Future Breeder - Asking for Advice from the Pros

[rufretic]

The #1 thing I believe this hobby teaches - Patience. From the time you purchase your first female with the dream of breeding you learn just how long it can take before she is mature enough and of size to breed. You learn about the 1000 gram wall. Males and females alike going off feed for months at a time. You go through the long breeding process..recording locks, trying to catch ovulations, watching for the glow, prelay shed. Then the countdown to the clutch. But then there is still the long wait in the incubator. Days 50, 51, 52, etc are agonizing as you wait for them to pip. Then to cut or not to cut...decisions. After they hatch it's getting them all feeding and thriving. Now how do you sell what you are not holding back? You set your price but you are not getting any interest...do you mark them down?...no...patience. They will sell, you just need patience and be prepared to house them sometimes into the next season. That's the advice I'll give and will say good luck and enjoy the ride

This is a great post! You make some really good points.

My only advice to add, that helps slightly with the patience, have more than one female lol. The more you have the better chance each year that you'll get a girl to go. When I first got into the breeding part of the hobby, I only bred one female and got lucky she gave me a nice healthy clutch. I thought, this is so easy, pair up 10 females, get 10 clutches. LOL, not the case! Not every female is going to go for you every year. So if you have 3 females and 3 don't go, it's a super frustrating experience and it will test your patience having to wait another year. But if you pair 10 females and 3 don't go, it's still a great season imo. Of course make sure you have the means to house and feed all those babies if they do go for you, no guarantee on how quickly you will sell them. I've also noticed how much quicker time goes growing out females when you are working with others, it takes the focus off any individual female you may want to breed in the future, instead you're focused on what you're working on that year and I've had females shock me, like how the heck are you 2000g already haha.

It is definitely an extremely enjoyable hobby, I think about it all the time. Good luck with your plans.