"Rookie Snake Guy" question

[redshepherd]

my son would LOVE to be able to earn a little money doing something like this throughout high school rather than making $8/hr pushing shopping carts in the grocery store parking lot!

I read through the thread and just would like to emphasize again that you guys may not be making big bucks with breeding BP's- after months or years of research/waiting for the female to become sexually mature or spending more money in the first place on a proven female breeder, feeding all of your adults, and even after a successful breeding, waiting for your hatchlings to sell (it's not as easy to start selling as you'd think, if you don't already have a reputation/fancy breeder website and with already so many hobby breeders out there building a rep) which may take a bit longer than planned... at best, you will break even with the money you dropped on the hobby in the beginning. More likely than not, it will be a little loss of money, unless you really drop the $$$ on the next rare and popular morph or a world's first. And even then, it's a guessing game for how long the morphs you're going for will be in fashion. Ball pythons are only a depreciating asset, and depreciating rather quickly over just a few years too, with the breeding hobby becoming more and more popular.

Pieds and BEL's (from my observation) have depreciated slower, but all in all it is a depreciating hobby nevertheless!

Breed if you love the animals and want to learn/for the experience! Because the money/lack thereof may not be worth it, if that's one's main motivation...

[phogg]

Good luck and even if you end up wholesaling dirt cheap it is still an awesome experience you can share with your son.

That's pretty much what caused me to seriously consider doing this. I'm completely guessing but I feel like we can at least sell babies for enough to recoup most of what we spend on the operation and really have a good time with it if nothing else. I'm always in favor of an idea is really fun, has some potential financial upside and fairly limited downside. If/when we pull the trigger on this, we will obviously start with only a handful of snakes and see what happens.

[phogg]

Breed if you love the animals and want to learn/for the experience! Because the money/lack thereof may not be worth it, if that's one's main motivation...

Yeah, the more I've read the less I have expectations of making any kind of real money doing this. My idea of big success would be if this just turned into something my son could do and make the same $4-5k he'd make at a run of the mill summer job. He'd certainly learn a lot more!

[phogg]

...waiting for your hatchlings to sell (it's not as easy to start selling as you'd think, if you don't already have a reputation/fancy breeder website and with already so many hobby breeders out there building a rep) which may take a bit longer than planned...

I agree that this is the most critical part to figure out. Any advice on what might be the most effective way to sell snakes as new/little guy?

[redshepherd]

I agree that this is the most critical part to figure out. Any advice on what might be the most effective way to sell snakes as new/little guy?

Most sell/build a rep starting from faunaclassified and some on the "Ball Pythons Classified" facebook group.

I don't have much in-depth advice to offer, but a fancy camera/photography skills helps quite a bit... If you're breeding more than a couple pairs, creating a breeder website and naming your business, with some neat graphics/website-building abilities also boosts a rep- using other breeder's websites as visual reference. Not that it's required, but these "image creating" aspects would definitely help and make you look reputable.

[Penultimate]

I would talk to your local breeders and buy animals from them when it's time to get additional snakes. That way they know you're out there. Establish relationships with them. Once you have some hatchlings, you could ask one of them if it would be ok to share a table at an expo in the future. After I bought from one local breeder several times, he told me that it would be fine to share a table eventually. I think people are more willing to buy from small breeders if they see the animals in person, so an expo might be the perfect place to start. My plan is to start by selling on Kingsnake, Fauna, on my own website and at expos. I've noticed that a lot of breeders on here have their logos and a link to their website in their signature, and I think that's an excellent idea if the signature is well designed.

