Does breeding pay the bills?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

It can

I will preface with this I personally I started out in 2006 wanting to produce a pied which where 10K/15K at the time, so I bought a pair of hets (only $1200) and at the time I thought that once I produced what I wanted I would sell everything else and be done but I got hooked and than my goal was to have my expensive taste in animals to pay for itself which by year 2 is something I achieved and here I am now.

Now will you pay bill or break even with normal pastel spider bumblebee etc? No those times are gone, and buy the time those sells you will actually overall lose money, now a lot of people will say I don't do this for money and I understand I started that way also, however no one wants to lose money years after years they want to at least break even and have a collection paying for itself, and not everyone manage that which is why you see collection sales all the time.

Now why do some people succeed and why do some people fail?

Well first a lot of people out there do not have a clue and they believe breeding snakes and making money is as easy as putting a male and a female together, that is the easy part.

A lot of people do not have a vision or plan (those are the “I have this mutation what should I breed it to”?), you also have the people that as a foundation for their breeding stock buy questionable and or low quality animals which are often Craigslist rejects, if you want to succeed you have to buy animals based on their quality not their price.

A lot of people do not know nor do they care to know the market (you have to know what sells depending on whether you are mainly an online seller or show seller, you have to know about saturation of certain mutation etc), a lot lack customer service skills which is as important as the animal you are trying to sell.

Yes you can succeed in this market regardless of the level you define to be a successful one, it can be having a collection that pays for itself, it can be making some extra cash, and it can be making a living.

As a breeder who does not want to lose money you need to make a smart investment and you need to keep reinvesting in your collection and upgrade your collection to be able to evolve with a market that is always changing.

So you can sell out of stocks, you can break even by year 2 and you can start making a profit by year 3 but there are many that do not achieve that and will usually blame it on the market crashing, well I have been in this since 2006 and the market "crashes" all the time however the reality is really their inability to treat this seriously and comprehend that it's not fast and easy money, there is a lot of work involved, and that it is more than putting 2 snakes together.