Why everybody wants to Breed?!

[cchardwick]

I'm getting into breeding ball pythons because number 1: it's a niche market and number 2: you can make quite a bit of money doing it if you do it right. Just go to NARBC and look at some of the display tables. People that started with cheap snakes have a whole table full of $100-$300 snakes. People that invested more heavily up front have $400 - $8,000 plus snakes (some ball pythons I've seen for as much as $50,000 - the Stormtrooper, or $125,000 - scaleless). Typically the more you spend the more you will make, keeping in mind that the values of whatever you buy will drop significantly by the time you breed and are ready to sell, assuming you buy baby snakes. Of course everyone is buying breeding and selling so it comes down to supply and demand. I spend hours and hours looking at genetics and what has been produced already and shoot for that one of a kind snake that no one has ever seen before. And if you are lucky you will come up with a new morph that is in high demand that could change the whole ball python industry, like the scaleless and pieds did in my opinion.

I have another niche market that I'm into and love to breed them like crazy: Black Angus cattle! I invested about $50,000 and now my 'calf crop' is growing my herd. Also found out that I make more money selling hay than breeding cattle LOL. Who knows what will be the money maker once you get into a niche market, for snakes it may be that selling live rodents brings in the most money. I have about $8,000 in the snake business right now, several snakes cost me over $1,000 each. Hoping to make a good return on most. The more money you make in a 'hobby' the more you can reinvest in that hobby for better racks, thermostats, supplies, employees, etc... For cattle the overhead is ridiculous, tractors, fence panels, feeders, trucks, trailers, etc... the list goes on and on... If I had a few million bucks I could invest in a real nice cattle ranch and work myself to death LOL.

With all that said, you have to have an extreme passion for working with the animals that you choose, otherwise you will hate it and be miserable even if you are making good money. I'd say that having passion for a breeding project is #1.

I also strongly disagree with the dog shelter argument. Since dogs don't live past about 15 years just think if no one ever bred dogs for the next 20 years, they would all be extinct... It's breeders that keep the hobby alive. I used to breed birds, most of the turkeys are on the endangered list because not many people breed them anymore, it's a shame.

I have another full time job, the snake and cattle business are just hobbies and everything I make I reinvest in the hobby. I'm hoping some day to retire and breed snakes and cattle for a living (during my retirement LOL).

For me there is nothing more satisfying than having a hobby that you have an extreme passion for and that you can make some good money to invest back into that hobby to make it grow or to improve the conditions for you and your animals.

[Galaxygirl]

This is my second year and I do it because it's an amazing experience.

[BeelzeBall.]

This is my second year and I do it because it's an amazing experience.

this is the only reason i would breed the snakes once, for the experience, i don't care about the money,\ id probably more concerned where my snakes end up at,I"m afraid they'll end up with somebody that wont take care of them, forget that.

and another thing, when it comes to breeding snakes i have idea what im doing so yea lol.

[AerialArtist]

I decided to breed after owning these animals for a couple of years and finding myself hungry to learn, obsessively researching and meeting other keepers and learning from them. When something in life grabs you like that, you have to follow it.

As for profit, I think anyone *could* make good money given the right strategy and a bit of luck, but I personally am not banking on it. If I could supplement my income as a result of some of my future projects, great! I won't profit much, if at all my first year. I'm really just enjoying the idea of creating some interesting animals that people will want as their first pets or part of their collections.

[highqualityballz]

You can make money breeding snakes, i dont know why people always make like you cant. Its an investment the more money you put in the more money you can make. Its not wrong to want to make money, you just have to be in it for more than the money.

[Jon14]

Well for me, I wanted to breed shortly after obtaining my first BP this past April. Although I do not plan to immediately breed BP's, I will after I finish college and after doing a plentiful amount of research on breeding them. Currently I have plans on doing a 3x recessive with albino, clown, and pied ball because I love the traits they present.

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[fLako0aGuiiLaR]

You can make money breeding snakes, i dont know why people always make like you cant. Its an investment the more money you put in the more money you can make. Its not wrong to want to make money, you just have to be in it for more than the money.

You need more than money to be successful in the industry like marketing skills and reputation!

[Jon14]

You need more than money to be successful in the industry like marketing skills and reputation!

^This. Having a good reputation and an understanding of marketing will make you a more successful breeder than spending tons on money on snakes. For example, few are going to pay high prices for snake from a random breeder.

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[O'Mathghamhna]

The more entertaining shadow of this topic are the ones that come and ask a couple questions but that's it. They don't answer questions asked of them that may help.

THIS. Those kinda folks drive me absolutely NUTS!! I don't breed, and I am one of those weirdos who thinks there are too many snakes in the world right now suffering from poor care and living in crappy homes, so I'm against breeding. BUT! I respect those responsible enough who actually care about all that goes into it, and really it's none of my business either way... But the guys who crawl into these forums and ask a question and then disappear are the ones I just want to throttle. And the most irritating part is that they are making money off people who don't know any better, so they are encouraged to keep doing it. Grrr!!

That being said, sometimes I cruise this place just to restore my faith in humanity. I have never stumbled upon a more passionate, caring, knowledgeable group of herpists. And I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who gets sick of the cretins who stop in once in a while to get a quick fix or easy answer to a complicated issue. I thought it was just me since I'm biased.

[Soord]

I decided to breed after owning these animals for a couple of years and finding myself hungry to learn, obsessively researching and meeting other keepers and learning from them. When something in life grabs you like that, you have to follow it.

As for profit, I think anyone *could* make good money given the right strategy and a bit of luck, but I personally am not banking on it. If I could supplement my income as a result of some of my future projects, great! I won't profit much, if at all my first year. I'm really just enjoying the idea of creating some interesting animals that people will want as their first pets or part of their collections.

This is where I'm at now. I made a while list of balls that would breed well with mine, have researched multiple ways to make incubators and even started reading about genetics.

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