Money sources for breeder collections?

Hey everyone,

I am just curious as to where people get, or have gotten, money to start, retain and expand their collections. I have the drive to start expanding now, and I am having a hard time keeping myself away from it, since I know I should wait until I have more permanent housing, but it is not too early to figure out the best ways to go about getting ready for it.

Basically, how did you all have enough money to start-up a considerable collection. Did you treat it as a business investment that happened to fall into a hobby/passion of yours (maybe fooling yourself saying it is a business investment to give yourself an excuse to buy more snakes? :D), or did it really start out slow with only a couple new snakes a year, and you just bred when you could.

Feel free to be lengthy, I like hearing people's stories, and hopefully it will help me figure out what would be best for me.

Also, on another note....not just the collections themselves is what interests me....as much, if not more, than the snakes themselves, I am wondering how people expanded their "tools of the trade" (racks, incubators, tstats, random instruments, etc). This is another problem plaguing me. When I do have the money....do I build a rack, get a tstat, etc....then fill it when more money comes around again....or get some snakes and put them in single tubs like what I am doing now so they get up to size sooner, then when everything is really ready to go, spring for the rest. Timewise, this seems better b/c I become satisfied with more snakes earlier, but I waste money on tubs that wont be used in the rack (most likely) and UTH's.

Sorry for the length :(

Just the same way you would get money to buy a house or car...A job

Allright, I guess I didnt really set the focus well. I realize that yes, 99% of people will be buying snakes/stuff from money from their jobs...obviously. My real question is how did people spend it. Stuff first, then snakes, vice versa? All at once w/ a big purchase or little by little that accumulated into a large collection over the span of several years?

Believe it or not, I fell into this just by chance. My brother actually got me into snakes in general, he had a few corns. Then I twisted his arm to go to a reptile show, to see what it was all about. We both loved BPs, and I immediately started doing research on different morphs, co-doms and doms, etc. After careful planning, months later we bought our very first snake from another reptile show. She was a yearling spider. I raised her up for a year and a half and now we are hoping her to be our mother of our very first clutch. Basically, we saved our money up, did some research, bought our first female, raised her up, and then bought our male (pinstripe). If you have the patience to raise up a female first (that's the hardest part about breeding BPs), and save up the money, it's not too costly. Plus it doesn't help if you have a partner to split the cost up

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Originally Posted by joshthaxton

Believe it or not, I fell into this just by chance. My brother actually got me into snakes in general, he had a few corns. Then I twisted his arm to go to a reptile show, to see what it was all about. We both loved BPs, and I immediately started doing research on different morphs, co-doms and doms, etc. After careful planning, months later we bought our very first snake from another reptile show. She was a yearling spider. I raised her up for a year and a half and now we are hoping her to be our mother of our very first clutch. Basically, we saved our money up, did some research, bought our first female, raised her up, and then bought our male (pinstripe). If you have the patience to raise up a female first (that's the hardest part about breeding BPs), and save up the money, it's not too costly. Plus it doesn't help if you have a partner to split the cost up

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I think you mean it doesnt hurt. Thanks for the tips, I hope to find someone that wants to go in on the breeding with me, but I really dont think anything is going to come along.

Woohoo avatars are working again!

I completly understand what your going through because i was there myself... i bought snakes, using money from my job but every pay check i would put like $50 in an envelope, and put that in my sock drawer. then finally after 2 years i had roughly $5000 to start my collection but along they way i did purchase lots of normale female some about 400g to 2500g i had about 10 of them and had them in 20 gallon fish tanks growing them up and big.. then after the 2 years i had 10 ready to breed females the samllest one being 1300g and bought wood and built a rack to house my snakes, but before that I sat down and priced everything i was going to buy so i can figure out the size of this rack, finally deciding i built the rack, bought the thermostate and all the tubs. so now left with about $4100 i went to shows in canada, bought from a breeder in new york, and some from montreal. so this was like 1 1/2 years ago, so now i have lots of snakes and basically funded most of my other aniimals and racks and food from breeding those normals with co dom males and selling them to local pet shops and reptile stores, and i also advertised on my local classifieds online.. and basically made my money back and bought more, and i bought a safe and now i keep all snake maney in that safe along with the het papers, and all old records of my snakes.. but i dont consider these animals as a business investment, but more like pets, most have names...

