normal ball bred with pastel vanilla ball

[bmwood]

This would be my first year breeding, but I have some expectations for myself you might can think of for yourself. this is just my thought on it, its not gods word or the 100% correct thing but it is my thoughts.

If you truly want to breed, I would spend money on snakes that will sell. Also you have to expect to be in the red for the first 3-4 years before you start seeing ANY type of profit, and thats only if you start with a solid starting collection of snakes. That costs money. To give you a run down here is what I spent, lost and expect to receive for my first year, and thats only IF my girls take this year.

$450 for a adult male Banana Enchi Woma
$300 for a adult female Dragonfly
$800 for a Orange Dream Enchi Fire I got young and wont be ready to breed for another few months.
$1400 for a Super Pastel Enchi VPI Axanthic hatchling female. She wont be ready to breed for at least 3 years, but with her being a worlds first she will pay for herself when the time comes.

I got a deal on 8 other snakes I was lucky( not really) lucky to get. But here is where I lost money, or gained depends how you look at it. I bought the collection of snakes with intention on only keeping 1 or 2 of them and selling the rest because they do not work with my collection. The Pied and the Black Pastel.

$850 for a 1.0 pied ($650 value), 1.0 pastel het clown ($150 value), 0.1 lesser pastel het clown ($150 value), 0.1 Black pastel ($50 value), 0.1 black pastel mojave ($125 value), 1.0 Super Mojave ($300 value), 1.0 Super Pastel Banana ($250 value), 0.1 lesser pastel ($150 value) so in total my $850 investment potentially got me $1750 in snake value.

Now it sounds like a good deal, but here is what you could possibly run into, where it costs you money.

Within 2 weeks of me having them, these following ones died because of ill care by the previous owners and they came with bacteria and parasites.
The Pied (- 650)
both het clowns (-300)
black pastel (-50) so that is $1000 I lost on the deal. So I paid $850 for $750 worth of snake value. I lost $50, but wait it gets better. Being that I am financially able to handle these situations here is more money I lost to make sure my other snakes were healthy and would survive.

$100 vet visit for each snake that did not die from the collection. So - $400 to make sure they were still good.
$100 vet visit for my other 2 snakes that didnt come from them but they were in the same quarantine room. So -$200
$200 per snake to have a necropsy done to figure out what the hell happened and why 4 snakes died on me so I knew what to look for. So -$800

So I wound up in the red $1450 on that so called good deal. We are now 5 months into me starting this and im already in the red $1450 for the bad transaction and $2950 for other snake purchases. So I am now -$4400 doing this starting out. When you count the cost of their enclosures, food ive been giving them, incubator I am probably close to $8,000 invested into this trying to start as a business, its only been 5 months. Now that number would be a lot lower if I didnt put out so much in vet bills, but I did what was best for he snakes, because they are lives I decided to take on responsibility for. I am JUST NOW pairing my first snakes.

I am pairing my Banana Enchi Woma and my Dragonfly. Lets say Im lucky and she lays 5 eggs. I spent $750 on the price of the 2 snakes. so 750/5 is $150. So each egg cost me $150 to make. So to make money on this pairing I would need to sell each egg for at least $155. Because I invested in some good quality snakes most of the combos I can make on the low end are valued $200 or more, there are few combos that will sell for less then $200, and even fewer that will sell for less then $150. So in my eyes those two snakes were a good investment I can make my money back on them with the first clutch, unless im seriously unlucky. Lets say I sell each egg for $200, I made $1000 on the eggs - $750 on the money spent on the parents. I made $250 yay, but wait im still in the red $7750.

in October my money maker male will be ready, the OD Enchi Fire. I plan on pairing him with a Enchi Yellow Belly i will be purchasing when she becomes available in september. this clutch can make me lots of money, or I could lose lots of money. I will be paying $500 for the Enchi Yellow belly, so im $1200 invested in animals. Lets say she lays 5 eggs. each egg cost me $240 to make. Once again because of the genes I selected to work with the average price for any of the possible combinations is $350, $200 on the low end if I dont get any single genes, and $1000+ on the high end if the snake gods are in my favor. so lets keep it an easy $350, because OD mixed with any of the genes is a 300-400 dollar snake. Thats $1750 for the clutch, Thats if I dont keep anything as a hold back. So I made $550 on this clutch. that number would go up or down depending on what is produced. I am still $7250 in the red in my first year. Thats producing 2 quality morph clutches. Good news is on their next clutch if I decide to pair the same 2 again then it would be all profit and thats where you start seeing your return. For my final clutch of the year will be a special one. If things play in my favor I will be purchasing 2 new morphs that will sky rocket my earning potential.

1.o Super Orange Dream for $450 and a 0.1 Lightning Pied for $4000. Both breed ready, which is why im paying so much. So now im in the red $11700 my first year in. The first clutch from these two will only net me $300 per egg no matter what. No matter what they will be OD dh Pied and Axanthic. so 5 eggs means $1500. Still less then the $4450 I spent to get the parents, so now I am in the red $10500. Now if the snake odds god smiles on me and gives me just 1 male from that clutch, i will keep the male and therefor my negative money went back up to $10800. the following year will be my second year of breeding. and this is where your initial morph investment will make or break you doing this as a business. Because I spent so much on my morphs and made sure they were quality.I should come close to being in the black by the end of my second year while only producing 4-5 clutches. Year 3 for me will still be investment period as well as profit, that snake I spent $1400 on my first year will be ready and I can start seeing a return there as well. anything I make from the 4-5 clutches that year will go straight to new quality morphs, and If I am able to start regularly producing OD lightening Pieds, that will be the basis of turning this into a profitable business. From that point on its about staying on top of the newest morphs. thats being productive in less then 5 years.

But thats if the odds are with me and I dont have any major set backs. but to do that I had to invest an initial $7850 up front on just snakes alone. to see the earnings 4 years down the line.