Question for professional breeders

Hello

I'm new here, but i have lot of time reading and learning with your forum.

I'm David, and I live at Barcelona, Spain.
I'm looking to start a ball python breeding bussines and i'm looking for some information about this.

What do you recomend for start? I wan't to invest about US$20-25k.

I think that it's good idea to get some males codominant and dominant ( pastel, cinamon, spider, pinstripe....) and some pairs of homocigous recesive and some female hets ( albino, hypo, pied...)
Finally I need some "wild-type" females. I think that about 30 females was rigth.

What do you think?

Another problem is the cages for all of this animals. I see that lot of yours loves the freedom breeders rack. Anyone have pics of this racks in detail? What size are best for breeders?

And for last, if can you say me how do you start, and some directions for have success with this bussines, please advice me.

Sorry for my bad english.

Thanks !!!!!

http://www.freedombreeder.com/cage.php?catID=1
go there for all the product information :]

Did you just up and decide to breed or have you kept snakes before? Are you looking at buying hatchlings and waiting to breed or buying adults?

20-25 k is a good start but lets say you got hatchlings

pieds 3,500 male
5,000 female
= 8,500
Albino 1,300 male
2,000 female
= 11,800
Pastels 250 male
500 female
= 12,800
then theres pins, lessers, mojaves and so one then there cages, thermostats, tubs. These are the onetime start up expenses. The if you grow them up your looking at the ongoing expense of feeder, bedding and so on. To go full time jumping in head first I'd expect to spend 65 to 100K to start.

Buy a trio of hatchling balls. If you aren't bored or overwhelmed with those, and they are healthy by the time you get offspring from them, you can decide if you want to buy any more as a business. If you read a lot and stay active in the ball community you will know exactly what you want, and what you will need to achive success in future years. If you're not completely passionate about caring for the snakes, you you quickly find yourself overwhelmed and at best decide to sell off your new snakes, probably for a loss. At worst, you will neglect them and they will get sick or die. Just my :2cent:

Hi

Thanks all for your replyes.
I'm in the hobby 7 years. I never breed pythons but i breed bearbed dragons, crested and leopard geckos and some species of kingsnake. I have also 2 females of ball for 2 years and i'm very happy with this.

i think to get this package :

1,1 albino
0,3 het albino
1,1 cinammon
1,0 hypo
0,2 het hypo
1,2 pastel
1,0 piebald
0,3 het piebald
1,1 spider
1,1 het genetic stripe

and some more females... about 20.

All animals from 2006, but i need to wait a couple of seasons to star breeding them.


what do you think?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by deivi

Hi

Thanks all for your replyes.
I'm in the hobby 7 years. I never breed pythons but i breed bearbed dragons, crested and leopard geckos and some species of kingsnake. I have also 2 females of ball for 2 years and i'm very happy with this.

i think to get this package :

1,1 albino
0,3 het albino
1,1 cinammon
1,0 hypo
0,2 het hypo
1,2 pastel
1,0 piebald
0,3 het piebald
1,1 spider
1,1 het genetic stripe

and some more females... about 20.

All animals from 2006, but i need to wait a couple of seasons to star breeding them.


what do you think?

---

You might could do this with the cages and all for 25K...Maybe.

I'll give you a good idea.
I have 7 normal females
1 het pied,1 spider, 1 Mojave, 2 pastels. And my total spent is in the 5000 range for just animals.
I got 5 more in the works this year that'll push my cost of animals up to almost 10,000 and thats not including racks feeders bedding.

It'll be close but you might can swing it.

It sounds like you know what you are getting into. Your list looks like a good start, but I would suggest adding a few more co-doms. YB's, Mojos and lessers will add huge combination potential to your projects, not to mention get you more morphs sooner. I wish I had money to pick up a group like that. Good luck.

I'd also suggest mixing them up. For example, breed the 1.0 albino to 0.3 het albinos, but breed the 0.1 albino to a male spider or pied. Maybe add 0.1 gen. stripe to breed to another morph. Combos don't take too long when working with recessive to co-doms, and the combo and profit potential is huge.

I like your plans.

Hopefully you have your setups and racks and feeder supplies all lined up?

My feeders come from a wholesaler and I pay a large sum of money every week to feed.

Are you taking these costs into account as well, or are those not involved in your initial investment?

It is a FUN world, as long as you can deal with the care and the ups and downs.

Welcome to the fold!

thanks all for your replys!

Yes, i have a good source to get cheap rodents for feed the snakes weekly, this isn't a problem.

I think that i want to start with the animals that i put up in this topic, and i will get more morphs and animals in future.

Anyone know if freedom breeders can ship his racks overseas? I tried to send some mails but i don't receibe any reply yet.
Anyone have "homemade" photos of this racks??

Thanks!

I don't thik freedom breeder ship internationally. I emailed them and asked them do they ship to Thailand, and they didn't response.

You can do it by yourself, I mean you can custommade rack. Maybe it won't be that nice, but it will do the job. I ordered place that make fishtank stand to make a metal/iron rack by my own spec. Then I bought a plastic box(similar to tub) and make holes by myself. The downside is I still have to open and close the plastic tub but I think I feel safer that way. And it cost me like less than $15 :)

I also planning to breed BP in Thailand too. However, I can't wait that long so my breeding group will have only 05 or older female. You spend more but the different in females' cost will probably save you 1-2 years.

One more thing I would like to recommend regarding where to get your animals from. Do not choose from the price "alone." Yeah, sometimes you get lucky and get good animal at a cheaper price, but that won't happen ofen...hence the word "lucky."

Try to get all your breeding group from as few sources as possible, that'll gice you a good group deal. Even though they do not have all animals that you want, but they can look around and find you something nice.

Good luck to you...and to me as well :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by deivi

Yes, i have a good source to get cheap rodents for feed the snakes weekly, this isn't a problem.

---

Make sure the rodents are good quality. Remember that your breeder snakes have to be fed quality food to make quality offspring. Don't get poor quality rodents just because they are cheap. You should even look into starting your own rodent colony??

Here's my custom made rack. The rack cost me $15 eack. The tub cost around $5 each. Not the best breeding system in the world, but it will do the job. :)

oops forgot the pic.
[IMG]https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/files/5/2/3/2/rack.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/files/5/2/3/2/tub3.jpg[/IMG]

Wheres the heat source????

I can just slide the tub from the rack. And I won't have to fear of the snake run away unless I forget to close the lid :)

It's very hot in Bangkok all year long. :) I also have a light lamb and I can snap it to the side of the rack as well.
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/files/5/2/3/2/tub2.jpg

My Caramel in the tub. Hope she can stay in this small tub for a while. SHe's around 500 g by the way.
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/files/5/2/3/2/tub.jpg

You can build your own racks to suit your needs out of melamine. I had a post about mine but I can't find it. If you search on here you should be able to find some stuff. I drew out the plans for one using Sterilite bins if you want me to send them to you. If you have a large home improvement center near you in Spain you should be able to bring in the dimensions and they will do all of the cutting for you. I built mine for a really good price and all I had to do was pull the melamine from my car to my house and start drilling and screwing. No cutting or measuring at all, and it looks and works just as good as any I've seen.