Thank you for sharing your honest experience of being a small hobbyist breeder and i wish you good luck with your projects. It highlights the issue that selling babies in this economic environment is not easy, even if you have good marketing/networking and beautiful morphs at a competitive price. Often times people get into breeding, do some number crunching, but forget that selling babies is not guaranteed and then they severely undercut prices in order to sell them. Also, the babies will outgrow their hatchling bins relatively quickly if you do the right thing by feeding them normally, rather than underfeeding them. It saddens me when i see 2012 ball pythons for sale that still weigh under 200g. As they grow, you will need to move them to a larger rack, which is more expensive per cubic feet, and take up more space. They will need larger more expensive prey and pretty soon, you can find yourself being overwhelmed with the time commitment and cost involved with raising your babies that you cannot sell.

I only produced one clutch last season. I decided to hold back three and sell two. I managed to sell one so far, but if the other one doesn't sell, then i don't mind keeping her at all. This season, i'm hoping to produce two clutches because that is manageable for me even though i have more females that i could breed. I enjoy taking care of my balls and i clean them as soon as i notice they're dirty, but at the same time, it's a commitment that needs to be taken seriously and i want optimal flexibility in my day.

Again, thank you for sharing your honest experience. It's very much appreciated.