Who's Making Money Breeding Ball Pythons?

[HCC MORPHS]

Now if I would have sold what I kept I would have came out ahead but what fun is that.
Travis
Lair of Dragons

lmao!!!!! PRICELESS!!!!!

[KingPythons]

I never did it for money! To many flippers out here that want things for cheap, when I spent months saving checks to pay for an animal. Over all Ive made $200 in this game and im cool with it

[SlitherinSisters]

I wish I was making money doing this. I'm a long way from that right now.

[Anatopism]

Thanks for the reply Anatopism. I'm looking for a more detailed answer of how you're losing money. Was it the morphs you bought? Rodent and housing cost?

What about everyone else? Remember that buying snakes doesn't necessarily mean you're in the red. The electric bill, rodent costs, potential vet bills, and time are the only real losses. As mentioned above, you must take into consideration the value of your snakes! If you have females, you can probably get more than you paid for when you bought em if they're mature enough!

I bought my enchi for $550. She's over 400 grams. She's NFS, but I'm sure if I said I would sell her to you for $700, at least ONE of you will want her! That's more than I put into feeding her up until today! The bigger she is, the easier I can get that price... Eventually I could sell her for 2x what I paid for her...

Since I consider breeding to be a future hobby, none of those things really matter to me. My sister buys so many toys for her dog... She gets so many fancy decorations for her fish, and she spends extra money to get the best supplies.... She buys quality food for her pets... She doesn't stop to think "wow i lost so much money paying for my pets!" because they bring her joy. Well ball pythons bring me so much joy! As long as I can afford to take care of them and give them great care, I will!

Whoever is losing money, whether it bothers you or not, could you post why/how you're losing money?

I'm sorry h00blah, I missed your response previously.


We are making money off of our animals, but we've not had enough clutches yet to outweigh the startup costs. That's not to say I don't expect to get there, it's just not yet. We only just hatched our first combo, and have a couple more higher dollar clutches on the way... but we also will focus more on holding back some animals, and any animals sold will go towards upgrading to more morphs, and fewer normals, or necessary equipment.

My answer has also slipped a little more into the red, as we are having a massive and mysterious rat die off, what will cost us quite a bit to recover from. Until I start making more money off of snakes than I am putting into them (feeding, electricity, housing, equipment, etc) I will consider myself in the red. Yes it is an investment, but we are not yet in the 'making profit' stage.

I'm not the one to consider future potential as current gains--- I feel that considering future potential as money gained now, is like going out and buying a computer with a credit card, figuring you'll pay it off with subsequent paychecks, only to have things like your car break down, or you break your finger and desperately need that money for the hospital. Money in my pocket is money in my pocket, so until we are making more than we are spending per week or per month on average, I consider our situation to be in the red.

As this is a hobby we do in fact plan on profiting from, I do not consider our current animals' dollar amounts. They are all valuable to the project, so while one morph male may be $1000, this is not spendable money unless we are planning on getting out of the hobby, or that specific project. Until we produce a better snake to replace the first and assuming we aren't keeping the snake as at pet (our Mojave girl is one that isn't going anywhere ever), the only money considered is that which exceeds the costs going in to maintain the snakes each month.

[Billy305]

I've told my self from the beginning that I want to make enough to pay for the hobby. Of course I'm in the hole now as I havn't produced anything yet. I have some cool stuff though and am looking at about 6-8 clutches next season. Hopefully I will take a dent out of my snake/rack costs and help with feeder bills for the next season. Currently I have the males that I want including my girfriends butter het hypo and am only looking for females. I just picked up a proven pastel female and hope to grab decent size het pied or two.

A little extra wouldn't be bad though. =p

[h00blah]

As this is a hobby we do in fact plan on profiting from, I do not consider our current animals' dollar amounts. They are all valuable to the project, so while one morph male may be $1000, this is not spendable money unless we are planning on getting out of the hobby, or that specific project. Until we produce a better snake to replace the first and assuming we aren't keeping the snake as at pet (our Mojave girl is one that isn't going anywhere ever), the only money considered is that which exceeds the costs going in to maintain the snakes each month.

This is true. Though my enchi gal's value will probably go up in the next few years, she is probably never going to leave my side

Same goes with my first snake which is a normal female . She will forever be my baby, and the cost of her and her maintenance will be considered an expense