When does one consider a bp is to old to breed?

[mechnut450]

OK guys I have not bred any snakes for over 10 years roughly now. I am currently consider breeding in the fall my proven het pied and her daughter to a banana pied I got a few weeks ago. ( still in QT). I know I have to look into an incubator and all. At this point it still just consider an idea. But I know my het pied female was hatched in 98, I only bred her over the early years for 2 clutches. I bred her daughter 1 time for a clutch of double hets pied and albino. if i do breed i know i can get banana pieds, pieds and banana het pieds ( with the het pied) I also know the last time either of them laid eggs there was about 8-10 in their clutches and all survived. I am not sure what information changed during my time away nor any restrictions put in place for such deals on shipping, selling, and what not. I don't even know if ship your reptiles still a business ( need to look and see if i can recall my account log information.

[Malum Argenteum]

Yes, SYR is still a business, and there are a couple other similar options.

I don't breed BPs. But when I consider whether a female is too old to breed I look primarily at her overall body conformation, feeding habits, and at her past breeding history (whether she seemed to tolerate breeding well, which is a positive; whether she was pushed to breed early in life, which is a negative and is very common lately).

Whether to breed BPs at all, or whether to breed some morph or other, is worth considering too. Producing some offspring in a less saturated market (i.e. some other species) has a lot to be said for it. Right now on the big classified site there are 36,000 BPs listed, with plain pieds down near $100 (they're also showing up in rescues more frequently), and banana pieds for not much more. Normals het pied (which you'll get 25% of) lately are likely best looked at as culls.

Expo prices lately are much cheaper than online; at the last Tinley Park I was looking at the selection of a vendor who had a 50% off sale on all his BPs, and he went out of his way to point out to me that that was his starting discount and if I were really interested in something he could go lower.

[mistergreen]

I was just on there myself, first time in almost two and half years, and noticed this about the prices as well. I don't want to take away from the OP, but it is a valid issue to consider as well.

[Malum Argenteum]

Just to clarify my point: I look at market prices to see what the demand is like, not to see if any money can be made. I breed species that are a money loser every time, but that's not as relevant to me as whether I could expect them to show up in a rescue soon.