Does breeding help with the bills?
 

I've managed to keep my snakes alive, healthy, and growing for 5 years now, I'm looking at getting into a 7th species (dumerils boa) next month, and that will be my 11th snake. It just occurred to me that maybe I can start calling myself an intermediate snake keeper. I still think of myself as a beginner. :shrugs::laugh: I've slowed down on acquiring new snakes and have only gotten one new snake in the last 3 years, but I still dream, and I just picked up a couple of new babies. And the Pine snake will need a bigger cage soon. I think my husband is reeling from the sticker shock of a 3 bin rack (CB70 bins) and two baby ball pythons, which seem to cost twice as much in Canada as in the US.

My husband (and others) have encouraged me to consider finding a way for my snake habit/hobby to pay for itself, especially since I like using the big expensive PVC cages except for the ball pythons, because it feels like a waste of a display cage to simply look at hides all the time. My cages alone have cost several thousand dollars, and I no longer have the income I used to have when I first started in this hobby. So I'm thinking about potentially, in the next few years (no rush, I have a TON of research to do first) producing a clutch or two to pay for some mice/rats/cages.

Of those of you who have tried this, have you found that it was worth the trouble of having just a few clutches without starting a full-out business of breeding? I'm a person who enjoys researching genetics, and understands them pretty easily, but I am not great at sales, and have failed at starting businesses before so I'm really gun-shy to try this, and just end up with a bunch more mouths to feed. Assuming I will do everything in my power to do this responsibly and actually sell the hatchlings, do you recommend this option to assist in the upkeep of a small collection? (By small collection, I mean under 25 snakes)

Of course, what my hubby doesn't realize is that this will only be an excuse to get more snakes. :dancer: I would get nowhere breeding the snakes I have. Just a bunch of hets. I have literally ONE ball python pair that would make some pretty babies... in two or three years when she gets up to size.

Here is a good thread to read through.
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=126082

There is a lot to consider like feeding and housing the babies. What to do with deformed or non feeder babies? Do you have a source for selling babies? You've already mentioned you would only be producing normal with hets. In most markets they don't sell very well.

A lot of breeders are happy to break even.

I've only breed for one season. So far I'm only doing it for fun and because I enjoy working with the animals and being friendly to customers at local shows. My biggest cost savings was breeding my own rodents. That also has upfront costs that you need to take into account.

Thanks! I will read the linked thread right away. Just to clarify, I would NOT be breeding my current snakes because they would only produce hets. I would need to get them some carefully selected partners, or start from scratch with breeding stock.

I created this thread a LONG time ago -> http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20501

I guess it is still applicable.

Thanks Rich, I have definitely read this one before. Good dose of reality.
I don't know if I would ever expect to support myself with breeding, but for the snakes to support themselves, well, I guess that's the dream.