your limits, and all your dreams and wishes will be yours." When i was 10,11 or even 16 years old I hated hearing this. I'm now 35 and realize that I may not have a lot in materialistic things, but what I do have, whats mine, was and is my dreams my goals, my life. I have a small breeding program, not to support my family, but to have my name out there, not toe Bob Clark but to be me, so that if I die tomorrow, then I k ow that what I did, how I got here and what I wanted out of life is mine. Good luck to you, Keep your head up, and all will be yours, but as stated above it will take time and will not be yours for the taking tomorrow.

From a dude born and raised right accross the river from you (Sonora/Tuolumne Co.), I say you go for it man. There are TONS of Rept enthusiasts in our area. All there is are a few mom and pop pet stores in both counties, hence NOTHING that has abundant reptile supplies/animals.

thanks for the words of wisdom guys!! it means alot

The answer to your question is: Of course you can. The question that is missing before a really valid answer can be given is: How lavish is your lifestyle? If you are a fairly modest individuaol and don't need alot of non-necessities, then it is a very easy goal to meet. If you require more lavish items, then you will have to work alot harder, but it can still be done as well.

If your passion is that great, then your store will reflect it, and your customers will value it. That will keep the money coming, and referrals will be your biggest seller. There are many pet stores out there, but how many of them have you been to, that you walked out of and didn't have a complaint. Do it better than anyone else, and you can't fail.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cdavidson9

From a dude born and raised right accross the river from you (Sonora/Tuolumne Co.), I say you go for it man. There are TONS of Rept enthusiasts in our area. All there is are a few mom and pop pet stores in both counties, hence NOTHING that has abundant reptile supplies/animals.

---

thanks for the words of encouragement bro!! its awesome to meet people from the area.....i have a couple really nice racks im trying to get rid of. i figure since your from the area i'd let you know....if you'd like i can e-mail you pics and details

I have done just that. Started in 2006. I clean poop. I sell snakes. Not getting rich, but I love it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dave763

I have done just that. Started in 2006. I clean poop. I sell snakes. Not getting rich, but I love it.

---

Thats awesome man!! I would love to get where you are....I would actually be happy to just keep working my non reptile job and break even with breeding snakes and pay for my hobby.....But I would love more then anything to make a living in the reptile world

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dave763

I have done just that. Started in 2006. I clean poop. I sell snakes. Not getting rich, but I love it.

---

You are the man... man. Making that jump and going for it is something I truly envy. Good for you, and I wish you the very best in your success. To me, its not about the money, that's just a bonus. It's about the passion.

And hell... sometimes snake poop can be a passion. Way to go bro!

Good luck!! I wish I had a fam that would stand behind me all my fam do is call me crazy for haveing 2 snakes and for wonting more snakes.

Im hoping to one day be able to make a living off working with my snakes. But I doubt that day would ever come. See my problem would be every baby I produced and sold all that profit I got from them would probably just right back into my hobby. There are new morphs out every year and there probably always will be so I will be spending more money then I earn on snakes for the rest of my life lol.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Denial

Im hoping to one day be able to make a living off working with my snakes. But I doubt that day would ever come. See my problem would be every baby I produced and sold all that profit I got from them would probably just right back into my hobby. There are new morphs out every year and there probably always will be so I will be spending more money then I earn on snakes for the rest of my life lol.

---

I hear ya on that!! At this point I would be happy if I could breed and sell enough babies to just pay for my hobby and even come close to breaking even. That would be fine by me. Its what I love to do so if I could break even that would be awesome. Hopefully one day down the line maybe make some profit. The way I think about it is that all the big breeders out there like Mike Wilbanks, Justin Kobylka, Ralph Davis and Brian Barchyeck (excuse my spelling) all had to start somewhere so its possible.

I really think with an investment of a few thousand dollars a person could make their money back in a year or two and here is how:
buy several normal females, breeding size can go for $100-$150
buy several low end dom/co-dom males, spider, pastel, ...
buy an albino male and 3-5 het females

you could be producing pastels, spiders, and any other dom male you have the first year, and maybe albinos and bees the second year. Could probably buy all of those snakes for under $2K, another $1K for racks, incubator, other equipment rats and anything else you need.

