Thank you for the replies, I feel like I didn't get my intentions across correctly tho.

Again, I'm notlooking to make money here. I'm not even really looking to make much of a profit - just enough for the snakes to pay for their own upkeep, and years down the line be able to afford a few new snakes. Breeding was something I was considering nearly a decade ago and still want to try (My plans prior to breed got cut short, about a year into owning my retics some guy a few towns over let his private collection of all sorts of exotic animals free and Ohio's exotic animal laws changed... Specifically, the breeding and sale of retics was straight banned and you needed a license and liability insurance to even own one... And the amount of liability insurance increased with the number of restricted animals you owned, so breeding even for personal interest was a no-go). I fully realize this would neither be an extra income for me nor be a fast process, and I'm perfectly fine buying baby snakes and not being able to breed them at all for a few years.

I'm also very aware this won't be a quick process - I even stated in my original post it wasn't a project I was planning on fully completing this decade. I know it's going to take time to raise the snakes, learn how to properly breed them, and the whole time they're going to be eating and using electricity. And I guess for the ball pythons I really want I could just go out and buy the morph and be done with it. But it would feel so much more rewarding owning a snake that I produced. For example, I could just go out and buy a BEL right now for $400-600 and be done with it, and maybe in a few months scrape together enough for a regular JCP and just let the moonglow and ABETB be a dream I'll never achieve... Or I could go out and buy a Mojave and a Lesser ball python for ~$75 each, then when they're big enough to breed (in a few years) breed them together and hope for a BEL (If my understanding of genetics is correct with these morphs, it'd be a ~25% chance per egg). If I got one, then great I'd absolutely keep it and raise it. If I got two (male and female), I might keep both just to breed together later with the intention of selling all the clutches (and stop breeding the Lesser and Mojave at that point). If one or the other ended up just not being able to breed, honestly I'd probably keep them as pets and try again with a new pair. I wouldn't be buying adults to try to breed quickly and jump-start it. I wouldn't be ignoring the animals after I got the morph I wanted. Honestly I probably wouldn't even sell the adults, they would definitely be pets first and breeders second. I wouldn't be chasing the next big thing or flavor-of-the-week morph. I have specific morphs I want to work towards starting from the basics, and all the extras along the way are what I'd sell.

I didn't mean to imply it's easy to sell ball pythons. I meant they're easier to sell than carpet pythons, that have all the same hurdles to jump but with significantly less demand. I'm sure if I wanted to actually pursue breeding as a career or even a medium-scale breeding project for side income then getting consistent sales would be hard. I probably wouldn't be breeding more than 1 or 2 pairs a year tho... And I might not have to even sell all the babies. Like I said, I want to do the same thing with carpet pythons and am just choosing to do ball pythons first since there's more information out there and the base morphs are cheaper. I've seen a lot of people at my local reptile shows bartering, so that's a possibility as well. Also since I'm not really looking for a profit I could afford to sell the babies pretty cheap. I don't understand why people are making food out to be such a big deal... Since I'm planning on a very small scale operation, starting with 2 ball pythons would be cheaper to feed than if I had an extra $15,000 and could start with my carpet and ETB. And it's not like I really consider food a "cost" for breeding - It'd be nice to make food costs back, but it's an expense I'm going to be looking at if I want to breed or not since I'd still want to... You know... Own a few snakes. And the babies would eat very small mice which are practically a dime a dozen (OK, I know they're not that cheap, but even rodentpro sells small mice for $29 for 100) and hopefully I wouldn't have the babies I didn't want to keep for more than a few months so even a full 10 egg clutch if I had to hold them for 3 months and fed them weekly would cost me <$50, meaning I'd need to sell each snake for a whole $5.00 to make back my cost on them.

Also for everyone telling me to just go out and buy the 2 snakes I want instead of explore my hobby... They're very expensive snakes. Amazon Basin Emerald Tree Boas that are captive bred I haven't been able to find for less than $4,000. I'm very particular about the amazon basin local, since they grow larger (In case you hadn't figured it out from me having owned burms and retics... I love big snakes). The moonglow carpet python isn't even on morph market, but last known sold was for $10,000 AFAIK. I'd definitely want both as well... I've always loved snakes since I was a little kid, and the emerald tree boa has always been my favorite. They're not one you really wanna handle tho with very long teeth and very defensive attitudes, as well as being rather fragile snakes... So I'd want the carpet as well. $15,000 just isn't a realistic amount for me to save for right now, especially since I'd probably still end up getting a snake in the mean time. Even if it takes me 20 years to save up the $15,000 I need, I can't see taking on breeding as a hobby slowing me down any more than owning a few snakes (which I definitely would) in the worst case scenario, and best case scenario if I can get lucky with clutches and finding babies that end up being successful breeders it might speed it up significantly. Plus I just can't justify paying that much for a cool looking carpet python. I am really looking forward to starting with the base morphs and breeding them together until I have that beautiful snake I'm after, then every time I look at it knowing I​ made that happen.