Started with what was supposed to be a pair of sub-adult ball pythons (actual age unknown).
When I decided that I wanted to try my hand at breeding I brought the 4 snakes that I had to a shop owner to have them sexed. (1 Suriname, 2 balls, 1 kingsnake)
Found out that all but the king were female... what to do now...
Started researching where to find a male and stumbled upon what has now become a hobby/part time job.
Found myself a proven breeder morph and went for it.
Became friends with the breeder I bought him from and have made a number of friends in other breeders around my area.
Some of the money for new snakes comes from males that I hatch, while I have found that tax time and hatching season are almost a match made in heaven.
Oh yeah, and a full time job helps too.
This year will be great, no more spending paycheques on snakes. They have their own bank roll now. :D
-Steven

Well the easy answer is you have to have a place to keep all of your collection first. So I guess we bought our stuff first. You can build cages cheaper than you can buy them. I would suggest picking up some used cages at first that is what we are doing. Usually you can find someone who is upgrading caging and is willing to part with their older caging. As for snakes, We picked up some normal females. Craigslist does help with that if you can sex snakes well. But most of all pick up morphs that you like. Planning on turning money on snakes isn't all its cracked up to be. Most breeders that i know started off with a few morphs and a couple females and turned The money they made back into more snakes. That is the model im trying to follow breed what I like sell what i don't want to hold back and roll that back into more snakes that i like. Well i guess better caging comes along too. I can't wait to get my ars rack.

I still have a relatively small collection myself, but here is how I have gone about it:

It all started with deciding I wanted a pet snake. My roommate and I each decided to get one, and we originally decided on corns. We went to the local reptile show, were a little freaked out by how small the hatchling corns were, and decided to try ball pythons instead. We each picked out one female and took them home. Flash forward to the end of the next summer. Roommate decided she wanted an albino, but since they were so expense, she decided to get hets. Picked up a pair of hets at the next reptile show (they happen twice a year). Of course I couldn't stand to be the only person with one snake. From there we ended up each acquiring a rack, which we subsequently strove to fill. The original cages became quarantine spots, and now we have a quarantine rack. So for us, we started housing in cages, but moved almost immediately to commercial racks once we started expanding. My favorite is Reptile Basics racks, but they are fairly close to me so I can save on shipping and pick them up. I like to say I tend to get housing before the animals. For example, I just bought a new 5 slot 32 qt sweaterbox rack from reptile basics. Until that point I had been housing my snakes in a single older rack (minus one newbie in the downstairs quarantine rack). I also bought a herpstat pro. Since it has four probes, I figure it will do me for a long time. So now I have five snakes, nine rack slots (13 if I use the dividers I have for the bins), and a thermostat that will run my incubator this year and three other racks, as well as the ranco I have been using, so I am pretty well set for housing and caging supplies for the immediate future.This way I can afford to keep a hold back or two this year, and still hopefully have room to buy something new at the show.

That is how I've done it!!

Ive built up my collection over time, spending money here or there, working out payment plans, or finding stuff cheaper than normal. Friends have also given me animals, which is really really cool, and truly has helped expand my collection as well. :D

Just time. overall. A snake here or there... eventually you start to wonder where the heck you got all that money... LOL

I loooove breeders that do payment plans. I've got several snakes I wouldn't have if it weren't for that.

I lucked out when it comes to the money aspect of affording them. I don't work (semi-retired I guess you'd call it), and my husband is a nuclear pharmacist. He's so supportive of my hobbies that he takes an extra couple days a month working as the temp pharmacist at the local Target pharmacy. He makes more in each day, than I used to make in an entire two weeks' check. That's my reptile "allowance". LOL Of course I do things for him in return, that I know bring him joy. I learned to do the hot stones massage because he has a disability that causes him a lot of soreness sometimes and it really helps. Nothing like a hot stone massage with aromatherapy, a nice mani and pedi, and a little reiki. Things like that. I wouldn't have anything if it weren't for him. Has no interest in the snakes, but loves to watch me get excited talking about them.

