Question for breeders?

I currently have a normal male and pastel female. I talked with a guy who is selling his collection (1.0 super pastel, 0.1 spider, 0.4 females) and a rack system for 1000-1500. My dad would be paying for it and he isn't certain he wants to invest that kind of money. I can understand this. So What I want to know is what the market is like right now. If I breed them and get 10-15 pastels/super pastels will I be able to sell them all, and at least make the money back?

With the potential breeding combos you would have there you could easily make your money back...and then some, IF you can sell the babies. Remember there is no quarentee you can sell the offsprings. FYI..that is a good price for what you would be getting, as long as they are all healthy.

Thats a good amount of money to spend right now. You also can't be certain that you wil get 10-15 pastels. Something I've learned from breeding snakes is never count your morphs until your eggs hatch. Last year I bred a pied male to a het pied female and got 9 eggs and only one was a pied. Statistaclly is should've gotten 4-5 pieds. There's no gaurantee on what will hatch.

What kind of rack system? How do the snakes look? If you don't want them, ship 'em to me, I'll take that deal. :gj:

That sounds like a good deal but you have to remember, depending on the age of the snakes it could be years before you see babies and who knows where the market will be at that time. If you're going to get the snakes get them because YOU want to have some beautiful animals not to try to make money off of them. Yes, there is a potential down the road for you to be able to make back your investment BUT there are never any guarantees.

Well the female normals are breeding age as is the super pastel male. The female spider is not and is currently a little on the small side and a finicky eater. Its a boaphile rack system. I know the deal is great and I want the snakes. I am just wondering how hard it is to actually sell the babies?

Sorry to rephrase that how long on average does it take to sell a BP.

There are tons of pastels for sale.....cheap. You may produce 10-15 but with so many for sale by so many people it may be tough to sell them. Also, if you've never bred ball pythons you could be in for some let down. There's no gaurantee you'll even get them to breed. I'm not trying to discourage you, just trying to be realistic.

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Originally Posted by Dave79

Something I've learned from breeding snakes is never count your morphs until your eggs hatch. Last year I bred a pied male to a het pied female and got 9 eggs and only one was a pied. Statistaclly is should've gotten 4-5 pieds. There's no gaurantee on what will hatch.

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With a super pastel you would get all pastels hatching out. just like if you bred pied to pied you would get all pieds..

I wouldn't get into it for the $$$. You could end up with 3 eggs or you could end up with 30 eggs. If its money you can't live without you may want to pass on the deal. However, over the life of the snakes I am sure you could make your money back.

If those normal females weren't purchased to selectively breed to the pastel male -- then I wouldn't count on your pastels flying out the door - there are a lot of cheap ugly pastels for sale. If you get a lot of females you can probably get those sold in a few months but males you'll have a harder time selling off and may be stuck with them for a while -- you'll need to make sure you have rack space and feeders for your offspring as well. Also don't count your chickens before they hatch -- anything could happen and you might not be able to live up to those promises made to your father.

Something to think about -- you might want to work out a payment plan with him and offer to pay for them yourself and consider it a loan as opposed to making it an investment by him.

People need to think long term and not what can I sell them for tomorrow as you never know what tomorrow will bring. I say you'll make more than the money you spent but not in the first year...snakes can die, infertile eggs, and the list goes on...Good Luck to you. you need to market yourself.. and ask how are you going to sell the babies and can you afford to rack the babies and feed them?
Kevin Stoltz

Alright thanks everyone for the response. I am not going to get these snakes. I'm just sticking with my pastel and normal.

Dont get into it for the money unless you are really looking to devote everything you have to this, and looking to grow an actuall business. And remember that the more snakes you get or breed that is more money that you are going to have to put into them and your turnaround isnt always going to go as planned.