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Is an ASF colony worth it for around 10 BPs?
I am new to the herp world but not to breeding animals and I'm considering starting my own colony for convenience/cost/ease of feeding. I'm trying to do as much research as I can so I can begin planning everything out as soon as I can.
I have 1 normal BP now since I'm living with the in-laws till January(no room) but after that my wife and I are moving into our own house and will have room for a lot more. She wants to start breeding birds(another story) and I want to breed snakes. We want to start an exotic pet business eventually.
Enough backstory, next year when it warms up enough to ship I plan on getting 2 YBs, a spider, a pastel and 3-5 normal ready to breed females next year. This means my current unsexed normal(will be sexed soon) and another 7-9 so lets say 10 ball pythons total to make this easy. Obviously I could buy all f/t online or just go grab a bunch of live feeder rats/mice from a local Petco but I'm wondering if I could do a few tanks of 1.3 or 1.4 ASFs and feed all my snakes that way. Would 2 or 3 tanks of 1.3 or 1.4 be enough for the snakes and 5 clutches? More?
As for buying f/t online, from American Rodent Supply online 10 medium rats is $20 so at one rat a week per snake that means $80 a month so around $1,000 a year if I buy all at once. This doesn't factor in if I get some really fat BP females that need bigger food or the pups/weanlings I'd have to buy for the babies so probably more like $1,500. That's alot of money to drop at once on f/t. Then if I get a snake that won't eat f/t I have to go spend MORE money on live food locally... This is why I'm so interested in breeding my own food.
I know starting up I'd have to buy the first ASFs, tanks, make food hoppers, buy water bottles, substrate, hides etc... After that what would roughly be the food/substrate costs to feed a colony big enough for 10 snakes plus probably 4-5 clutches the first year?
Sorry for all the noobness of this thread but I'm trying to educate myself in all aspects of the hobby for my own benefit, but more importantly, for healthy reptiles. I do know that ASFs are how I want to go if I do breed due to the smell, litter size, ease of breeding and ease of feeding finicky snakes.
Thanks in advance for the help!
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