Breeding Leo's! (Info Please)

Just remember that leos hunt in packs, and when they work together, they can take down infants and even teens. Be careful.

Originally Posted by Roy Munson

Just remember that leos hunt in packs, and when they work together, they can take down infants and even teens. Be careful.

Oh man, I am waiting for this day when mine finally go out an do this!!!

Originally Posted by Roy Munson

Just remember that leos hunt in packs, and when they work together, they can take down infants and even teens. Be careful.

haha roy, seriously I did a good deed with Sabrina, she is with someone that can care for her as she needs it, you have to remember she was hardly ever handled, the man who come did say he could tell that, and I myself could tell she was not very well handled, and I did not have a big viv to care for her, but I did take her away from her last owners who could not care for her the way she needs it, and i did give her good heat, fresh water, fresh bedding, and a new home, so in the end i actually feel i did a good deed! I'm proud of myself.

-George-

Originally Posted by Pet Corn Snake

haha roy, seriously I did a good deed with Sabrina, she is with someone that can care for her as she needs it, you have to remember she was hardly ever handled, the man who come did say he could tell that, and I myself could tell she was not very well handled, and I did not have a big viv to care for her, but I did take her away from her last owners who could not care for her the way she needs it, and i did give her good heat, fresh water, fresh bedding, and a new home, so in the end i actually feel i did a good deed! I'm proud of myself.

-George-

Just messin' with you, George. You did the right thing.

And one good thing about Leos is that they're fire-resistant!

Originally Posted by Roy Munson

Just messin' with you, George. You did the right thing.

And one good thing about Leos is that they're fire-resistant!

lol! :P
well I hope Leo's use heat mats? because I'm never using that bulb ever again, I lost my best Viv out of it, and become pretty ill, good job there was no snake in it, thats the bright side of the fire, nothing was harmed, except my throat!

Originally Posted by Pet Corn Snake

by Charity's I mean some money i make from the baby's will go towards things like reptiles centres and things, obviously not all of it, they will be basically paying for themself,

That's a nice faerie tale you're telling yourself.

I have been breeding geckos for three years - this year would have been the fourth. I have not ONCE "broke even" let alone "made extra" to donate to charity. First two years I hatched out exactly one baby each year.

Last year I hatched thirty-some live babies. Of them, about a dozen were determined non-feeders and were humanely euthanised when assist feeding did not make them pick up. That still left me with twenty-some. The majority of these were normals - there were only two blizzard hatchlings and three albinos out of the entire lot; one each turned out to be non-feeder. Of them:

Two sold to a friend of mine for £30
3 sold to someone else for £45
3 sold/traded to someone for £20 plus a fair number of frozen mice.
Eight sold to a pet shop for a grand total of £80 in store credit - which got used to feed snakes for six months.
Four donated to Bishop Burton college.
One traded to someone for a baby corn snake.
And three of them are still with me now as keepers for the year.

So I made a total of £95 in cash... and the last three I sold, which were the £20 trio, I spent three months trying to home. Nobody wants little normals if they can avoid it - even if they're het blizzard and possible het albino.

My adult geckos cost about £30 a month to feed whether they're breeding or not - I have three adult males and at the time I had nine adult females. So right there, three months wiped out ALL of the profits I made. Even if I'd gotten the £80 in cash from the pet shop, that's still only an extra two and a half months. I still have six and a half months' worth of feeding geckos unaccounted for - not to mention food for the babies.

And it gets worse.

This year, I bred to a new male. And so far we have had two adult breeding females who were in good condition prior to breeding go downhill, cost a bundle in vet bills and then die eggbound with three-egg clutches. Both of them were my favourite females, animals that were great to handle and could be handed to anyone, no matter how young or infirm, and would settle in their hands. Two females that can't be replaced.

To top it all off... all the eggs in the incubator, even from those two females, were infertile. Everyone else has stopped laying, and I suspect the boy I used was just too young

So this year I won't even break even - I won't have any offspring to sell at all, which means that all the feed is out of my pocket (oh, and don't discount electricity costs) ...

And next year, because they were my favourite two girls... I won't be breeding geckos at all. Maybe 2009 - after everyone's had a year off to build up and I lose the bad taste in my mouth from losing two pets I loved; and maybe I won't breed geckos again at all. I don't know at this point.

Don't tell yourself you'll make money breeding reptiles unless you're willing to put a lot of money into it in the first place AND you have the ability to 'absorb' losses to boot.

Originally Posted by Ssthisto

That's a nice faerie tale you're telling yourself.

I have been breeding geckos for three years - this year would have been the fourth. I have not ONCE "broke even" let alone "made extra" to donate to charity. First two years I hatched out exactly one baby each year.

Last year I hatched thirty-some live babies. Of them, about a dozen were determined non-feeders and were humanely euthanised when assist feeding did not make them pick up. That still left me with twenty-some. The majority of these were normals - there were only two blizzard hatchlings and three albinos out of the entire lot; one each turned out to be non-feeder. Of them:

Two sold to a friend of mine for £30
3 sold to someone else for £45
3 sold/traded to someone for £20 plus a fair number of frozen mice.
Eight sold to a pet shop for a grand total of £80 in store credit - which got used to feed snakes for six months.
Four donated to Bishop Burton college.
One traded to someone for a baby corn snake.
And three of them are still with me now as keepers for the year.

So I made a total of £95 in cash... and the last three I sold, which were the £20 trio, I spent three months trying to home. Nobody wants little normals if they can avoid it - even if they're het blizzard and possible het albino.

My adult geckos cost about £30 a month to feed whether they're breeding or not - I have three adult males and at the time I had nine adult females. So right there, three months wiped out ALL of the profits I made. Even if I'd gotten the £80 in cash from the pet shop, that's still only an extra two and a half months. I still have six and a half months' worth of feeding geckos unaccounted for - not to mention food for the babies.

And it gets worse.

This year, I bred to a new male. And so far we have had two adult breeding females who were in good condition prior to breeding go downhill, cost a bundle in vet bills and then die eggbound with three-egg clutches. Both of them were my favourite females, animals that were great to handle and could be handed to anyone, no matter how young or infirm, and would settle in their hands. Two females that can't be replaced.

To top it all off... all the eggs in the incubator, even from those two females, were infertile. Everyone else has stopped laying, and I suspect the boy I used was just too young

So this year I won't even break even - I won't have any offspring to sell at all, which means that all the feed is out of my pocket (oh, and don't discount electricity costs) ...

And next year, because they were my favourite two girls... I won't be breeding geckos at all. Maybe 2009 - after everyone's had a year off to build up and I lose the bad taste in my mouth from losing two pets I loved; and maybe I won't breed geckos again at all. I don't know at this point.

Don't tell yourself you'll make money breeding reptiles unless you're willing to put a lot of money into it in the first place AND you have the ability to 'absorb' losses to boot.

umm.. thank you for your advise, I actually have not told myself anything, like I say I still have a lot of time before I do choose weather or not to breed any kind of reptile, the charity thing is something I want to do, and if breeding leos does make me some extra money in my town then I will be donating, it's not about money really though, the thought of me bringing reptiles to my locals etc.. is a really nice thought, and it's something I think i would enjoy doing, this does not mean i'm going to rush into anything,

well thanks anyways,

-George-