This wont make you rich, but with a small investment and growing slow and steady every year, I dont see why a person couldnt do this.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by billye1982

I really think with an investment of a few thousand dollars a person could make their money back in a year or two and here is how:
buy several normal females, breeding size can go for $100-$150
buy several low end dom/co-dom males, spider, pastel, ...
buy an albino male and 3-5 het females

you could be producing pastels, spiders, and any other dom male you have the first year, and maybe albinos and bees the second year. Could probably buy all of those snakes for under $2K, another $1K for racks, incubator, other equipment rats and anything else you need.

This wont make you rich, but with a small investment and growing slow and steady every year, I dont see why a person couldnt do this.

---

I COULD NOT AGREE MORE WITH YOU... simply said. I can't wait to do this myself. I have only 5 animals so far (1.0 Pied, 0.1 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pastel Poss. Het Pied, 1.0 Pin, 1.0 Mojo). Just purchased a CB70 Vision rack, Reptile Basics 16qt - 16 level and an Animal Plastics 6-level 28qt. I think it's a pretty good start. Next purchase - Incubator. Next step.. Possiblities = ENDLESS. Good luck everyone! Do what makes you happy!:D

I was wondering you say your going to buy a incubator next do you recommend buying one or letting the female do it herself? I was told by my local reptile store that he produced almost 90 eggs last year and only had like 4 slugs and he lets all of his females incubate there eggs because we dont know when to add more heat or take some away like the female does whats your take on that.:snake:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by billye1982

I really think with an investment of a few thousand dollars a person could make their money back in a year or two and here is how:
buy several normal females, breeding size can go for $100-$150
buy several low end dom/co-dom males, spider, pastel, ...
buy an albino male and 3-5 het females

you could be producing pastels, spiders, and any other dom male you have the first year, and maybe albinos and bees the second year. Could probably buy all of those snakes for under $2K, another $1K for racks, incubator, other equipment rats and anything else you need.

This wont make you rich, but with a small investment and growing slow and steady every year, I dont see why a person couldnt do this.

---

Thats pretty much what im doing currently. I only have three females right now and im definetly getting some more in the very near future. I have a definite outlet for all the babies that I hatch at a local reptile shop...For wholesale of course, witch is not a problem. I want to get nine more females to breed my males to. I currently have .1 normal .1 fire and .1 pinstripe and some basic co-dom males including a fire male (Black Eyed Lucy's *fingers crossed*) I would like for the rest of my females to preferably all be pastels. Everything I have now will be ready to breed next season. I build all my own rack systems, breed my own rats, and am pretty self sufficient so im sure ill at least break even, but geez....taking care of all these snakes when doing it right is alot of work...lol. Most big breeders have one day a week or whatever set aside for cleaning because they have so many animals...I clean when cleaning needs to be done. If a snake poops and pees in its tub everyday for three days in a row (doesn't usually happen) then I clean the tub every day three days in a row. But even though its alot of work I can't wait to produce my own BP's....that will be the pay off

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mdfreak2

I was wondering you say your going to buy a incubator next do you recommend buying one or letting the female do it herself? I was told by my local reptile store that he produced almost 90 eggs last year and only had like 4 slugs and he lets all of his females incubate there eggs because we dont know when to add more heat or take some away like the female does whats your take on that.:snake:

---

anyone's report i've ever read on this says incubation yields a better hatch rate. quite a few people have tested it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nor_cal1980

Thats pretty much what im doing currently. I only have three females right now and im definetly getting some more in the very near future. I have a definite outlet for all the babies that I hatch at a local reptile shop...For wholesale of course, witch is not a problem. I want to get nine more females to breed my males to. I currently have .1 normal .1 fire and .1 pinstripe and some basic co-dom males including a fire male (Black Eyed Lucy's *fingers crossed*) I would like for the rest of my females to preferably all be pastels. Everything I have now will be ready to breed next season. I build all my own rack systems, breed my own rats, and am pretty self sufficient so im sure ill at least break even, but geez....taking care of all these snakes when doing it right is alot of work...lol. Most big breeders have one day a week or whatever set aside for cleaning because they have so many animals...I clean when cleaning needs to be done. If a snake poops and pees in its tub everyday for three days in a row (doesn't usually happen) then I clean the tub every day three days in a row. But even though its alot of work I can't wait to produce my own BP's....that will be the pay off

---

Pretty much the same here. I hope to have a few bumble bees, spiders, pastels, super pastels, het pieds and (fingers crossed) pieds next year for sale to offset the cost of what I have spent so far. But more than likely whatever money I make from selling something will be spent on more snakes so it will all probably be a wash :)!

