Difficultly level?

[ChelseaV]

Best piece advice to be given is RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH!

You can go ahead a breed your normal to lets say a mojave and end up with a clutch of all normals and mojaves. You are only doing it for fun at this point, so you don't invest in two gene females or higher end morphs. What will you do with the babies? Are you prepared to care for the entire clutch if need be? The demand for normals is very low, with the market being as saturated as it is with spectacular animals. And Mojaves may sell a little quicker but most people may pass up your one gene mojaves for two or three gene combos that have more potential.

So if you do decide down the road to breed them, really do your homework on genetics. Find genes and morphs that you really love so if by the off chance you can't find homes for them, you don't mind keeping them.

Then comes the expenses, something that you read about but you can't full understand until you are knee deep into the game. I've been building my collection for the last year and half now. I've made sure I've not only invested in genes that I really love and want to work with but with higher end, multi gene animals as well. I don't have the exact amount but I've spent well over $1500 on snakes alone, making sure I have the best quality animals I could have found. Then comes the equipment. With owning multiple animals, its easier to keep them in racks, so be ready to invest in those as well. I've gotten two and am already in need of another because all my snakes are growing very quickly. Heating equipment is another investment to consider. I've heard horror stories of people losing entire collections due to equipment short circuiting, etc. So invest wisely! Then there's the bedding and the weekly food expense. I spend approximately $26 a week on rats and another $20 every other week on bedding. You can use paper towels or newspaper to save money, but I just prefer actual bedding.

To be honest, after all this investment, you most likely won't break even for a while. Unless you initially invest in a higher end project like clowns, pieds, desert ghosts, etc... I most likely won't be breaking even for a couple years after I finally get my girls going but to be completely honest, thats the least of my concerns. I had the money to invest and I did, but not for profitable reasons. I wanted to create stunning animals of high quality and hopefully someday I'll be able to show all of you on this forum the product of my hard work and time and effort!

When It comes down to it, just really make sure its something you are ready to do. Don't become one of these backyard breeders that give the hobby a bad name. If you do decide to take the plunge, do it the smart way and do it because you want to, not to make a quick buck. Pick the best animals you can and make sure they are animals you are going to love looking at everyday when you open their tubs.


Good luck!

[StillBP]

My point on the single gene was ment to be single gene females that were not overly expensive to start a project. I stick by that. But i personaly would buy a power house (5x6 gene) male to put to those single gene females. And make it one that gives the best combos for what ever females you did get. If you keep your eyes out you could get a great male for less than a good female.

[erebus45]

See that also the thing I don't just wanna do it for the profit (yea that's nice and all) but I honestly just love snakes and would love to do it for a hobby(passion)..... If been doing a lot of research here latley I think I have the basics down for the genetics and things of that nature now I'm just looking for racks, how to heat the rack, should I build my own or just buy some, if anybody could point me in the right direction of those things I would greatly appreciate it

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[cchardwick]

Having normal is not a bad thing in my opinion, and there are many strategies to different breeding plans. You could use five or six gene animals like the example above, or you could stick with one high end male for example and breed to all normal females.

Here's one example, say you had half a dozen normal ball python females and you bred to a Super Bamboo. Right now super bamboos are selling for about $3,500. Every single snake you produce would be a bamboo and they would all sell for at least $700 (per current market prices). Keep in mind that prices can plummet (and usually do) so if you bought your normals and super bamboo today by the time they were old enough to have eggs / babies (about 2-3 years down the road) bamboos may be really cheap.

Breeding a pair of normals would be a neat experiment to just dabble in breeding for the first time. I'm sure if you advertised you could give away the babies on Craig's List for free or for a small fee. If you decide you like breeding you could always jump into it more seriously down the road.

Another option would be to use one normal (male or female) and pair with something that always has a super gene, that way you'll never get normal babies. And you could get normal breeders for a very low cost, even adult single gene animals can be had for cheap.

That's another option, pick up a couple adult snakes ready to breed, it will cut down your wait time and you'll have babies in no time at all. That's the strategy I'm using now, I have a bunch of baby breeders and am working to pick up a pair of adults that will hopefully breed and pay for my rodents while I'm waiting for my babies to mature enough to breed.

[ChelseaV]

See that also the thing I don't just wanna do it for the profit (yea that's nice and all) but I honestly just love snakes and would love to do it for a hobby(passion)..... If been doing a lot of research here latley I think I have the basics down for the genetics and things of that nature now I'm just looking for racks, how to heat the rack, should I build my own or just buy some, if anybody could point me in the right direction of those things I would greatly appreciate it

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http://www.apcages.com/

http://www.cserpents.com/C_Serpents_...K_SYSTEMS.html

http://www.reptilebasics.com/reptile-rack-systems

http://www.boaphileplastics.com/

http://www.herptasticreptiles.com/


The links above are for companies that make racks you can order and ship to your home. I've personally used C Serpents and I had a great experience and couldn't be happier with the quality of the rack I got. Others may have other personal preferences. All come with the option of having the heat tape pre-installed.

http://www.spyderrobotics.com/index....=index&cPath=1

This link ^^ is for thermostats to heat the rack and maintain the temperature. You can find other brands for cheaper but any day of the week i'd recommend herpstats. I just got one myself and its the best. Super easy to set up and I trust that my snakes heat source is being maintained properly.

[Juicebøx]

http://www.apcages.com/

http://www.cserpents.com/C_Serpents_...K_SYSTEMS.html

http://www.reptilebasics.com/reptile-rack-systems

http://www.boaphileplastics.com/

http://www.herptasticreptiles.com/


The links above are for companies that make racks you can order and ship to your home. I've personally used C Serpents and I had a great experience and couldn't be happier with the quality of the rack I got. Others may have other personal preferences. All come with the option of having the heat tape pre-installed.

http://www.spyderrobotics.com/index....=index&cPath=1

This link ^^ is for thermostats to heat the rack and maintain the temperature. You can find other brands for cheaper but any day of the week i'd recommend herpstats. I just got one myself and its the best. Super easy to set up and I trust that my snakes heat source is being maintained properly.

There are a few options for racks that were left out of the list above, so for the sake of completeness, I'll add them here.

I currently use a Vision rack (V70 5-level I bought it with a group of snakes). This rack is ok... but maintaining temps in a normal room (a room that isn't heated) can be a hassle. My VE-200 is set to 102°f to keep my "hot side" at 89°f.
http://visionproducts.us/vp12wp/?page_id=20

The rack I REALLY want is the Freedom Breeder 1040 rack:
http://www.freedombreeder.com/shop/reptile-1040

While it seems really expensive, it has a total of 40 tubs, so to get a cost-comparison, you'd need to get 10x "Ball Room Rack" (http://www.boaphileplastics.com/rhin...ball_room.html), or about $4,000 for the same number of tubs. The main advantage of the Ball Room Rack is you can scale it... so you buy 1-2 now, and just add more as your collection grows. Personally, I'm just going to save up and get the 1040 (if I can convince the Mrs. that I need that many tubs.)

[erebus45]

Thanks for all the links and advice I think I'm going to save money up and get one super ready to breed and get another normal ready to breed and start their so I'm not waiting so long but it's still all up in the air I'm writing it down as hopes and dreams right now but anything is possible I guess.... Once again thanks to everybody that has gave the info I needed

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