Opinions On Breeding Male Normal BCI (Aberrant) From A Business Standpoint?

[CloudtheBoa]

I am quite aware of all this and I am just as horrified by the thought of all of these potential disasters (and others) as anyone. I also realize that Boas are especially at risk for breeding complications. I love and adore each and every one of my snakes dearly and they get just as good of care as anyone could possibly provide for them in captivity. I even hold and spend time with every one of them almost every day, so they can stretch out and get a little exercise and also to keep them used to being handled. They are first and foremost, my babies. But, secondly, they are investments. I didn't jump into this venture blindly...



Exactly... That was the whole point of this post. I have been on the fence about whether to plan on ever breeding this boy or just coming to terms with the likelihood that he may just remain a beloved pet. The obvious answer to me was to only breed normals with Super gene animals. But, if I were to ever breed him to a non-super gene animal, I think a Hypo Motley would be an excellent choice. No, neither Hypos, Motleys or Hypo Motleys are worth all that much money, but they are indeed all very popular and affordable. And, as we have discussed, from a business standpoint, it is a wise idea to have lower end (cheaper) animals available for average everyday pet snake buyers. How many of those type of buyers are going to be willing to buy a $350.00 - $40,000.00 pet snake for their 12 year old children?

At this time, my goal is simply for this to become a sideline business that is as profitable as possible (obviously) without going too big. I very well may try to make breeding a full time venture in my elder years at some point if I ever get too old to perform professionally (at the level I do now, at least). That was very much part of my reason for pursuing all of this. I think this is something that I would be very happy and content doing when i'm old and decrepit someday (Aaargh! ) and I believe it could become at least somewhat lucrative. I am and always will be an entrepreneur and I have to be passionate about whatever I am doing. Hence; Why I haven't had a "JOB" job in over 17 years... At this point, I don't really want my personal collection to grow to more than maybe 20 - 30 snakes (including the foreseeable holdbacks I am shooting for in my distant and not so distant future). But, the further I get into this the more I realize how difficult it might become to keep my collection that small. That will depend on how well I am able to move snakes and whether or not I decide to take it to the next level, I guess. Right now, I sorta feel like I showed up late for the game and i'm sorta in a race against time to get some good projects moving along. I am 47 years old and due to the fact that the process takes so long to grow these animals up to sexual maturity (especially Boas) I am trying to get as many desirable pairs in my collection and growing as possible. I mean, I will already be 50 or 51 years old by the time I can even attempt to breed my little Ghost girl and at least one other pair of Boas I see myself acquiring soon...



Wow... No kidding??? That is very interesting to hear! I live in Pittsburgh, PA and between November and April the average low temperatures range from 21 - 40 degrees. The high temperatures during those months range from 36 - 63 degrees. Judging by your experience, it sounds like perhaps the rats would probably do fine in one of my garages, yeah? I have read elsewhere on this forum that you will see a drop in production with temperatures below 55 and above 78 and that ideal temperatures are low to mid 70's. What has your experience been with that?



I haven't ever broken down and calculated my actual feeding costs as of yet. I would estimate it's somewhere between $40.00 and $60.00 every 2 months or something, though. At this point all of my snakes are feeding on "appropriate size" rats every 7 days. I am keeping a very close eye on them (especially my Bloods and Short Tails) and if the shape of their bodies start to look fatter than what that particular species ideal body shape should look like I will cut the feedings back as needed. Does that seem reasonable to you?



At this stage of growth, all of my snakes are still in 28 qt. - 41 qt. racks (my adult Ball Pythons will remain in 41 qt. racks). Each rack only has about 5 3/4" of headroom for the snakes. It doesn't take much calculating to see how little headroom "a few inches" of substrate is going to leave the snakes. As for the future, I will be building larger 4' - 6' individual enclosures as needed. Even then, I highly doubt that I will ever use substrate. I don't want to be pulling substrate out all over my floor every time I pull a snake out and I do feel that it is impossible to ever get all of the urine and bacteria out of the substrate without completely replacing it every time and that just isn't feasible. I have been considering the possibility of experimenting with artificial grass. I don't know how many cleanings it would stand up to, but otherwise, I think it would be ideal. Have any of you ever tried it?

Thanks so much for taking the time to share all of your knowledge and experience with me, Cloud. I really appreciate it! >8>)

Glad to hear you've given some thought. That spiel is generally just the first thing I think of when someone mentions getting into breeding, as many folks don't think about it. But since you have, that's a great first step.

From what I've seen (and I'm not actually heavily into the selling market so I may be way off), boas up to about $500-600 don't generally have problems getting sold, even by the "average Joe." A lot of people are willing to pay for quality, even if they don't have plans to breed - after all have you seen the absolute ludicrous prices pet stores charge for their animals?! $120-160 for a normal boa, $800-1,000 for an average quality pied ball python...$300 for a BRB...it's mind-boggling. And those ones generally are low-quality cast-offs from breeders or turn ins from keepers who couldn't handle them anymore. Doesn't mean you won't have a higher sell volume with cheaper snakes, of course. Other breeders also do buy out litters pretty easily, especially if you have lineages in high demand or are in the right circles.

Yes, that's just my experience. Nothing more than plenty of bedding and some shelter and they did fine. Raised 3 generations of rats in this way. I would say that temperature range sounds fine if you're keeping them inside. Much warmer than that, and they start to get lethargic or overheated, I tended to give them frozen water bottles and cucumbers to munch on as well as an extra water bottle to help out during hot days. Luckily the structure I kept them in generally stayed comfortably cool even on a hot summer day.

Weekly should be fine depending on the species, but I generally start my boas out eating every 10-14 days. At a year, they go no more often than 14 days, and by 2 years old they're eating every 3 weeks. At 3+ they get fed every 4-6 weeks. I also feed my 1.5-2 year olds monthly over the winter (a period of 3-4 months), and I begin completely fasting them or feeding them half as often over the winter at 2.5-3 years old.

I've never tried artificial grass, no. I would assume it would need complete bedding changes every time it was soiled, though, as I don't see cleaning it to be a feasible task. For the particulate bedding, I don't think a boa would create enough liquid to fill up the entirety of the bedding in a 4'-6' enclosure. lol I at most pick up the bedding surrounding any feces/urates out to 4". EcoEarth is quite absorbent. If you ever let it dry and make it to the bedding before a fresh dropping dries out, you'll notice the liquid doesn't travel far at all.