Female age/weight, Male weight/female Ratio? Estimating Profit of Pairings?

Ok, I apologize in advance, I'm sure this has been covered somewhere at sometime.

Firstly, I have 3 females currently all of which were born this last june-july 2012. I've seen some folks say that 18months is an ok time to begin breeding them. However the breeding season generally starts in november. Would my girls have any possiblity of being ready by the 2013 season? I know there is alot of variables in the growth of the snake.

Secondly, any of you guys have rough estimates on how much weight should be on a male to safely breed 4 females? 3 days in, 4-5 days out would be my method. I know that some folks breed their males very young but I doubt that such young males could safely take on 5-8 females from the reading I've done.

Thirdly, Do any of you guys have any methods of calculating projected profits from your pairings? I know my way around the WOB genetic calculator and the binomial equation but I'm a little confused as to how you might estimate projected prices of offspring in a consistent way.

Thanks,

-Chris

Most people will tell you to have females up to 1500-1800g

Some people have had males go before 500g but only if they are still feeding. I don't know if it would be a good idea to do more than one female on a guy that small.

People with more experience will have better input on this.

As to your first question, it would depend upon the weight and size of the females. I've yet to get a female up to breeding size in 18 months, though I guess it could be done.

I would wait until the male is at least around 800 grams, better to be over 1000 grams. Again, you need to take the appearance and overall size of the male into consideration. Is he producing sperm plugs? Is he a good eater? Etc.

Projected profits? Don't count your snakes before they are hatched! There is no consistency in how many eggs of what sex of what morph will come out of a given clutch. You just take what you can get and hope that the odds gods were kind to you.

Ok, cool. I just wanted to make sure.

So more then likely my girls will be ready for the 2014 season and I should purchase a male from the 2013 season. Get him up good and well over 1000 grams to take him to 4 girls.

Sounds good, I thought there would be too many variables to really get an estimate. Supply/demand, male/female ratio, morph ratios, egg ratios, breeding ratios, etc.

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Originally Posted by OctagonGecko729

Ok, cool. I just wanted to make sure.

So more then likely my girls will be ready for the 2014 season and I should purchase a male from the 2013 season. Get him up good and well over 1000 grams to take him to 4 girls.

Sounds good, I thought there would be too many variables to really get an estimate. Supply/demand, male/female ratio, morph ratios, egg ratios, breeding ratios, etc.

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Just one more note - If you plan on 100g of growth for the male a month, it would take ten months for him to be the size you are shooting for (generalized estimate, of course). This is something to keep in mind when shopping for your male. Make sure he has plenty of time to grow up, and that you have time to find exactly what you want.

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

Just one more note - If you plan on 100g of growth for the male a month, it would take ten months for him to be the size you are shooting for (generalized estimate, of course). This is something to keep in mind when shopping for your male. Make sure he has plenty of time to grow up, and that you have time to find exactly what you want.

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And also, just because you get him up to weight, it doesn't mean that he will be ready either. If he's not, he just won't go.

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Originally Posted by Bobbafett

And also, just because you get him up to weight, it doesn't mean that he will be ready either. If he's not, he just won't go.

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With this in mind, I was thinking of going with an axanthic killer bee assuming I could find another male (saw one at repticon Baltimore) and could get a payment plan. Should I not go with this option if I say, had $4-5K to spend on male(s)? Should I instead try for two $2kish males? We already have about $4.5k in our 4 females now so I wanted our male(s) to at least match that.

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

Just one more note - If you plan on 100g of growth for the male a month, it would take ten months for him to be the size you are shooting for (generalized estimate, of course). This is something to keep in mind when shopping for your male. Make sure he has plenty of time to grow up, and that you have time to find exactly what you want.

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Yeah, I'm thinking I would go with a June-July 2013 male which would breed in November 2014, this would be about 16-17 months of age.

Considering the odds of someone producing what you are looking for in a male, I would start looking now (if it's at all feasible), rather than risk not finding what you want in just a couple of months' window. Then you can decide if the one male inspires enough confidence or if you would be content with, say, two combo het axanthics that carry spider, pastel, and something else (assuming the same budget).

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Originally Posted by OctagonGecko729

Ok, I apologize in advance, I'm sure this has been covered somewhere at sometime.

Firstly, I have 3 females currently all of which were born this last june-july 2012. I've seen some folks say that 18months is an ok time to begin breeding them. However the breeding season generally starts in november. Would my girls have any possiblity of being ready by the 2013 season? I know there is alot of variables in the growth of the snake.

