Why everybody wants to Breed?!

[cchardwick]

I'm getting into breeding ball pythons because number 1: it's a niche market and number 2: you can make quite a bit of money doing it if you do it right. Just go to NARBC and look at some of the display tables. People that started with cheap snakes have a whole table full of $100-$300 snakes. People that invested more heavily up front have $400 - $8,000 plus snakes (some ball pythons I've seen for as much as $50,000 - the Stormtrooper, or $125,000 - scaleless). Typically the more you spend the more you will make, keeping in mind that the values of whatever you buy will drop significantly by the time you breed and are ready to sell, assuming you buy baby snakes. Of course everyone is buying breeding and selling so it comes down to supply and demand. I spend hours and hours looking at genetics and what has been produced already and shoot for that one of a kind snake that no one has ever seen before. And if you are lucky you will come up with a new morph that is in high demand that could change the whole ball python industry, like the scaleless and pieds did in my opinion.

I have another niche market that I'm into and love to breed them like crazy: Black Angus cattle! I invested about $50,000 and now my 'calf crop' is growing my herd. Also found out that I make more money selling hay than breeding cattle LOL. Who knows what will be the money maker once you get into a niche market, for snakes it may be that selling live rodents brings in the most money. I have about $8,000 in the snake business right now, several snakes cost me over $1,000 each. Hoping to make a good return on most. The more money you make in a 'hobby' the more you can reinvest in that hobby for better racks, thermostats, supplies, employees, etc... For cattle the overhead is ridiculous, tractors, fence panels, feeders, trucks, trailers, etc... the list goes on and on... If I had a few million bucks I could invest in a real nice cattle ranch and work myself to death LOL.

With all that said, you have to have an extreme passion for working with the animals that you choose, otherwise you will hate it and be miserable even if you are making good money. I'd say that having passion for a breeding project is #1.

I also strongly disagree with the dog shelter argument. Since dogs don't live past about 15 years just think if no one ever bred dogs for the next 20 years, they would all be extinct... It's breeders that keep the hobby alive. I used to breed birds, most of the turkeys are on the endangered list because not many people breed them anymore, it's a shame.

I have another full time job, the snake and cattle business are just hobbies and everything I make I reinvest in the hobby. I'm hoping some day to retire and breed snakes and cattle for a living (during my retirement LOL).

For me there is nothing more satisfying than having a hobby that you have an extreme passion for and that you can make some good money to invest back into that hobby to make it grow or to improve the conditions for you and your animals.