Well, in light of all of the interesting comments posted to my question, I wanted to finish the blog with my intention on why I wrote it.
In any business you need to start off with passion of course, but then you need to ask a few questions; 1) what is my budget 2) time frame in which you wish to recoup your initial investment 3) price point.
Do I want to start from scratch and use the 35k to buy my racks (Freedom Breeder) and roughly 30 hatchlings ( 5.25). This would allow me to watch them grow and begin planning the pairings. Plus it would be cool to walk into a large breeding facility with a little coin in my pocket. This is why I gave the scenario of Bumblebee male < Pastel , Spider, Cinna, Fire, enchi, which would be just 1 group of the 5 that would purchase with the 35k. If you take the standard average 4 per clutch (which is on the low side a little I think) that would NET me 125 offspring in the first breeding season Down side 3 to 4 years). However, one cannot expect a 100% success rate in the first time out, so I’m guessing 50% or in other words 62 ish offspring. If my price point average is reasonable say $400 spread out over the 60 hatchling I would make just shy of 25K. Now I would keep the ones I wanted, but you see the thought process.
The other school of thought is to spend 30K on 5 breeding age snakes in which if all worked out you could breed the first year. Your number of off spring would be considerably lower, but you would have (3-4 years) of breeding in comparison to the above mention theory. You might produce 10 viable hatchlings the first year. Some you might want to sell the others keep in house for future breeding. The number would be greater in the years to follow. However, if you are producing snakes in the price range that no one can afford then that defeats the purpose of going into business.
The reason I am posting this is because, I just simply wanted to hear from the experienced breeders on this site, what they would do if they could start over. Isn’t that what a parent teaches their children, “learn from my mistakes, so you can be further along than I was at your age”. If I have offended anyone, I am truly sorry. Some of the comments I was not ready for- MY BAD.
Thank you and Happy Holidays.
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