I had an interesting conversation with Brian from BHB about this topic a few months ago and he said something that really made me stop and think. It's not so much about the commitment factor as in "I know I'll stick with it" because everybody says that. He said it's the long-term committment during the down-times of the year that people usually bail. In his words, he has (on multiple occasions) bought someone's entire collection after they've put it all the leg work and they're "almost there" with their breeding project just because they've just hit the wall and want out...then he breeds what he buys the same year or the following year and makes doubles his profit or more.

Thats what I plan on doing next year, purchasing someones collection that most of the snakes are close to breeding size :D:D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kylesreptiles

Thats what I plan on doing next year, purchasing someones collection that most of the snakes are close to breeding size :D:D

---

Let me know if you find someone with two collections for sale!

Looks like I am putting my money where my mouth is, I should be getting .5 normal proven balls next week. As of right now I should have 8 breeding females this fall, and should hatch 3 clutches of pastels, 3 clutches of spiders, one clutch of paste/spider/bumble bees, and one clutch of pieds/het pieds. That is assuming a 100% hatch rate and we all know that is a guruantee right :).

I understand everybody's infatuation with normal females, but to be completely honest, I'll probably never breed a normal animal, ever. The key to getting the really ridiculous 4 and 5 gene animals is to breed 2 and 3 gene females. Yea, it may take a bit longer to raise them up and may be a bit more expensive, but you can't produce the stuff you need to produce in order to make good money breeding normal females unless you have hordes of them and an army of high gene males. Someone said it the other day in the BLBC "the key to those 5 and 6 gene males is breeding badass females." Frankly, I couldn't agree more and this has always been my philosophy. Sure genetics aren't always guaranteed, but if you breed a 3 gene male to a 2 gene female, you have a lot better of a chance to get a sick morph and less of a chance to get a normal than if you breed a single gene male to a normal female...Sorry I got a bit preachy, but to be honest, I'm trying to do exactly what you're doing and I'm going through and selecting the best looking animals I can find, none of which are normals.

Im would not say it is an infatuation with normal females, it is more of a cost thing. I dont think anyone would breed normal females if they could afford morphs or hets, at least I wouldnt anyway. My plan is to keep (at least) one female from each of my dom male/normal female clutches, so that in 2-3 years I can trade or sell the normals and replace them with their morph babies. And then even from there I know crazy morphs are still a ways off in the future, but with a collection of pastel, spider, spinner, ... breeding size females worth $1000 each everything will be looking up from there.

I just recently purchased my first 2 snakes. A male pastel and a female cinnamon ( hoping for pewters when it is time). But I myself will probably never buy a normal for breeding I personally would rather save that money and put it towards a nasty looking 2 or 3 gene morph. Thus less potential for normal offspring which in my mind equals a profit loss ( most people sell off normals at whole sale price to make room for next year). The real business or money is in the high end morphs or exploring a gene more thoroughly. This process is an investment of more time then money.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sandersnd44

I just recently purchased my first 2 snakes. A male pastel and a female cinnamon ( hoping for pewters when it is time). But I myself will probably never buy a normal for breeding I personally would rather save that money and put it towards a nasty looking 2 or 3 gene morph. Thus less potential for normal offspring which in my mind equals a profit loss ( most people sell off normals at whole sale price to make room for next year). The real business or money is in the high end morphs or exploring a gene more thoroughly. This process is an investment of more time then money.

---

Normals extend the genetic pool which I think is a good thing. Also if you breed a normal to a super co-dominate male you will only get visual morphs so they are good for starting cheap and they can be good once you have some really nice multiple gene males.

Plus you can rescue a normal female which is just a great thing to do if you can. :)