Becoming a succesful Breeder?

[PythonOutlaw]

There was a thread a little while back, Someone was asking about being a successful breeder and making money from it.

He got a lot of answers like this > "very few make any money from BP breeding."

Im wondering why that is, Financial reasons, Poor Advertising, or maybe its just to small of a market to get a good profit?

Would like to hear from the Breeders on this forum, If they don't mind sharing there experiences on the subject

[JLC]

I'm not a breeder, but I know a LOT of them, and have had the privilege of visiting the collections of some of the biggest ball python breeders, as well as some very large breeders of other animals.

The reason so few people make money at this, is because the "mark up" on MOST of the animals is very small compared to how much it actually cost to produce and keep it until sold. There are those rare morphs that bring in big bucks...but it takes big bucks to get those in the first place.

Anyhow...you don't have to sell a ton of snakes to show a small profit and be able to put money back into your hobby...but if you want to make enough money to live on, then you have to sell a LOT of animals. And to sell a LOT of animals, you have to HAVE a lot of animals! And owning a lot of animals takes a TON of work and costs a lot of money in overhead.

It takes a special kind of person to actually make a living breeding animals like ball pythons. You have to have a balanced combination of passion for animals...willingness to put in long hours doing menial labor...a strong enough character and patience to build a solid trustworthy reputation....and a very good head for business and marketing. And NONE of that comes overnight...or even in a year or two. It takes a tremendous amount of time and commitment and a hella lotta work!