How many BPs did you acquire before actually producing eggs?

I had a decent small and diverse group of recessive and co-dom BPs before I joined the military. Since I decided to join I had to sell my collection, tear...

This year will be my first actually producing eggs (hopefully). In the beginning I started out with simple dreams of buying a perfect spider male (one of my personal favorites) and breeding him to a normal female or two in due time. Now he has grown to around 800 grams in about a years time and I have acquired many more morphs than originally planned (as you can see in my signature). I have been endlessly searching for females I "need" to have and I don't want to over do it. This year alone I plan to add to my collection many more females: albino, lesser, enchi, 3 normal breeders, and depending on the quality, a fire, YB pastel, and pastel hypo.

To most (not reptile people) this seems like a lot, I feel like I need to acquire as many females as possible to have the best results years down the road. Am I fooling myself? Should I take it slow, or go big or go home? All of these animals I am looking to acquire will have proper housing, temps, and food, these are the basics. I have been doing this too many years to skimps on husbandry. I'm not looking to make my money back, especially in the first 4 years. I would hope that after that time I would at least be able to pay for food and electricity to justify my habits. I just want to know I'm not kidding myself having this many snakes without actually producing one...

It has always been one of the all time things I need to do before I die, to hatch out a healthy BP or reptile in general. I was wondering how the majority of you started breeding, and the amount of animals you had (BPs or other) before producing.

Let me know!

I had about 20 ball pythons before i started breeding. I am pretty heavy on the females right niw and actually find myself asking what male should i get? I wouldnt ever plan on making money in snakes. Id say 10% of breeders make miney the rest dump tons if money into it. This is a hobby not a business really. Not to discourage you just saying.

I will start producing eggs this next season and i currently have 10 ball pythons right now.

Good, so far my pickup goals don't seem out of control. I will be dumping more money into additional genes then making money. I definitely don't want this to be a full time business, or even part time. It is for myself, and who ever else that shares my passion with me.

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Originally Posted by eel588

Good, so far my pickup goals don't seem out of control. I will be dumping more money into additional genes then making money. I definitely don't want this to be a full time business, or even part time. It is for myself, and who ever else that shares my passion with me.

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I agree with you. Right now this is just something Im doing for a hobby and, if im lucky my collection will eventually pay for itself. Of course money in return would be nice too:D

I had 10 I think, before I started breeding, now I have....let me count.....24 hatchlings, 11 juvi, 28 adults.

This will be my first year producing eggs and im so stoked!
Right now my living conditions have been screwed up so all of my snakes are at my boyfriends parents house. I hope this wont have an impact on my breeding but everything is set up there how i had it at home so a part from cramped space I have 11 BPs currently.
And one new male lesser on the way on wednesday.
I've stuck thousands into the snakes and setup i have and im so happy with it. To watch them grow, to plan and anticipate the upcoming year is just great. I know the day my first clutch hatches is just going to be so worth it and rewarding...I cant wait!
I have quite a wish list as well and I plan on at least doubling my collection in the next couple of years for sure. Its an awesome hobby and if even a few of the clutches go well I can make some money back, and if not thats really not a big deal for me. As long as I get to hatch out some babies :P

I believe the longer you are in this hobby, the larger your wish list/goals become. There are so many possibilities, and so many new combos being produced each year. It is hard to become settled or content with only having X number of reptiles.

sitting on 19 balls and this will be my first year

20 my first year.

I had 5 snakes when I got my first clutch and I got hooked from there. I only wanted to experiment with one pair and I got the one clutch. I slowly grew and slowly added. That way I knew I could handle things. Now I have 50 roughly 35 females and 15 males. Not counting babies. I'm super excited for this next upcoming season. The whole reason I got into all reptiles in general was because of hatching some little leos out. I was so happy to see 2 little guys come rolling out of the eggs. Every year I learn new things, see new snakes, produce different animals. I love every minute of it.
Ive dumped more money into it then I care to even remember. I'm just happy to have an amazing collection, a fun website to run, and vending at the shows is an experience in itself. I don't care If I sell anything. I love meeting people that love the same things I do.
Take it slow, go for quality over quantity and enjoy yourself!

