Who's Making Money Breeding Ball Pythons?

[Simple Man]

I got a D in accounting in college. However I still notice one thing here is a lot of you are counting the snakes that you bought and their cost as "money lost". Yes you spent the money by the end of the year but that is not money lost. You still have the snakes which will breed for you in the future years.

hungba is right! I love business too and have a solid background in it. The snakes are equity. They are also a constant revenue stream if they are healthy and able to produce for you. Done properly it is not difficult to run this hobby as a business. It requires smart buying decisions, thoughtful breeding plans, a discerning eye for choosing your initial breeding stock, time, and patience.

I think something people tend to forget is that it costs money to make money. I've saved lots of money by taking a DIY approach to caging, incubation, rodents, and other aspects of the hobby. The money I've saved doing things myself has allowed me to invest more in my animals. I'm heating the same room whether I have 2 snakes or 50 snakes. I breed my own rats so it is only time consuming to bump up my production. The trivial cost for an extra bag of rat feed is greatly exceeded by having quality rodents readily available in any size. I believe that both the heated room and quality rodents are key to my collection's health and substantial growth rates.

Investing in something beyond a handful of single gene animals and breeder normals is the best way to get into the black in my opinion. If you're trying to climb your way up with 3 or 4 single gene snakes it can be done. It is going to take a considerable amount of time and effort. However, when you start breeding 10+ clutches with the potential to hit 2-4 gene snakes + recessives it really adds up fast.

I'm only expecting 6-7 clutches this year and I should be even in term of actual cash invested. I will actually be double or triple my investment if you take into consideration the equity of my collection. Next year I should be expecting 20+ clutches and should be close to my dream of doing this full-time.

I've seen dozens of people exit and leave the hobby within the last year. This is not a "get rich quick" scheme. How far you go with it is up to you. Ultimately, you should be prepared for a solid commitment of time and money if you want to be successful. You can save time if you have money. Otherwise you can invest more time and still find success.

I would just like to close with the following thoughts if you are thinking about getting into Ball Python breeding.

It is your hobby. It should be your passion. And it can be your business.


Regards,

B

[loonunit]

So my husband says if you net less than $5k a year, you can call it "hobby income". But more than that, and it's tax-able? Is that right?

Last year was my first year breeding, so this year is my first year getting money out instead of only putting it in.

And now I've got 5 or 6 females ovulating or building. So I'm going to need more racks... and a bigger incubator... and I might really have to track how much money I spend vs. make this year for tax purposes. Um. Wow?

[spitzu]

Pretty sure you have to claim anything over $500 or so. I may be wrong

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[heathers*bps]

I have yet to make any money and if I do, it won't be for a LONG time. Besides, I'm in it for the love of it

[Brandon Osborne]

It's actually anything over $599.99 gross. Just save your receipts and keep great records. If you raise your own rodents, consider that a business as well and buy them from yourself. When you feed a snake for 6 months and sell it at the same price as when it was 6 days, you can claim all of the food as a deduction on the sale. There are tons of things you can use as operating costs for your taxes.

[spitzu]

Brandon, how does that work? I asked two different accountants about that and they shot the idea down.

I believe I asked something along the lines of "can I claim a certain amount of $$ per rat, based off of what I would have paid to someone else".

[snake lab]

Like with any small buisness the expenses you have to operate the buisness is a deduction. Therefore rats would be a deduction as long as you are filing as a buisness. Also the aquare footage of your operating space is also a deduction. Just like a home office would be. Now if your not filing as a buisness then trying to get deductions for feeding and operating would be a hard thing to do without utilizing all the shades of gray in the tax world. And the irs pays close attention to those skirting the gray areas

[ClarkT]

I'm in the boat of having invested more than I've made. Last year was my first year breeding, and I made about $200 above what I put into it. This year, I'm way deeper into it, but should come out ahead.

As others have said, I'll have to revisit this thread at the end of the year to re-evaluate what the status is, whether red or black...

[Brandon Osborne]

Brandon, how does that work? I asked two different accountants about that and they shot the idea down.

I believe I asked something along the lines of "can I claim a certain amount of $$ per rat, based off of what I would have paid to someone else".

You need to carefully select who does your accounting. Feeding is a large business expense and is probably the largest deduction next to travel expense and the cost of new animals. Yes, you can claim animals too.

I've been a professional musician for many years. I know the items I can claim on my music income. Everything you use for operating costs is deductible.

[MrLang]

I got a D in accounting in college. However I still notice one thing here is a lot of you are counting the snakes that you bought and their cost as "money lost". Yes you spent the money by the end of the year but that is not money lost. You still have the snakes which will breed for you in the future years.

Which is why the thread asks who IS making money and not who might, possibly, theoretically make some money at some point in the future.

There is no value in polling people to see who thinks they might some day end up with more money from the hobby than they spent. Look at the responses for the poll. Obviously most people SHOULD consider it money lost.