Quote Originally Posted by GoldSheep View Post
Breaking even, probably not... Someone else broke down the cost, and I think it's in stickies, but roughly, first year no morphs...

3 years to raise a female on rats, first 6 months on pinkies, conservatively .50x4x6=12 (though there are some five week (pinkies are cheap in my area...). She converts to small mice. Say, maybe 2 dollars each? Til she's a year old? 2x4x6= 48 dollars

Converts to small rats, in my area that's roughly 3 dollars each. 3x56 weeks in a year. 168 dollars. Maybe less if she goes off feed during the winter... sometimes happens even when the temps aren't lowered. (My female ball doesn't for the majority of the winter, but my thamnophis did)

Vet costs... 100-400 depending on your area and your vet.

If you breed her in her third year with the weight of 1500. You're looking at a deficit already. Add in the male, and you get him up to 500 grams, and he's a normal, at 25 dollars, conservative bought as a hatchling, and a whole lot of feeding, and there is no way that you'll get all your money back. If you're lucky, your female is healthy, doesn't have impacted eggs, nothing freaky happens to the snakes in the process, you will at max probably get about 5-6 healthy eggs. Then you have to feed the hatchlings until they are sold. The selling rate for a normal is about 25-40 dollars max? The math isn't hard. You aren't getting your money back. Even with a codom homogeous male (which is expensive), your chances aren't always better. They may not lock, you may need a second male, etc.

Then you have the incubator costs, the herp stat, the heat pads/flexwatt, the electricity for running all that stuff.

Plus there is that saying about don't count your eggs before they hatch. Freak stuff happens. You make mistakes. God acts. There aren't guarantees.

I breed my ball pythons because I love it. Because I would have fed them and loved them anyway. Because I enjoy finding good homes for the hatchlings. And also because my female ball python takes it well. I hope to get her to a weight to do maternal incubation some day... I think she'd be quite good at it. She was underweight this and last year though, so I didn't want to risk it for her sake. Thinking about giving her a break, if she'll let me.
Thanks for the info. You have basically broken down what's in my head about cost. My thoughts were that after building and purchasing all the equipment and snakes I would not make that money back for a few years. I have a friend that breeds rats and mice that I can get at a good price from him. He actually gives them to me free right now (I only have one snake though).

Even if I don't make back the initial investment but the breeding years pay for themselves that would be awesome. I'm not looking to get rich. I'm not even looking for this to be my full time job. I really just want to do it as a fun hobby and because I love the snakes.

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Quote Originally Posted by S.I.R. View Post
If you decide to start breeding BPs, there are a ton of hidden costs like racks, tubs, food, heating, etc. It will take a while to build up your name and start making money. Now with that being said, I say do what you feel is right. For me, our business is a family operation and all of my kids are involved from the cleaning to pipping eggs. BPs have really brought us together as a family unit.
I agree, this is something my daughter and I have been talking about doing together. We are not looking to be a huge NERDs type breeder. We are only looking to be a small local breeder. May daughter and I love our snake and we have really spent a lot of time together with this hobby. Making money isn't really our goal. Breeding snakes and the enjoyment of it is really our goal. But we would need to come close to braking even. Braking even after the initial cost of equipment ect. If we never recover those costs that would be fine. Braking even during the breeding years would be important.