Breeders or Hobbyist?

I have noticed in the last week or so I have been hanging out around here that a lot of members are breeders or want to be breeders. Is anyone here just for the hobby so to speak?

I think everyone is :)

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Originally Posted by nathanledet

I think everyone is :)

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Yep that would be us :D

I think if you ask many of the big-time guys whether they're breeders or hobbyist, 90% of them are going to answer that they're hobbyists.

You just don't get into this business to make money... you do it for the love of the animal (well, the good ones, anyway........)

Well said! I would (did) have snakes regardless of the breeding excitement, but after catching the BP bug, and seeing a tiny head pop out of an egg... well, it was all over for me. I've so enjoyed learning, and meeting, and getting, and feeding, and chatting, and CLEANING, :rolleyes: and... well you get the idea! :oops:

Part of the hobby is breeding.

:P

Right now I am not planning on breeding (not that I have any snakes old enough to be bred anyway;)). If I never breed any of my snakes, that would be fine with me, I got them all as pets. Now I do have a poss het albino female in my collection that in the future I may toy with the idea of trying to prove her out. Not sure yet, but still have LOTS to learn before I even attempt to breed anyway. So who knows what the future will hold for my snakes, I haven't completely discarded the thought of breeding, but for me that would be quite awhile into the future. :)

I realized as I was reading replies that my question was one of those duh ones. LOL

I had asked because so many of the topics on the board revolve around breeding that I wondered if anyone was just here for snakes they keep as pets.

im into the whole snake thing for life. i love my balls to death. just the responsability of having to keep them clean and healthy is so great. you know holding them making sure theyre skin isnt all baggy and dryed out. just making sure theyre all healthy is so great. ooo that came out wrong!:rofl:

i just cant imagine the excitement and joy of bringing a living thing into this world, especially one as beautiful as a ball python. I would love to get in to breeding.

im def a hobbiest. but like everyone said. we love the herps. we love the caring cleaning just like laooda said. breeding is the hobby. the hobby is keepin, enjoying, breeding more to enjoy.

I actually got into ball pythons on accident four years ago... but fell hard and fast :P
It's turned from accident to conservation project to passion... along the way it gives me a hobby and a few eggs to incubate and hatch ;)

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Originally Posted by LadyOhh

Part of the hobby is breeding.

:P

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I agree . . . .

I'm a keeper. I keep a total of <think quick> 49 snakes and I'm not breeding, although I'm tempted to perhaps do that someday (put a big question mark behind that!). I agree with those here that already made the comment that most breeders are in fact hobbyists that breed purely for the joy of putting a new life into this world. Sounds theatrical, but that would be the only logical reason, since it can't be the money ...
By the time you pay x-amount of dollar for a pair of quality moprhs to breed in order to produce a morph that brings the big bucks, you've spent money on rats and oodles of time cleaning and caring for the pair and the price for the big-buck-morph (in case the snake gods smile upon you and you are lucky enough to produce one!) will have already come down, because someone else is producing the morph already and sells at bottom price.

as soon as i move into a bigger house, i will be breeding. but for now, i'm just a hobbyist :)

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Originally Posted by Laooda

Well said! I would (did) have snakes regardless of the breeding excitement, but after catching the BP bug, and seeing a tiny head pop out of an egg... well, it was all over for me. I've so enjoyed learning, and meeting, and getting, and feeding, and chatting, and CLEANING, :rolleyes: and... well you get the idea! :oops:

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Laura summed it up for my attitude towards it, too :D

no plans to breed here...neither humans nor snakes :gj:

I think it would be great fun to breed snakes, but its not for me.

I do think it sounds like a lot of fun... not to mention frustrating, worrisome and something that requires patience which I don't have. LOL

Ok I have what is probably a really stupid question.. kind of like the one that started this thread.. haha..

When you breed morphs do you sometimes get normals? How do you know what kind of morphs to breed there are so many of them out there? Why are some morphs more expensive than others? I mean I saw a morph bp.. can't remember what it was but it was like 12.000 dollars.

ok.. so thats more than just one question. :P but I am really curious at this point.

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Originally Posted by OhClueless1

I do think it sounds like a lot of fun... not to mention frustrating, worrisome and something that requires patience which I don't have. LOL

Ok I have what is probably a really stupid question.. kind of like the one that started this thread.. haha..

When you breed morphs do you sometimes get normals? How do you know what kind of morphs to breed there are so many of them out there? Why are some morphs more expensive than others? I mean I saw a morph bp.. can't remember what it was but it was like 12.000 dollars.

ok.. so thats more than just one question. :P but I am really curious at this point.

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Yes, you sometimes get normals, especially when breeding doms and co-doms. When you breed a visible recessive, all your babies look normal but are 100% het for that gene, so a little "more" than a normal.

You breed what YOU love - you don't breed what you don't like. Study the morphs, pick the ones that excite you and go from there!

Some morphs are more because they are more rare. It may be a new morph that's just been proven out, or it may be a combination of several morphs.

I have 18 ball pythons and 2 on the way (well, not counting the babies I hope to hatch). For me, it started off with one pet ball python and grew into a hobby. I love these animals. I would have many more if I had more space. For me, part of enjoying the hobby is breeding. For example - I want a clown ball python. I can't afford a clown ball python, so I'm doing the "some assembly required" route. I bought a 100% het clown male, I'm breeding him to a normal female, and plan to keep all the female offspring, raise them up and hope that some of them prove out to also be het for clown - so in three years - I hope to own my very own clown that I created with my own hard work - even though for me, this work is also pleasure!