Too many snakes?

[FalconPunch]

Does anyone have a limit? Can you ever have too many, if you can still care for all of them? I've just been thinking. This is a big hobby for me, and I have always been a "collector" type person. I could easily see myself winding up with 50 snakes and wanting more. what do you do when you reaaaaaaally want a certain snake but already have all the snakes you have room for/ your wife will allow? Can't imagine most of us would sell our pets to make room, or would you?

Let's talk about it.

[spitzu]

I have 60 balls in a 10x10 room and still have room for 30-40 more. Limit has more to do with your ability to take care of them all properly.

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[FalconPunch]

Awesome! Do you breed primarily for commercial purposes, or just because you love them for yourself (selling some on the side, obviously)?

Do most people breed their own feeder mice with collections this large?

I think I'm limited because I really like the idea of "display" quality caging, not racks. I'm sure I'll have 10 or so nice setups at some point and then racks also.

[RyanT]

I always try to stay around 20. Anymore than that becomes less satisfying (for me) and I don't feel like they get the right appreciation and become more of a chore. I wanna love the time I spend in my snake room, not think of it as a burden.

[CLSpider]

I have right under 40 now and am ALWAYS wanting more. Personally, I love it and I wish I had more I could care for and hang out with.
It never feels like a chore or a "boring job that has to get done". This is something I'm incredibly passionate about and can't see myself doing anything different.
And yes, I also breed my own rats.

[Kinra]

I haven't hit my limit yet so I'm not sure what it is for me. To me snakes are one of the easiest pets to care for and I have a pretty good routine that I can stick to pretty easy for feeding and cleaning.

I have re-homed a male that I no longer had a use for breeding wise. He was a really pretty hypo boa, but I found a super nice hypo jungle to replace him so he went to a friend of mine who has a female boa but no male. He was also taking up room that could be used for a different snake that fit into my breeding plans, which was a driving force for re-homing him.

[FalconPunch]

Yes I guess that is a good way to do it. I could even get a friend into the hobby if I had to rehome a snake. So far I only have two but I want about 20 more that I can think of.

[Lolo76]

I've actually been thinking about this lately, since I feel my collection is TOO big right now - currently at 31 snakes, with the species you see in my signature. But my reason for wanting to downsize is simply lack of space, as I live in a 700sf apartment... which I also share with a dog and 3 cats.

There's always more room and time for the snakes, but it's the rodents that are my issue! I recently started breeding my own feeders, and for both space & smell issues I can't handle more than one cage-full (1.3 rats and their offspring). Thus I'm having to supplement with bulk frozen for the f/t eaters, and about 10+ lives from the pet shop... ends up costing me a pretty penny, usually from $15-30/week. I simply can't afford to keep doing that, so I'll need to either downsize the snake collection or find a way to accommodate more feeders. There's a chance I will be moving soon, so I'm just trying to hang on until then (as I'm hoping to get a bigger place).

P.S. About 4-5 of my snakes are already "marked for sale," as they're babies I produced and haven't gotten around to listing yet... so my permanent collection is more like 26-27, and I hate to think of re-homing any of them.

[DellaF]

I don't plan on breeding mine. I currently have 6. I would take one or two more and that would be my limit. Any more than that I might have to start breeding their food. I really don't want to do that.

[CliveBixby]

It just depends on what you want. If you want all of you snakes to have display cases and not racks then you would probably tend to have a lower number of snakes since your habitats are probably gonna be more expensive. But all in all it doesn't matter at all how many snakes you have as long as you care for them properly. Which can become a hassle at times. I worked at a zoo and tending to 40+ snakes can become troublesome at times. The best advice I can give you is as you family grows start keeping a care sheet. It saves you from screw up's (not saying you would or are going too) but after those long days I would forget sometimes which habitat I cleaned. Care sheets have saved me ass many times. But really limit doesn't matter. I say go for it!!