Economics of Breeding Questions

[fallupinreverse]

I'm rather new to the reptile world (Got my Cal King only about 2 months ago) and as such I know very little about breeding, but I had a few basic questions about the actual economics of breeding.

How did most of you get started with breeding? What is the typical start-up cost of a breeding project for a new breeder? What sort of day jobs do breeders have? How does one start out as a breeder - which is to say where do you start selling at? How much money does one actually make with breeding that is profit (I understand this varies based on how much one spends on certain animals, but still general answers would be greatly appreciated)? Is this more of a hobby than an actual money-making process for most breeders?

I'm quickly falling in love with reptiles in general, and I doubt I would ever be able to afford breeding, however I'm fascinated by people that do breed. Having an entire rack full of reptiles would be so amazing, not to mention those who have entire rooms dedicated to breeding programs!

I know I jumped around a lot in this post, but hopefully I got my point across well enough. I just don't know hardly anything about breeding reptiles, and I would really appreciate how breeders manage it!

[Fearless]

I'm rather new to the reptile world (Got my Cal King only about 2 months ago) and as such I know very little about breeding, but I had a few basic questions about the actual economics of breeding.

How did most of you get started with breeding? Got addicted to cool stuff like bees and couldn't afford them so started with the ingredients became addicted and now just want one of everything, including stuff that hasn't been bred yet!What is the typical start-up cost of a breeding project for a new breeder? I started out with a few hundred dollars for each snake i could afford at the time and now have about ten grand invested over the last couple years, this includes making a room in my house just for snakes, racks, humidifiers, heating/cooling. (Dont even wanna think about the food costs for everything either!)What sort of day jobs do breeders have? I do accounting during the day and bartend at nightHow does one start out as a breeder - which is to say where do you start selling at? Started selling to friends, have hit on local classifieds, website, and eventually will do shows.How much money does one actually make with breeding that is profit (I understand this varies based on how much one spends on certain animals, but still general answers would be greatly appreciated)? Cant answer this cuz i definately haven't seen profits and sure I wont for quite some time, its more for the pleasure it gives me to see a lock or get eggs or see what hatchesIs this more of a hobby than an actual money-making process for most breeders? For myself definately a hobby, its way to much work just to hope for money.

I'm quickly falling in love with reptiles in general, and I doubt I would ever be able to afford breeding, however I'm fascinated by people that do breed. Having an entire rack full of reptiles would be so amazing, not to mention those who have entire rooms dedicated to breeding programs!

I know I jumped around a lot in this post, but hopefully I got my point across well enough. I just don't know hardly anything about breeding reptiles, and I would really appreciate how breeders manage it!

[nova2door]

start up cost depends on what you want to produce
you can start with normals or hets to save money
you can post the babies on the internet, newspaper, ect.
profit, whats that? lol
don't think you will get rich raising snakes those days are over
i haven't produced any babies yet, waiting til next year

[Gloryhound]

I'm rather new to the reptile world (Got my Cal King only about 2 months ago) and as such I know very little about breeding, but I had a few basic questions about the actual economics of breeding.

How did most of you get started with breeding? What is the typical start-up cost of a breeding project for a new breeder? What sort of day jobs do breeders have? How does one start out as a breeder - which is to say where do you start selling at? How much money does one actually make with breeding that is profit (I understand this varies based on how much one spends on certain animals, but still general answers would be greatly appreciated)? Is this more of a hobby than an actual money-making process for most breeders?

I'm quickly falling in love with reptiles in general, and I doubt I would ever be able to afford breeding, however I'm fascinated by people that do breed. Having an entire rack full of reptiles would be so amazing, not to mention those who have entire rooms dedicated to breeding programs!

I know I jumped around a lot in this post, but hopefully I got my point across well enough. I just don't know hardly anything about breeding reptiles, and I would really appreciate how breeders manage it!

Let me look through my reciepts here. Hmmm... A little over $17,000.00 invested last year between snake purchases, rats, racks, rat food, water bowls, T-stats, incubator, blah blah blah.

Lets look in the incubator right now, nope still empty. Lets look through the sales reciepts we have to date. hmmm... Yea about $95.00 worth of rats sold, nope no snakes.

But we have one girl glowing and I think at least two more girls will go this year at least. 18 babies this year if we are lucky and we will hold back about half of those. Do to what we had ready to go this year we will be lucky to average $200.00 per baby we sell. Thats 9 times 200 for $1800.00. So we will be lucky to make back ten percent of last years losses.

