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  1. #1
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    Help with Starting a business plan | Designing snake room

    So me and my wife have decided recently that we are going to attempt to receive a business loan to kick off our breeding program. I learned there is a thing called "self-funding" your business which applies to partially funding it. Considering I have racks, snakes, food, litter, water dishes (most of my expenses are these objects) I plan to count that as self-funding our program. However I am putting in our initial costs the price of 2 new racks, a large rack for the breeders and a large hatchling rack. I am also increasing the amount of snakes from the few we have bought to a solid 24 count. 6 males 18 females. Now I did my research and decided to go with ARS racks and I generalized the prices of new snakes via Morph Market average prices (although I will most likely try to get them cheaper over time from expos\other breeders). I also calculated the cost of 1 year's worth of food for my breeders (I assumed I would have males eating 1 medium rat per week and females eating 1 large rat per week). I guestimated a cost of litter for 1 year and included the price of a 500 pack of deli cups for each rack. I also plan to breed my own rats. I bought a few rats from the pet store as feeders and began breeding them. I currently have 2 males 6 females breeding for my personal collection. Of course that isn't enough to feed all 20 of my snakes but I don't have room to expand them at the moment. My question here is, I plan to have 24 breeding animals + whatever holdbacks I keep + feeding the babies until they sell. How in the world do I calculate how many breeding females I will need to support them?? Also, Should I switch from regular rats to soft furred rats? None of my ball pythons have issues eating the regular rats even though my reticulated python won't touch them. I was thinking 60 females would be enough to provide my snakes their own food source. If I have extra that's ok too I have no problem freezing extras or selling them.

    TLDR; Should I try ASF rats or are they going to be a pain from normal rats, IS there any other expenses I am not putting in here? I have Snake racks, Snakes, Rat racks, Rats, Food for both, Water for both, Litter for both. I am going to allow the extra electricity\water etc to be Overhead. I do not have a place with enough room to breed on a larger scale so I am considering adding a building to the business plan. Not quite sure if that will be worth it.

    Thoughts Thoughts Thoughts.


    On the topic of a Snake Room. I am trying to lay out my plan for how I would like to design the room. I know on one wall i'll have all the snake racks and opposite wall of the snakes I will have the rat racks. In the middle of the room I would like an "island" or large table to work on\put snakes on. I plan to have a plumber install an extendable hose so i can mist snakes\fill water bowls up without a lot of hassle. I also want a small storage area for extra tubs\cups\food\litter etc. Obviously I would need lots of receptacles separated between plenty of circuits so that I never have a power issue. What should I do as far as ventilation? I wouldn't want the room smelling like rat piss all the time, and I wouldn't want to completely suck the humidity out of the room for my snakes. Not sure how that would work. I am also not sure on an incubator. Probably just purchase a standing one and have it in the corner of the room. Is there anything I am missing or any suggestions anyone has on this?

  2. #2
    BPnet Lifer redshepherd's Avatar
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    Stick to regular rats, because few people (aka potential buyers) will have access to ASF's and then they'll have to bother converting their pet to regular rats.

    I'm just wondering if you've produced a clutch before? I'd personally start with breeding just one or two females for a season and see how well they sell/if you're comfortable keeping the hatchlings.

    I think it's important to start marketing/advertising and posting pics on your facebook business page for example first to start building an audience, even way before an egg hatches. It seems like marketing and building viewers and taking attractive photos is very important, especially if you're making relatively common morphs.
    Last edited by redshepherd; 09-01-2018 at 09:16 AM.




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  4. #3
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    Re: Help with Starting a business plan | Designing snake room

    I have yet to produce a clutch yet as I do not have an incubator. I purchased All of my snakes as babies except for two. I brought my Leopard Pastel male to about 750 grams and my Vanilla Pastel female to about 1900 grams. I tried for a couple months to breed them but they would not lock. I am going to try again in November after they gain some weight. Both went off food but I never caught a lock. Me and my wife started a business Instagram page and I post to it nearly every day. It's not very big but we have 189 followers and i've only had the account since April. I get a few messages here and there asking if we have snakes for sale so I feel somewhat confident I could sell most of what I produce. I know I am attempting to dive into this ice cold but that's kind of how I do everything in life. I have no problem learning and working hard to make it work. I didn't think of them having trouble getting their snakes on regular rats. I will definitely stick to regular rats.

  5. #4
    Registered User myadlosky's Avatar
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    Re: Help with Starting a business plan | Designing snake room

    Don't get too confident about the Instagram messages... I received dozens of these messages myself before I had produced anything. All of my babies for sale have been posted there, but they've generated a grand total of 0 messages regarding snakes that are even for sale.

    All of my sales, thus far, have been generated via Morph Market. An account there, that accommodates your snakes for sale, is absolutely essential in today's market for moving a large amount of animals.

    Sent from my ASUS_Z01HD using Tapatalk

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  7. #5
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    Re: Help with Starting a business plan | Designing snake room

    I have made one. Just waiting on some snakes to sell:p

  8. #6
    BPnet Senior Member Lord Sorril's Avatar
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    Re: Help with Starting a business plan | Designing snake room

    Thanks for the post. I found this very insightful to how a lot of people must view starting up a snake business.
    *.* TNTC

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