What do you do with the babies?

[onthefritz]

The thought of purchasing some kind of female enchi-combo to breed to my calico intrigues me. I would love to (at least once, maybe more) hatch out my own clutch and watch the whole thing start to finish. However, I don't currently have a desire to house more than 2 snake for years and years. It's not because I don't absolutely love my BP or have any doubt that I would love a few more, but my fiance isn't too keen on the idea of having more than the one male I currently have. I can't imagine that he would be happy if I raised a clutch and was then stuck with 1-8 hatchlings on top of the male and female I started with.

So my question is, what happens to all of the snakes that hobby breeders (or just breeders in general) don't want to hold back for whatever reason? Is it difficult to sell the babies? Where/how do you sell or auction them at?

[Masonic]

Some people hang on to babies for a while before they finally sell some sell with in a month or two after hatching it just depends. What if you hold on to one and sell the rest?

[stickyalvinroll]

You can always give them away if you can't take care or can't sell them

[Stewart_Reptiles]

You sell them

Wholesale or retail, I do both depending on the animal.

[Alicia]

I sell to individuals. Either online, in person, through acquaintances, etc. Sometimes it's slow, but patience wins. When I've tried to wholesale, I've honestly had so few babies to work with , I've been turned down.

(Giving babies away is fine if you're comfortable with it. Me, I'm more comfortable when the person is willing to pay some fee, even if, in reality, it only partially covers shipping -- say, on a normal male, for instance.)

[onthefritz]

Some people hang on to babies for a while before they finally sell some sell with in a month or two after hatching it just depends. What if you hold on to one and sell the rest?

I think holding on to one or two will be a "cross that bridge when we get there" kinda thing. When I decided that I wanted my first BP he was pretty stern and said absolutely not. He's one of those good ole country boys that was raised with the mentality that the only good snake is a dead snake. After about 4 months of persuasion and my dragging him to reptiday to see them for himself, he finally let me get one but made it very clear that he would be the only one he would tolerate and he wanted nothing to do with him haha.

This weekend is my birthday (so ive got that going for me) and also happens to be the weekend that repticon is happening in Nashville TN. Ive made several mentions to him that I want to purchase a female with intentions to breed her later and although hes not excited by any means, he hasn't shot it down either. I'm pretty sure he would allow me to keep a hatchling if I wanted but only if I agreed to get rid of one of the parents first. Either way, I was curious to know if most times people are stuck with the babies or if it's fairly easy to rehome them given you put in the effort.

[vangarret2000]

It depends on your area/ demand really. If you have people that want them you can sell them. If not you are stuck housing and caring for them. Either way you need to have the means to house and care for them for a least a few meals before you should sell them. Usually 1-2 months.

If you are worried you might get stuck with them you shouldn't breed them because there is always a chance that would happen.

Other option is find someone who will take all the babies before you even breed them. I just breed for the experience so I only do it if I have someone to wholesale the clutch to so I know I won't get stuck with any I don't want. Also you could just keep the one or two eggs you are willing to keep yourself from a clutch and not hatch out the rest of them.

But if you live in an area that you could sell them off then you shouldn't have anything to worry about but again you do need to care for them for a bit before you actually sell them so keep that in mind.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I'm pretty sure he would allow me to keep a hatchling if I wanted but only if I agreed to get rid of one of the parents first. Either way, I was curious to know if most times people are stuck with the babies or if it's fairly easy to rehome them given you put in the effort.

Depends on what you hatch, depends on your local market (selling online will be harder if you do not have a reputation)

Before breeding take everything in consideration such as the investment that will need to be made, hatchling rack (between 6 and 12 tubs), breeding your own feeders (hatchling get started much fast and easier on live) etc

Even if animals sell you will need to get them started this means you will keep them anywhere between 5 to X? weeks, they will need to be house individually, fed weekly etc.

Do some research and make sure this is really what you want to do because it involves more than putting 2 snakes together.

[Drake Moonslayer]

I know that where I live the shop that I buy my feeder rats from will take left over snakes and provide store credit towards feeders for the other snakes. You may want to check with whoever you get your feeders from and see if they may be interested in something like that so you are at least getting something out of the babies.

[onthefritz]

Before breeding take everything in consideration and the investment that will need to be made, hatchling rack (between 6 and 12 tubs), breeding your own feeders (hatchling get started much fast and easier on live) etc

Even if animals sells you will need to get them started this means you will keep them anywhere between 5 to X? weeks, they will need to be house individually...

Do some research and make sure this is really what you want to do because it involves more than putting 2 snakes together.

I know that there's more to it than just putting a couple of snakes together. I have been looking into what this will require to do it correctly for quite some time. This isn't something that I came up with just yesterday. I'm also not planning on purchasing a female that'll be ready next season. I am going to look for something similar in size (maybe a little smaller) to my 4 month old male. I'll have plenty of additional time to do some more digging and figure out if this is something I really want to try before either of them will be ready to breed. If I decide that it's not something I want to get into, then I'll just have a couple of pretty pets.

I also wouldn't breed them if I didn't have the time/money to keep them healthy until they found new homes (weather that was 2 months or 2 yrs). I think that's a consideration that too many people (not just snake people) do not take into account when they're breeding animals. More or less, I just wanted to get an idea of how difficult it normally is to re-home them when they're ready.

I'm not one for hasty decisions nor am I someone to make a decision without the input of experienced others. I can find threads on here all day long about DIY incubators, rack systems, breeding, genetics etc. but this was a topic that I had not run across yet and I wanted to see what others thought.