How much $ to get started?

[SlitherinSisters]

By the time I started breeding I had easily spent 3k on snakes and supplies. If you have that much right off the bat that will get you breeding. It took me a few years before I started breeding.

[WingedWolfPsion]

I tell people that about $20,000 is reasonable starting capital for a breeding business. That's a business, not just a hobby that pays for itself. You need that much to get your foot in the door at a high enough level to progress in a reasonable time frame. (It's not much good if your business takes 2 decades to become self-sufficient).

You need to be able to pay for all of the expenses for your business for the 3 to 5 years it will take for it to pay itself back and become self-sufficient, and then start making a profit. You will put in a lot of 'free labor' during the first few years. You will need to reinvest heavily from the money your business makes. Reinvesting every year is the key to building the business--without reinvestments, income will drop instead of rising.

The money I invested was from an inheritance. The issue with a loan is that they will generally want payments on it each month, so that may be difficult. This is not a business that will pay you every month.

You may be able to get away with starting out with 8 grand, but only if you can invest an additional 8 grand every year for the first 3 years (that's in addition to reinvesting most of what you make from selling offspring).

Above all, do your research--LOTS OF IT. If this is a business, treat it like a business. Be smart in your investments, don't skimp on quality equipment, and plan for the long term. Track ALL of your expenses, and keep careful records. People fail at this because they don't manage it like a business, they buy the snakes they want rather than the ones that will give the best return, and they don't anticipate covering the expenses until they're self-sufficient.
If you're not certain you know enough, or will like this, then get an adult normal female, a low-end morph male, and give yourself a year to try it out, and continue doing tons of research.
There's no 'get rich quick' here, but there is a very solid career if you do things wisely.

Obviously, if you can invest more than 20K, then you'll become self-sufficient sooner, and will progress faster.

The folks who tell you that you can't do it? They're usually the ones who did it wrong. Find out what went wrong for them, and you can avoid the same mistakes.

[bman123]

If you do it smart with $2,500 and you don't get screwed by the odds you can easily make all your start up costs back and cover your food costs too. What happens depends on the odds tho.

Next year I will see how it goes for me. Even if I hit the odds dead on I will make all my start up back and cover the cost of food. I treat it solely as a business, I made the best choices I could animal wise with the budget I had. built my own racks and incubator to save on cash while I was at it

[JUSTINxCREEZ]

Like previously stated it depends on how deep you plan on jumping into the hobby off the bat. i love ball pythons so its a hobby first business second.My rule of thumb is if i cant buy it with cash i dont buy it, i save and purchase everything when I can there is no rush. yes the hobby is changing and developing everyday but your love for the hobby is personal and you should feel happy at whatever point you are in your hobby/business.

[bman123]

I can see how people do it as a hobby. Sell animals to pay food costs and aquire the morphs they like for basically nothing after they recoupe the start up costs. I was referring to it as a source of income, either as a main or secondary source of income.

[adamsky27]

Don't forget that your females may not produce every year either. I've got a 2500 gram girl that has been locking up since late October and still nothing.

[bman123]

Don't forget that your females may not produce every year either. I've got a 2500 gram girl that has been locking up since late October and still nothing.

Thats why i say always have some big normal girls around just in case. They are pretty cheap so no reason to not have a few.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Right, a large number of adult normal females can save your butt. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket, so to speak! You'll want at least 2 good quality co-dom males, and a lot of normal adult females--that will give you a quick return.

If you CAN, get all of your animals from a single source, and avoid quarantine issues.

Quarantine is massively important, and cannot be understated. Plan for it. Plan to quarantine for 12 months. Yes, everyone's saying 3, but 3 is a token quarantine period, not a serious one. The big bad diseases that can kill all of your animals can and do incubate for longer than 3 months. Some have been tracked to incubate for as long as 10 months. Be safe.

Once you have your initial animals, when you do your buying each year, keep them and their rack separate from your existing animals. Remember to quarantine a rack from the arrival date of the LAST animal that went into it. You will probably want 2 quarantine areas, so you can begin the next year's buying before the previous year is out of quarantine. Remember that it's better to be 'too cautious', because 'not cautious enough' could result in the loss of everything. The larger your collection grows, the more you have to lose.

Anyone who's been on the forums for a couple of years has heard the horror stories of what can happen when quarantine isn't strict enough. Businesses have been destroyed, and lives devastated.

[ebrithil000]

do your research i bought a hypo/het hypo pair but then i got hooked and bought a pinstripe,mojave, and a spider my advice to you is get 1 or 2 good breeder males and the rest females females will take longer to reach maturity and if you wanna make some different morphs fast stick with the codom morphs then work your way into the recessives

[WingedWolfPsion]

Right. Look at the trends, too. Some morphs are holding their value much better than others, over the years.
Orange ghosts dropped quickly and dramatically. They shouldn't have, but they did.

Pieds are dropping very slowly. Lavender albinos are dropping very slowly.

The price drop on calicos has been slower than the drop cinnamons went through. Take care not to mistake a less popular morph for one that's more stable in the market--less popular morphs may be harder to sell.

The more research you do, the better your outcome will be when you're ready to make purchases.