Check out what's new on my website... www.Homegrownscales.com

Is it crazy for a person to just buy favorite bp morphs just for pets. I have 6 bps right now with no plans for breeding. It seems that most people buy their bps with the intent to breed someday.

Is it odd for someone to just keep them as pets??

I believe I had 8 ball pythons when I got eggs my first season (2008-2009). I have acquired more snakes since then (both purchases and hold backs from clutches) and have no intention on stopping. I have 13 ball pythons now (plus other snakes) and have plans to add many, many more. I have permission from the husband that as long as we can support them (financially and physically keeping up with them) that I can have as many as I want. He even offered that once we buy a house, I can build my own facility so I can expand if I want. :D This hobby is always changing. New colors, new patterns, new possibilities. It would be extremely hard to stop where you are. There will always be something new that you want. My next purchases will be new enclosures followed by a het pied normal female. Then I have a nice long list of future snakes to buy (plus more racks of course).

No, its not odd to buy morphs just for pets. (Many people buy show quality purebred dogs for just pets with no intention of showing or breeding) Its just that most who get into keeping morphs like to breed them. My snakes will always be pets first, breeders second.

I have 2!!! and Yes I'm going to attempt breeding this year... Hopefully to prove my Granite female as genetic.. and buy some newe stuff from money I made from offspring... But taking to account my growing fascination with House snakes.. i dont plan get too many Balls in the future :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Aes_Sidhe

I have 2!!! and Yes I'm going to attempt breeding this year... Hopefully to prove my Granite female as genetic.. and buy some newe stuff from money I made from offspring... But taking to account my growing fascination with House snakes.. i dont plan get too many Balls in the future :rolleyes:

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i regret getting rid of my house snake. they are such interesting creatures. like mini pythons but with tons of personality. the only problem is i hate babies that are picky and that turned me away from breeding them. the one i had was a pet only and i needed to reduce what i had...so i let him go to a good home.
adam jeffery

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Originally Posted by L.West

Is it crazy for a person to just buy favorite bp morphs just for pets. I have 6 bps right now with no plans for breeding. It seems that most people buy their bps with the intent to breed someday.

Is it odd for someone to just keep them as pets??

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That is not odd at all! I rather like that idea.

I must have a addictive personality:D I have 37 and this is my first year breeding! Most of my snakes were bought very young. I have 4 clutches in the cooker and one more due to lay this week. 2 more girls are looking promising;) My first clutch is due to hatch the 17th of this month and I'm very excited!!

I will have 20 girls up to size and ready to breed this winter:O

This is my first year producing eggs ( well with balls anyway ) and I have 28 ball pythons.

The time I started pairing back in last September was when I had 4 Balls I think?

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Originally Posted by heathers*bps

This is my first year producing eggs ( well with balls anyway ) and I have 28 ball pythons.

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I don't feel so bad now! LOL

I went into it deliberately to start a business, so I acquired 3 adult females and a pastel male, and bred them that fall.
I also got a pair of albino hatchlings, a pair of orange ghost hatchlings, and a male spider hatchling.

My goal was for the business to be self-sufficient (initial investment aside) as soon as possible, and I accomplished that fairly quickly. By selling all of the hatchlings, and buying more adult normal females, baby morph males, and racks each year, I built my collection up quickly. Adding some het albino adults also proved to be a great idea. 2010 was our first year for keeping significant numbers of holdbacks. We'll do the same this year, and the year after. 2013 is going to be fun. :)

A lot depends on what your end goal is. If you are doing it as a hobby, get the ones you like, take it slow, and produce what you want. If you are doing it as a business, then consider what will give you the greatest return on your investment, and what will hold its value best. Always remember that if you have hatchling females, you have to feed them for years before you can breed them.

Next year will be my first clutch with a butter and a Mojave.

I bought my Mojave female two years ago to breed Lucy's. This year I bought three hatchlings. So I will have five. Two girls with much growing to do :)