Breeder loans... Who's done them, who's currently doing them, etc etc

[JasonG]

Just curious if anyone here would like to share their expeirences with breeder loans.

I am looking into options for this upcoming season as my spider male will be ready, but my pastel girl will most likely not be...

Id love to hear stories and or how you guys went about finding someone to work with. I'd really like to produce a bee sooner rather then later...

[LadyOhh]

I've done them, do them, and would do them again.

The MAIN THING TO REMEMBER IS THIS:

TRUST

If you can't trust the person you are doing the loan with, then don't do it.

It is all in the morality and the character of the person you are doing it with that you don't get screwed.

Too many things can go wrong that you and the other person cannot control...

And you need to trust the person taking care of the animals and the eggs to do the right thing.

[JasonG]

Cool Heather... Hey.. do you prefer to do them with someone locally or have you done them and shipped or recieved snakes from across the country?

[PythonWallace]

This season I put an ad up on here and on fauna. I ended up doing a loan with Jeff Flanagan from this site. He dropped off 3 normal girls to breed with my mojave male. I put the 3rd and final clutch of eggs in an incubator this morning. We got 18 good eggs. The first clutch should hatch in about 3 weeks.

I wrote up a contract and after we made some revisions, he dropped his girls off. We are either going to split the offspring or do a little trading, depending on what we both hatch out. It worked out good because he's only a mile or so from me. So far it's going great. Jeff's a great guy, and I hope this loan finishes as smoothly as it's gone so far, and I'm hoping we can work on a project or two this upcoming season. Good luck.

[LadyOhh]

do you prefer to do them with someone locally or have you done them and shipped or recieved snakes from across the country?

I've done both, and will continue to do both as long as EVERYTHING is hammered out ahead of time.

[rabernet]

I actually have two this season, both my animals have gone out.

A well written contract is a must - ESPECIALLY if it's a friend. The last thing that you want to happen is that a friendship ends of a mis-understanding. Make sure you're both on the same page about everything.

So far, mine are going well, the two people I have a contract with are great communicators, and they are both people that I know and trust - as Heather hit upon - there has to be trust.

You also have to be willing to outline the difficult stuff - what happens if the loaned animal dies? What are the conditions if that happens?

It's definitely not something to enter into casually.

[AjBalls]

I've been ripped off on one before. I knew this really nice guy who is well respected in the herp community (will not be named). I loaned him a female I have to breed with his mojave (when they were still $2,000+). He told me he got eggs and will return the female to me at the upcoming show, which he did. He told me she laid two (2) eggs. Was a bit of a shock to me as I could see her dropping 4-5 eggs easily. Next time I see him, he tells me the eggs were hatching and it looks like only two normals. After that I never heard from him again. Yes, I got ripped off on normals. Is it that much of a big deal? To me it is...

[Freakie_frog]

I've been ripped off on one before. I knew this really nice guy who is well respected in the herp community (will not be named). I loaned him a female I have to breed with his mojave (when they were still $2,000+). He told me he got eggs and will return the female to me at the upcoming show, which he did. He told me she laid two (2) eggs. Was a bit of a shock to me as I could see her dropping 4-5 eggs easily. Next time I see him, he tells me the eggs were hatching and it looks like only two normals. After that I never heard from him again. Yes, I got ripped off on normals. Is it that much of a big deal? To me it is...

What was your agreed upon way that normals would be handled?

[Larry Suttles]

I'd go without before I did any breeding loans.

[Tosha_Mc]

I have done breeding loans with friends that I have known for more years than I have been breeding -- these were all loosely done and came out rather well. Mostly they would bring over their females and when they ovulated I'd give them back. On occasion I have lent out my normal females for breeding as well.

In 06 I had a dozen or more normal females that were ready to breed and really nothing to breed them to -- I was working strictly with recessives -- so I entered into an agreement with a well known "good guy" that I had bought from before. I sent him 5 of my females -- close to a year later I get them back -- of the 5 I sent there was one clutch produced mostly normal males - one girl "died" but he wouldn't tell me when or how when I asked that he send her back for necropsy he said he'd already disposed of her -- but he did send me a "replacement". The other 4 that he sent back were all scrawny and 200 or more grams less than what they were when I sent them the previous year.

Needless to say I won't be sending out any more snakes on loan.