making money from pythons

[Blue Apple Herps]

They talk about how Mojaves were going for $11,000 and how Spiders were going for $4,000. You can now get both for around $600 combined.
Think about how much that sucks for breeders who spent that much for these two morphs back in 04' to what they are now

But you have to think long term. Lets say this year I buy a '10 banana male for $15k. He first breeds for me in '12, and lets say prices have fallen to $4k for banana males by then. Lets say I breed him to a pastel female and two normals. The pastel gives me 6 eggs, and the two females give me a total of 9 eggs (being conservative here). Lets say I get one banana pastel that I hold back and a total of 4 other bananas that I sell (again I'm being conservative here with the odds being hit).

I'm able to sell the 4 bananas for $4k a piece and end up with $16k. $15k is for the investment in the banana bp, then lets say $1k for food, heating, misc other costs for that year. Now I've broken even with my investment, so even if in '13 I'm able to hatch out 5 more that I can sell for $2k (prices have fallen again), that's still $10k. Then maybe the following year your banana pastel is up to breeding size, so now you can make super pastel bananas or sell your original breeder male, etc.

Lets say even if you lost a clutch the first year, and only made $8k, then the next year you could make it back up. Or if he doesn't breed the first year and you have to wait a year, you could still end up on top.

Now, let me clarify, this is purely hypothetical. And by no means is it this easy. But if you plan carefully, and long term, then it is quite possible to break even or come close to breaking even. With bps, I'm to the point where they are able to pay for themselves, I'm not making any money, but I'm not losing any money either (now the cornsnakes, they're a money pit, but I still love them!).

So again, if people are looking to make back all their money in a year and be rolling in the dough, guess again, but if you come up with a 5 year plan, and are conservative and factor in all of the costs and potential costs and losses, then its feasible to at least have the hobby pay for itself.