Secondly, any of you guys have rough estimates on how much weight should be on a male to safely breed 4 females? 3 days in, 4-5 days out would be my method. I know that some folks breed their males very young but I doubt that such young males could safely take on 5-8 females from the reading I've done.

Thirdly, Do any of you guys have any methods of calculating projected profits from your pairings? I know my way around the WOB genetic calculator and the binomial equation but I'm a little confused as to how you might estimate projected prices of offspring in a consistent way.

Thanks,

-Chris

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Just an FYI they will breed year around:gj: there is no set time frame

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

Considering the odds of someone producing what you are looking for in a male, I would start looking now (if it's at all feasible), rather than risk not finding what you want in just a couple of months' window. Then you can decide if the one male inspires enough confidence or if you would be content with, say, two combo het axanthics that carry spider, pastel, and something else (assuming the same budget).

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If we do not happen to find an axanthic killer bee there are a few other combos around that price range that we could do. The axanthic killer bee would be great though with the pastel and 100% het. I'll contact the folks that made the one I saw at the last repticon and see if they can throw me down on a alert list. Maybe I'll get in touch with Kevin aswell, he might have one hanging around.

You could also buy a breeder sized or sub adult male. You wouldn't have to worry about growing a baby.
Unless they're a more rare or high end gene male, most males are priced relatively the same as their hatchling counterparts.

I'm always glad to see new people in the hobby, but I wanted to add a note of caution here.

From your question about the profitability of pairings, and your plans to get a pretty fancy male, I get the sense that you are entering ball python breeding with the hope to make a profit.

It is a lot of work, patience, and heartache. Ball pythons are picky eaters, and may go off feed for months, causing you to pull out your hair because you thought they would be ready this season. Or they might just not feel like breeding. If the deal is sealed, you may not get the best odds with your hatchlings, or you might miss the female ovulating.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the price of ball python morphs drops every year. A snake that you spent $5,000 on this year may end up being worth half that when you finally get him breeding.

I guess what I am trying to say is that this is not the best hobby for making money. If you are truly passionate about the animals you keep, then it might be worth it for you. But for just plain profit, you could probably do better working at McDonald's.

No offense intended, not trying to imply that you are not passionate about your animals. Just food for thought. :)

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Originally Posted by meowmeowkazoo

I'm always glad to see new people in the hobby, but I wanted to add a note of caution here.

From your question about the profitability of pairings, and your plans to get a pretty fancy male, I get the sense that you are entering ball python breeding with the hope to make a profit.

It is a lot of work, patience, and heartache. Ball pythons are picky eaters, and may go off feed for months, causing you to pull out your hair because you thought they would be ready this season. Or they might just not feel like breeding. If the deal is sealed, you may not get the best odds with your hatchlings, or you might miss the female ovulating.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the price of ball python morphs drops every year. A snake that you spent $5,000 on this year may end up being worth half that when you finally get him breeding.

I guess what I am trying to say is that this is not the best hobby for making money. If you are truly passionate about the animals you keep, then it might be worth it for you. But for just plain profit, you could probably do better working at McDonald's.

No offense intended, not trying to imply that you are not passionate about your animals. Just food for thought. :)

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No offense taken, I'm new here and you folks don't know of us at all, I run TheLizardHorde.

I mostly hang out over on the Repashy Forums. We are mostly branching out into BP's to make money off of them which is why we are spending the extra cash so we can actually make some money off of them in 2-4 years. We keep and breed Uroplatus, Nephrurus, Correlophus ciliatus, and T. fasciata.

Our business is kind of a hybrid between business and hobby at the moment. We run the money making side of the business (Nephrurus, ciliatus, fasciata) to support the hobby side of the business (the preservation of Uroplatus). Both myself and my girlfriend Kodie have other employment so this is more or less just a way to subsidize our hobby and boost our income a little.

I also really enjoy all of the challenges that BPs bring to the table in terms of breeding. With having experience in Uroplatus we know exactly how hard this hobby can be at times and how heartbreaking. For instance just this last year we lost our female U. pietschmanni due to a cyst on a follicle, we would have been added to a handful of people who captively got these animals to lay but that got shot down by a freak accident. Considering there is probably less then 100 of these animals in the country and their native habitat is being destroyed at an alarming rate this was a very hard death for us to deal with.