As for where I house them. Right now I've got a couple nice homemade racks, and one big one I bought from animal plastics for my big females. I'm getting ready to build another. I've found that I really enjoy making these different things the hobby calls for, and I love that you can choose the tubs you want and build from there.

The basement has become my dragon's den. :D

I started out with a normal male, started researching care and ended up here. Found the for sale section here and ordered me a spider girl for a lot of money cuz then they were super expensive, also read somewhere that normal females are the greatest way to build your collection so went hog wild and bought three or four here and there, started realizing credit cards were not the best way to get started. So did a few payment plans for hets that I liked, and just put whatever money I had left from working two jobs towards new stuff, and keep doing that. Before long I decided I wanted to practice a year before I tried breeding that first female spider, last year I produced two clutches, and mainly i learned more than I ever thought I could, got a nice holdback and sold enough to get a couple more female morphs. This year I finally have that spider going and a handful of normal females, and sixty some snake. So basically I did it as fast I possibly could without putting myself in a financial crunch, but not so fast that I couldnt prepare myself for feeders or rack space or whatever. Just a lot of hard work and plenty of mental planning got me to where I am now.

Sorry should have read better, we started out like everyone, one snake. The only thing we did different was built cages and bought cages first so we would have a place for them instead of running around when it got here. And of course a rack in quarantine so that they are in the same size cages as everyone else, just away from them. I have three extra racks in my facility, because juveniles will become adults and if I leave them in a small cage for to long they stop eating. My advise is get supplies first so you arnt running around at the last second. Hope its a better response than my first one.

Well, I'm a college student who's always lived on, shall we say, a shoestring budget. My half of the income is loans and grants.

That said, I made it up to 14 snakes one at a time. I didn't start out wanting to breed...I just loved snakes and wanted one or two as pets. But once I saw the Albino and the Bumblebee BPs and the Lav/Ghost and Opal corn snakes... well it took off from there. Also, my BF likes the idea of getting some money back from sale of offspring to go toward their upkeep. In other words, I plan to breed snakes for two main reasons:
1) to get the morphs I adore but could never afford to buy straight out.
2) to make this beloved hobby of mine self-sufficient.

If ever I make enough money to go above and beyond care costs...that will be a happy bonus since I do not intend to do this as a business.

My breeding group actually started with the pastel male I rescued/was given. Once I had him, I started thinking about Bees and getting a spider female. First, though, I had a wonderful opportunity to get a 100% het Albino girl for quite a low price and ended up with her and then her mate before the spider. When I finally got my cute little spider girl, I was presented with the chance to pick up a lovely little female pastel from a friend.
So, now I have the means to make Albinos, Bees, and Super Pastels! :D Not to mention a pair of normals (one that I was given) that will be my "test run" of breeding that will make some really pretty babies to sell cheap or give away to deserving new herp fans!

Oh, and as for caging - with my low income and love of making things, it's always been easier for me to make my own enclosures. I already have the cage system for my corns, and rack(soon to be 2) for the adult BPs. Someday I intend to have a display system for the BPs as well. :)

I started out with a trio of green tree monitors several years ago. They were wild caught and it was before people were breeding them. After a year or so they blessed me with lots of eggs. And they sold like hotcakes. They were too high maintenance so I switched over to leachies. (Giant Geckos)
I had no problem buying a dozen leachies right off the bat with the money from the monitors. And i picked up a trio of redtailed boas double het for snow.
After a couple more years I started selling off the leachie hatchlings.
With that money i bought all my ball pythons. 1.1 Yellow Belly,101 Mojave,
1.1 Albino.

