Does breeding pay the bills?

[Reptilius]

Thank You Everyone for this awesome thread. We had a similar debate about 2 weeks ago here in South Africa, among a group of the small recreational breeders as I call myself. The Conclusion reached was that what you put in is what you get out, for example, using South African Currency, I buy a pair of Classic BP's as hatchlings at R1000 for the pair, it takes me 3 years to get to the stage of the female laying her first clutch of 5 eggs, my cost up till now has ballooned out to about R4000, if all 5 eggs hatch and the babies are perfectly healthy, eating etc, i can expect to make R1250 off of them because Classic hatchlings now only sell for R250 each, I have lost R3000.

Take the same scenario and I purchase a Banana Spider male and a Lesser Enchi female hatchlings, they will cost around R5500, to get the female to the egg laying stage, cost will have ballooned out to around R8500. If the female lays 5 eggs, all fertile, all hatch perfectly healthy and eating etc, and I hit the odds somehow with a 2 gene Banana female, and a 4 gene Banana male, with one of the others being a 3 gene animal and the last 2 being 2 gene animals, I can get around R25000 if I get them all sold. I have nearly tripled my initial investment, even if I don't hit the odds spectacularly, I will still at a minnimum double my initial investment.

This is exactly what Deborah was saying, in the second scenario, I invested quadruple what I did in scenario 1, but made the profit instead of loss.
What you put in is what you get out.