Adam/Other succesful breeders: How did you start out in the biz?

[krood]

I'm thoroughly impressed and amazed with many of you who make a (presumably nice) living breeding and selling awesome bps.

I'm curious, how did you get started in the bp biz? Did you start out with one and just keep acquiring more and more, gradually growing your business or did you invest a big chunk of cash up front to buy a bunch of bps at once?

Also, please feel free to post pics of your facilities if you like.

[recycling goddess]

from what i've read... they started with passion.

and it took over from there!

[krood]

I'm sure passion is what drives them but I'm more interested in the initial acquisition and development of their collection.

[elevatethis]

I'm sure passion is what drives them but I'm more interested in the initial acquisition and development of their collection.

Thats probably a little private, but the "big" breeders you are wondering about didn't get to where they are now without a sustancial investment of time and capital, and risk.

Its just like any other business venture out there. Most people don't make it big just dipping their foot in the pool...eventually it gets to a point where you have to decide to stay on the side and or dive in head first!

[krood]

I'm not asking for full public disclosure of the financial details or anything. I'm just wondering if some of them started out with a single animal and became so intrigued with it they started collecting more and more, then decided to give breeding a shot and that led to more animals until they reached a point where they realized they could quit their day job and go full time in the bp breeding biz, or if they just bought a big block of stock all at once up front. Or somewhere in between? I'm just curious.

[recycling goddess]

when i responded i thought you would read more into it.

of course it would start with one snake... they fell in love... got another. they bred those after a few years and were hooked... they started getting more snakes, different morphs and VOILA! it's a way of life.

the breeders/sellers we've seen come and then go are the ones who left out the passion!

(of course this all my opinion and can not be held against me in a court of law)

[recycling goddess]

http://www.newenglandreptile.com/about.html - Kara and Kevin -NERD

http://www.8ballpythons.com/about.htm - Adam 8 Ball Pythons

[tmlowe5704]

I am not speaking for Adam or Kevin or anyone else by saying this but many people do different things. Some people start out with hatchling normal females and buy some visual males and just raise the females up(Matt Fischer), some people just throw a buttload of money out and buy big females and males, visuals and hets. Some people do a mix. I personally bought a few larger females in the 700-800 g range and a few in the 1000+ range and I am only working with a male pastel this year and raising a het albino. I am by no means a big breeder and I don't consider myself a breeder anyway.

[Adam_Wysocki]

A lot of this is already in the about page posted above (thanks Aleesha! ) ... but I'll give you the quick version.

My father brought home my first ball python when I was 8 years old (27 years ago now) ... Since then, I can't remember a time when my room/space didn't have tanks or cages with critters in them all over the place. Over the years I kept everything from bugs to lizards to milks/kings/corns to pythons ... Had some success breeding in my teens (corn snakes) and loved it ... in the mid 90's I was keeping eight ball pythons in a huge cage communally like many many keepers were doing at the time (we know much better now) and came home from work one day to a big female on a clutch of eggs. I was hooked! ... She looked amazing on those eggs ... better than corns by an order of magnitude ... and then in my research of how to take care of the eggs, I found a picture of an albino ball python in Reptiles Magazine ... holy smokes ... I had to have one!!! ... I was just out of the Marine Corps and starting my own business and didn't have a pot to spit in or a window to throw it out of ... so I begged, borrowed, and stole from family and friends $5,000 to buy an adult het albino male (boy have prices come down ... LOL) ... from there, I started breeding, selling, and re-investing ... every dime went to new morphs for my collection ... In my real life I was having great success with my career, (starting and building companies) and my brother one day asked why I didn't do the same with ball pythons ... he said "You're so good at starting companies and making them successful, why don't you do that with ball pythons ... then maybe one day, your true passion can become your career" ... So I did, and it did!

Everything I have was built on the initial 5K that I borrowed (and payed back a couple years later) by re-investing it back into my collection ... now, over a decade later I am blessed to own a business where I can breed and sell ball pythons and every year becomes more and more successful.

I hope this is sort of what you were looking for.

-adam

[Ginevive]

... in the mid 90's I was keeping eight ball pythons in a huge cage communally like many many keepers were doing at the time (we know much better now) and came home from work one day to a big female on a clutch of eggs. I was hooked! ...

Oh! Is this where "8-Ball" Pythons came from?