cheap morphs worth breeding

[BallChick]

I know what you're trying to say, you want the most for what you can afford. I understand that. If you mention "worth" concerning your reptiles on a forum such as this, people are going to jump down your throat. For $300, the only thing you're going to be able to get that's breeding size is a normal female and a Pastel male. For $500, you could do normal female and male Bumblebee if you can find one for cheap. You don't want cheap though, because cheap is average. Average bred with average produces...well...average. If you're truly interested in the hobby as a hobby and not a means of income, invest in quality animals. You'll never really make your money back, but if you're doing it for the love of the animals it won't matter. I say, just save up your money. Buy several female and a couple of male morphs as babies that you want to breed eventually. Pastel, Lesser, Spider, Mojave, Het Pied and Het Albino are all good choices.

[Birt]

[WingedWolfPsion]

If a person loves reptiles, and has some experience with them, I do not think there is a 'wrong reason' to get into breeding ball pythons, unless it is 'to make gobs of money super fast'. I think it's ridiculous to suggest that people who breed ball pythons in order to make money are doing it 'for the wrong reasons', because if money were not involved, none of the professional breeders would be in business.

So, I'm going to give the OP the benefit of the doubt, and make some actual suggestions.

First, don't skimp on your equipment. You can't make do with an aquarium and a heat lamp if you're breeding. Happy females breed, unhappy ones skip a year and reabsorb their follicles. So, get yourself a small rack, and get a herpstat Quad to control it. Why a quad? Because you need to control a hatchling rack and an incubator as well, so you might as well save a bit of money thinking ahead.

Now that you have that taken care of, you can shop for your snakes. Unless you buy local, shipping is going to factor in, so you're going to want to get them both from the same person. You're looking for an adult normal female, and a yearling male. With only $300, you really have maybe $210 to spend on animals...so you're probably looking at a male pastel or male yellowbelly.
If you raise what you can spend to $500, then I recommend you get a good male mojave. Mojaves are always in high demand on the market, because they can make potions.

Forget about the recessives, there is never a point in getting a het male unless you have het females (and even then, you're better off with a visual male--and some of the visuals have come down to a mere $150 as hatchlings, now). Possible hets sell for about the same price as normals, so why bother with that? Even 100% hets aren't worth very much, unless they're something at least on the level of lavender albino.

Now, the reality check--you will probably not make back your equipment investment anytime soon unless you put considerably more money into the projects in the next couple of years. You can't start with a few animals, and breed them. What you make from producing a clutch of mojaves is probably going to be around $650, average odds. Subtract feeding your hatchlings, feeding your adults for 1 year, electricity, bedding, cleaning supplies...and what do you have left? Not much. Your pair of ball pythons will eat maybe $96 in rats over the course of a year. Your 6 hatchlings will eat maybe $48 worth before you sell them all. Cypress costs perhaps $3.00 per bag, and you'll need at least one bag per month. So, that's $36. You have $470 left. That maybe covers the cost of your thermostat and incubator--if you go with a hovabator. If you assume your time is worth absolutely nothing at all, and you don't recoup the cost of equipment, that's enough to pick up a couple more normal females, but next year, mojaves will probably be going for $125 for males, and $150 for females.

I think you can see how very slowly this will go. It will take you somewhere between 3 and 5 years to cover the costs of your equipment to get started. After that, you can make a little money--but not very much.

If you want to actually make money, you need substantially more for your initial investment. Just as with any other business or investment, you have to have money before you can make money.

[snakesRkewl]

I get quite a giggle every time I hear someone say "you'll never make your money back...
If one has the head "in the game" so to speak, it's very easy to make money at breeding ball pythons.
In one of if not the worst economy in 70 years I sold everything I had to sell and could have easily sold double what I had last year.
Does it take an initial investment of more than $300-$500, oh yeah closer to 10X that or more, but in one breeding season that investment was returned several times over and then some

It takes money to make money, that said if you don't have the passion it aint going to happen.

[JayCee]

Are you planning on raising your own rats or buying them ?? That is a big question that needs to be answered before you even buy your first snake IMO.

Visit your local reptile show. You can meet some local ball python breeders that will give you a hand getting started. You might even find some used racks for sale. A good source for rats.

[chimp54321]

I just bought a couple of nice balls off someone that is moving that was actually planning on breeding them. One normal female and a beautiful pastel, both snakes look very healthy and are about two and a half years of age. They came with a 40 gallon breeder and a 55 gallon tall with lights and such. I plan on making a rack and an incubator once they get nice and acclimated to their new environment. As far as breeding rats, I could see myself doing that in the future when I'm feeding 10 or more snakes but for right now I don't mind dropping some money into it. I figured if I can sell a few of them that would be cool and if I can't that would be cool too.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm defiantly going to the Herp show in NH in September and I will defiantly be yanking info out of breeders that look like they have a healthy business with healthy snakes. That's a really good idea to check out if any breeders are getting rid of any old racks. Thanks again for all the response I can see myself visiting this site regularly because I always have questions and I'm always interested in learning more!

[BallChick]

Congrats on the pick ups. I would sell the tanks and put them in individual tubs until you can afford a rack. BPs don't tend to do well in huge tanks, in my experience... Just stresses them out and they are nearly impossible to hold humidity in.

[chimp54321]

Congrats on the pick ups. I would sell the tanks and put them in individual tubs until you can afford a rack. BPs don't tend to do well in huge tanks, in my experience... Just stresses them out and they are nearly impossible to hold humidity in.

I couldn't agree more. They are a massive monstrosity in my room. I got them in their for now but plan on moving them into tubs soon. What size tubs do you use and where do you get them. I also need a thermostat and was thinking about buying a herpstat and some heat tape.

[BallChick]

I have two 32 qt racks and one 28qt rack. I keep females in 32qt and males/younger females in 28 qt. Some larger females do better in 41qt.

[chimp54321]

I have two 32 qt racks and one 28qt rack. I keep females in 32qt and males/younger females in 28 qt. Some larger females do better in 41qt.

Just picked up up 2 28qt tub's. Flex watt and thermostat are coming on Wednesday. Picking up a cheap book shelf tomorrow to build a rack out of. The guy I got them from said they were fed last week and one only eats once a month and the other once every two weeks and I picked them up on Saturday. I might try and feed them tomorrow. The tank's their in now are just silly as far as trying to keep the temp and humidity and I'm not going to put any effort into making the tank right because they'll be out of their Wednesday.

- - - Updated - - -

Once these guy's get set up in some nice tub's their going to thrive and hopefully eat more often.