I will always have some kind of reptiles. The older I get the more expensive they get. I try to make just enough money from my hatchlings to support my hobby.

well to answer the question of what to buy 1st get that rack! 1st off so you don't have to worry about buying it latter (or until you have more than 10-11 balls) i went the other way buying all the snakes first off then trying to house them all in big bulky glass tanks, a pain in the a** if you ask me and UTH'S WOW no thanks what a waste of money. i have 3.7 ball pythons and no rack, and i cant buy any more glass tanks. ( no room) soo till i get a rack setup no more snakes :tears::tears:

yes they are very addicting no doubt about it. i would say get the rack fill it and wait till they breed to get any more.
a normal rack holds about 9-11 tubs 11 ball pythons is a great start its what i'm working with.

Drew Lewis

i basically save up from my checks for whatever snake i wanna get. i just take a cut out of my check for anything that deals with buying a snake, food for the snakes, another rack and supplies ! i currently have 16 bps and cant buy anymore until i move out into my own place...then i can go all out !!! also alot of times, i have gone to show to buy 1 morph and came home with 1 or 2 free females... so that really made my collection grow fast, i know 16 isnt alot but for my basement it is right now...

save, save & credit !

I think anything over a dozen is a descent starter collection, so dont feel like a tiny collector. I hope to have a couple dozen bp's eventually.

I am curious about the free female thing though, if that is the case in a lot of places, maybe I should be thinking of trying to squeeze some more freebies out of my snake transactions.

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Originally Posted by ThyTempest

I am curious about the free female thing though, if that is the case in a lot of places, maybe I should be thinking of trying to squeeze some more freebies out of my snake transactions.

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Make sure you have excellent quarantine practices if you do this. I know a girl that loaded up on craiglist stuff and ended up infesting her whole collection with mites shortly after she got started.

Instead of paying taxes I bought snakes, now I owe the government a bunch of snakes, LOL!

I started with a pet, bought some normal breeders later. Expanded with a pastel, yellow belly, mojave set of males. I run ads in the paper, pet stores for the normal babies. Sell to friend the rest and exchange for other morphs. Currently working at getting the cheap pied thats every been hatched. Bought a het male adult for 50$ and hoping to find a good deal for an adult female here soon.

Started with a pair of Pastels and a pair of het Albinos which were QUITE expensive at the time and went from there.

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Originally Posted by ThyTempest

I think you mean it doesnt hurt. Thanks for the tips, I hope to find someone that wants to go in on the breeding with me, but I really dont think anything is going to come along.

Woohoo avatars are working again!

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My wife probably wouldn't like it, but I guess I can help you breed.












lol. Too much?
:salute:

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Originally Posted by Texas Dan

My wife probably wouldn't like it, but I guess I can help you breed.












lol. Too much?
:salute:

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lmao:rofl::O:D

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Originally Posted by Texas Dan

My wife probably wouldn't like it, but I guess I can help you breed.












lol. Too much?
:salute:

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...you know TT is a dude..right?

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Originally Posted by dreese88

...you know TT is a dude..right?

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Doh! I noticed that just now.

Cancel that. You can breed with yourself.

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Originally Posted by ThyTempest

Allright, I guess I didnt really set the focus well. I realize that yes, 99% of people will be buying snakes/stuff from money from their jobs...obviously. My real question is how did people spend it. Stuff first, then snakes, vice versa? All at once w/ a big purchase or little by little that accumulated into a large collection over the span of several years?

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Most people will buy snakes first and then try to cobble together something cheap to put them in. This is kind of backwards. If you buy the caging and supplies first, things will go a lot more smoothly. You'll be more organized and weekly cleanings/feedings will be less frustrating and go more quickly.

Well, I had my one snake in a tank when i first got into bp's. I made friends through this wonderful site and they all helped me. I pretty much got my rack and herpstat at the same time. And then i added snakes as i could. Set some goals, and start from there...

I made my own racks and slowly grew my small collection. In hindsight I probably should have bought more normal females, but hay I just wanted my fav mutations bad and thats what I concentrated on.

Well like many of us I gots me a day job!
Though I have been making trades for animals I want with animals I produced.

When I hit the MegaMillions I will probably by myself a Large Ranch, build a seperate Snake facility behind my Mansion and then invite everyone on BP.net to come over and we will begin a Reptile Breeding Cult!