On the bright side we do have a lot of nice looking ball pythons and just got two blood pythons!

I love trying to be a breeder!

[Bluebead]

I probably have around 10G invested in just the snakes.
Its not so much about the money, although I hope that the snakes eventually pay for themselves....
I am in it as a hobby, and the feeling you get when your young males lock up for the first time or you get struck at by a normally calm and cool female b/c she is on eggs is amazing.
Then when the eggs finally pip after months and months of thinking, hoping, planning, and working for it, well you feel like a proud parent lol.

My advice if you want to start breeding is to spend the money on a very few rare morphs and focus on supplying something special; Otherwise you'll want a snakeroom and soon you will be distracted by other morphs and soon spend all of your time cleaning and feeding your collection instead of simply enjoying and handling your snakes.
That is probably a hard line to walk; I know I didn't do so well- I have 40-50 snakes and counting

[fallupinreverse]

Well this answers my main question pretty well, and that was just wondering how much most have invested in it, and how much it takes to invest.

I'm currently a college student and there is no way I'll be able to afford breeding anytime soon. It seems like it'd be a lot of fun, but wayyyy more money than I can handle lol!

I still would love to hear about more breeder's stories though, so keep on posting please!

[RhacHead]

I think you get the idea.Its a Hobby,Not a buisness.If you enjoy sharing your house with these animals then your on the right track.Most Breeders around are in this hobby because they enjoy reptiles.Just do research,take good care of your snake and get another when you have the resources/believe you are ready! Just remember the road to breeding always starts with one Snake....

[Gloryhound]

You could start out with a pair of less expensive snakes and play with it while in college. I can't imagine you having room to house 30+ snakes and their food at this time. 2 to 3 to play with might be something that would allow you to learn for now. Slowly add a couple more after you get out of college and over a long period of time you might build a substantial breeding project. Or if after you graduate Med school, do your internship, pay off your mountain of college debt, don't get married or have kids, then you can afford lots of snakes! Then again if I wasn't married who would handle taking care of the snakes and rats after long grueling 10 hour days of work and such? Then what about those business trips that keep me away from home for a couple nights at a time!

[kc261]

So far you have happened to get answers from people who have invested a lot of money. You do not have to do that to breed snakes. You could start with a normal female and a pastel male and get both of them for under $100 if you bargain hunt (like go to a local show). Or invest just a little more and get a female that will be ready to breed next year if you are in a hurry.

You'll still need to spend more on things like t-stats and enclosures and of course food for the snakes, but all of this can be done relatively economically as well. When your female is big enough to breed, make an incubator out of a styrofoam cooler.

I haven't really done the math, but a quick off the top of my head estimate is that if you start out with a pair of '08 hatchlings, you could probably spend less than $500 spread out over time, and have eggs hatching in '11. Most people put quite a bit more than that into their hobbies (or just going out to movies...), so anyone who really wants to produce some baby snakes should be able to afford it on a small scale.

This is assuming a pretty bare bones operation, and also if you have only one pair there is no guarantee you'll get any eggs at all, but my main point is to illustrate that it can be done quite a bit cheaper than spending thousands of dollars.

EDIT: One more thing is that I don't think you'd make any money doing it this way. But if you hatch a few pastel hatchlings and sell them, that money could help you invest in a few more snakes. Eventually you could build up enough to become profitable (assuming the snake market stays strong enough for anyone to be profitable), without ever having to lay out a big chunk of cash up front.

[JamieLynn]

I am not a breeder, but I love these amazing snakes. I do have 2 gravid females, and a few others that won't be ready for breeding for another 1-3 years.
My view is that when you want to breed focus on the ones you like the most. As for me I love albinos the most, others are cool, but those are my passion. So far I have spent around $700 on the snakes/enclosures/heating, that does not include all the time and money that is going into breeding feeders, and what has to be done with feeder overstock, or vet bills.
Although both of my gravid females are normal, and the daddies where normals, I am still totaly excited to see those little heads pop out of the eggs.
If you want to breed as a hobby that is great, but as an investment, you can expect quite a few years till you see any money back compared to what you spend.
I'm hopeing that in 3+ years two of the babies I have will prove out to be het for snow. When you are waiting for those babies its hard, but compared to the 9 months of waiting for little people its not that bad.