To me breeding is about creation. I get a chance to make beautiful snakes, keep the ones I want and find the others good homes. While I don't really enjoy the sales aspect, there's nothing more fulfilling to me than when one of my customers contacts me to say that I've make their day because they've received one of my snakes.
Granted, the main reason I breed is for my own enjoyment, but if all I wanted was to keep snakes I could just buy what I wanted. Many of my desired morphs are out of my budget now, but I could wait until I make more money or they're more affordable. If I did that though, I'd miss out on all the joys of breeding, raising hatchlings, and sharing my love of snakes with others who are interested in them. I sold a group of double het Pied/Gstripes earlier this month and the other breeder was so excited to welcome them into her collection.
Like many here, I love animals and I've always wanted to work with them. But to get a little more personal, I've always wanted to breed in particular. At various points in my childhood I wanted to be a farmer or to breed domestic cats. Maybe if I had more time, money, and space I would have. So perhaps I'm just a breeder at heart and snakes were an easier animal to work with, given my current limitations.
Hell, if I had my druthers and tons of money I might even build a big cat sanctuary and breed tigers and other large felines. I'm worried about the future of endangered species. Granted, there's not much we can do in terms of releasing most big cats back into the wild, but at least breeding in captivity can keep some species from going completely extinct.
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