Who's Making Money Breeding Ball Pythons?

[Anatopism]

Thanks for making the post, Slim !

I haven't voted because I haven't bred any of my snakes yet! As of right now, they're all just growing and eating my money . However, since I have mostly girls, their prices are probably going to be higher than what I initially spent on them... I got some sweet deals on a few of them, and if I sold them even today, I could EASILY get my money back...

As I'm typing this reply, there are a total of 101 votes.

I consider a "goal" to be at least "I'm breaking even across the board". Everything from that point and above are positive outcomes for breeding in my opinion.

There are 50 votes for the positive side from "breaking even" to being able to profit from breeding. That leaves 51 people who are losing money in this.

For the people who wish they could make a profit, I'm curious to know why you're losing money . Poor choices? Bad luck?

For the people who don't care because it's a hobby, why are you guys losing money? Are you guys just holding back too many animals? I'm curious.

Personally, if you're producing what you like, and you're having fun hatching out baby ball pythons, that's a win even if you're not making money! I envy all of you who have successfully hatched even 1 baby ball python! That's something I've been dreaming about for a couple years now . I would pay a lot more money than I have to be able to have that feeling... To produce something that you love, or something that impresses you would just be icing on the cake..

I voted for the last option, but only because we are nearing our second year of breeding... still very new and fresh to this hobby, and too soon to make any sort of real money. Sure we've sold hatchlings, but still very much in the red for money put in to get where we are currently. Lots of promise, but too soon to say whether we are doing things correctly!

To supplement the hobby, I have a couple other projects going... We are investign in building a couple more rat racks - so that we are not only producing just enough rats for what we have, but a surplus to supply the pet store down the road. Also starting up a couple cockroach colonies, to sell as feeders, as there are no other places for invert feeders in our area. Working at Petco for 5 years before where I am at now, I can appreciate how much money is made on crickets alone. Knowing that there is nobody else in the area that has crickets other than petco/petsmart, and especially nobody with cockroaches, which IMO are better for a number of reasons... there is some potential for a few extra $$$ to be made. Low cost/maintenance, and a couple extra dollars here and there never hurts.