I need some reassurance here..

[Mike Cavanaugh]

If you are talking about just breaking even on the keeping of snakes, that is very doable. The key to that is breeding your own feeders, and selling extras.

Right now my entire collection is "free" to keep because of my feeder production. I produce enough feeders to feed my entire collection, and have enough left over to sell to cover the costs of the rat feed and bedding.

Considering I use newspaper for substrate for my snakes, there are no other costs... except for electricity and water.

to expand on this, once you get to the point where I am at where the keeping of your collection is free, then obviously in time with breeding you WILL get all the money back that you have spent on the snakes... and then some.

One huge thing to consider in all this though is the TIME SPENT. If I were to put a price tag on the work hours I have to put into it, I could honestly say that my snakes cost me a small fortune every month. This is where you being into it for the right reasons kick in. Even if you are like me and totally and completely in love with your animals, and it is your number one hobby, there are still times when cleaning the tubs / maintaining the feeders is NOT fun. It at times is a total pain. If I wasn't totally obsessed with my pets, I don't see any way possible that I would have gotten as far into it as I am today.

Hope this helps.