[Jabberwocky Dragons]

My 9 yr old son just used his birthday money to buy a Ball Python! I have always been fascinated by snakes and thought they were really cool to watch but I never really considered owning one until my animal loving, biologist-in-training son decided his next purchase would be a baby male Banana Ball Python. Once we started shopping around and researching these snakes we both became completely enamored with all of the different morphs and the thought of diving into the world of snake ownership on a more serious level than just one animal as a pet. That brings me to my actual question. How difficult would it be to breed these animals as a hobby? How do you get started? There's obviously a lot to learn but we wouldn't rely on it to put food on the table. At the same time, if we're going to do it, I would want to produce quality animals that someone would actually want to purchase so that we don't end up broke with hundreds of snakes in our garage! If it worked out in the longer term, my son would LOVE to be able to earn a little money doing something like this throughout high school rather than making $8/hr pushing shopping carts in the grocery store parking lot! I've already learned a lot from reading what you guys have written in this forum. I'm hoping you can share some additional wisdom that applies directly to my current situation. Thanks in advance!

I read through the thread and just would like to emphasize again that you guys may not be making big bucks with breeding BP's- after months or years of research/waiting for the female to become sexually mature or spending more money in the first place on a proven female breeder, feeding all of your adults, and even after a successful breeding, waiting for your hatchlings to sell (it's not as easy to start selling as you'd think, if you don't already have a reputation/fancy breeder website and with already so many hobby breeders out there building a rep) which may take a bit longer than planned... at best, you will break even with the money you dropped on the hobby in the beginning. More likely than not, it will be a little loss of money, unless you really drop the $$$ on the next rare and popular morph or a world's first. And even then, it's a guessing game for how long the morphs you're going for will be in fashion. Ball pythons are only a depreciating asset, and depreciating rather quickly over just a few years too, with the breeding hobby becoming more and more popular.

Pieds and BEL's (from my observation) have depreciated slower, but all in all it is a depreciating hobby nevertheless!

Breed if you love the animals and want to learn/for the experience! Because the money/lack thereof may not be worth it, if that's one's main motivation...

That's pretty much what caused me to seriously consider doing this. I'm completely guessing but I feel like we can at least sell babies for enough to recoup most of what we spend on the operation and really have a good time with it if nothing else. I'm always in favor of an idea is really fun, has some potential financial upside and fairly limited downside. If/when we pull the trigger on this, we will obviously start with only a handful of snakes and see what happens.

Yeah, the more I've read the less I have expectations of making any kind of real money doing this. My idea of big success would be if this just turned into something my son could do and make the same $4-5k he'd make at a run of the mill summer job. He'd certainly learn a lot more!

Good advice from redshepherd.

There is a real financial downside and I'm sorry but your expectations are still not close to realistic. Don't expect to come close to covering your costs if you're wholesaling all of your babies "dirt cheap" and have more than a couple snakes. Why would you want to breed by just wholesaling off anyway? Spend some time in the sale ads and you'll see many people selling their entire collections, racks included, for 50% to 75% less than what they initially paid for everything. You can make money, even a living, off of selling exotics but it is definitely not the easy money some people think it is... they jump in whole hog and lose their shirt. Unless you are building this up for years and dropping money on priming a business for him, there is no way your son will make $4-5k in profit over his summer break. Maybe I misread that but he'll be lucky to make $1k in profit unless you are not counting all the expenses.


As you mentioned, the best way to start is with a handful of snakes (or less) and see how that goes. Build a website and get involved online and at shows. If you're serious about making a profit and having more than a handful of snakes, you'll need to breed your own rats. Prepare to spend much more time caring for those rats than you do the snakes.


I think getting your son involved in the hobby and breeding in an excellent idea. It's an incredible experience that can teach many important skills (animal husbandry, marketing, responsibility, etc.). You'll be lucky to break even though so I would not factor in financial success as a reason to start that path.

[phogg]

Thanks for all the input. I think we're going to attempt buy a couple of snakes that are ready to breed & give it a shot. We're going to do it for fun & try not to lose our shirts! If we get lucky & it begins to turn any kind of profit in the years to come, that'll be a really cool bonus.

By the way, I think I've decided to buy a few rats & see what I can learn about raising those guys too. Should be fun!