How many babies are you expecting this year?

[torsten]

Well having just checked on two of my females that have been bred this year they are both VERY obviously gravid now, about a week or two before the prelay shed i would guess?

 

[danny819]

I have 5 females that are breedable but have only pairied two to prove out some hets. I was at a reptile store yesterday (the biggest one in my area) and asked why they had very few corns, the owner told me they stopped breeding them because they could buy them wholesale for less than it would cost to produce them so they were waiting for the 09 babies. I asked him how much he was paying and he said $8 for any corn. I asked "what about the higher end stuff" and he laughed and said "are there high end corns anymore". Kind of a bummer and helped me decide to give the rest of my girls a year off.

 

[KJUN]

With the move an all, I'm not planning on getting any eggs from any of the boas even though a couple might still give me babies even with all the missing effort that SHOULD require on my part. That is really going to hurt my '09 production numbers, but not as much as me finally realizing that I won't have time this year to even THINK about double clutches from even the best females, and some colubrids were just put on the "no breeding pile " because of time constraints. (DANG MOVE!) With that stated, based on the fertility rate we've seen already, we should definitely break 1200 babies, and 1500 is still very, very likely.

That is nowhere near the 2,000 minimum we expected when we made the breeding list last August, but that was before Kasi got her new job. What can you do about it? Oh, well.

KJ

 

[starsevol]

I have 5 females that are breedable but have only pairied two to prove out some hets. I was at a reptile store yesterday (the biggest one in my area) and asked why they had very few corns, the owner told me they stopped breeding them because they could buy them wholesale for less than it would cost to produce them so they were waiting for the 09 babies. I asked him how much he was paying and he said $8 for any corn. I asked "what about the higher end stuff" and he laughed and said "are there high end corns anymore". Kind of a bummer and helped me decide to give the rest of my girls a year off.

Yeah Danny, I know which place you mean, having sold them my normal babies 2 years ago at $8 a pop.....but personally I think they know more about alligators and spiders than cornsnakes. You can BET they don't know what a sulphur is...or a lava....

I say let the people passionate about the species, breed and promote the species. What do petshops know? (And really, this place is nothing more than a glorified petshop).

 

[Silvergrin]

I have 5 females that are breedable but have only pairied two to prove out some hets. I was at a reptile store yesterday (the biggest one in my area) and asked why they had very few corns, the owner told me they stopped breeding them because they could buy them wholesale for less than it would cost to produce them so they were waiting for the 09 babies. I asked him how much he was paying and he said $8 for any corn. I asked "what about the higher end stuff" and he laughed and said "are there high end corns anymore". Kind of a bummer and helped me decide to give the rest of my girls a year off.

I'm sure they'd love to convince you to sell them a hypo striped lavender for $8 XD

Seriously, $8 is the going bottom-barrel wholesale rate for normal/amel/anery/snow corns, as near as I can tell. But I can usually find better, and I seriously doubt anyone sells butters, lavenders, etc for that price...

 

[KJUN]

Actually, $5 seems to be the "bottom-barrel wholesale rate" for normals - especially out-the-egg. $8/each is actually not a BAD rate for wholesale lots on normals. Not a bad rate at all. $10 is really good. Anything above that is excellent. $8 is about fair, though. Of course, this is in medium quantity levels. I'm not talking about in 3 lots or 300 lots.

Selling to a pet store is usually more along the line of jobber prices, though, and not really wholesale prices. My aforementioned comments are in relation to wholesale prices (not jobber ones) since that's the term y'all are using.

I have seen times when some of the big wholesalers seemed to "get together" and agree to only pay $4 or so each across the board regardless of what they were. The problem is that some people were crazy enough to sell to them at those prices, and it just proved to them that they COULD force the prices that low by refusing to pay more.

 

[Silvergrin]

Actually, $5 seems to be the "bottom-barrel wholesale rate" for normals - especially out-the-egg. $8/each is actually not a BAD rate for wholesale lots on normals. Not a bad rate at all. $10 is really good. Anything above that is excellent. $8 is about fair, though. Of course, this is in medium quantity levels. I'm not talking about in 3 lots or 300 lots.

Selling to a pet store is usually more along the line of jobber prices, though, and not really wholesale prices. My aforementioned comments are in relation to wholesale prices (not jobber ones) since that's the term y'all are using.

I have seen times when some of the big wholesalers seemed to "get together" and agree to only pay $4 or so each across the board regardless of what they were. The problem is that some people were crazy enough to sell to them at those prices, and it just proved to them that they COULD force the prices that low by refusing to pay more.

Yes, good clarification - I meant $8 is the bottom price I usually see for started, healthy corns - out of the egg is, as you say, something like 5/6/7/ for normals/amels&aneries/snows. I usually sell for at least $10 each, when wholesaling. Sometimes if I have snakes that won't eat right off I'll sell them for $5 each. The people who've bought them tell me they've gotten them all to eat, but I'd just feel bad selling a troublesome feeder at the same price as those that readily feed, and I don't want to hassle with them.

My last definite female laid last night! A hypo miami (from carol!), 11 eggs and they're hyuge XD Twice the size of my snow girl's.
So that's 111 eggs for me XD Unfortunately one looks leaky and some of my sunkissed girl's eggs have been having fungus issues or something. XP But I've been keeping on top of 'em - in the past when it's been an issue I've been able to keep it in check and the eggs hatched *crosses fingers* Should be a fun summer!

 

[danny819]

Yeah Danny, I know which place you mean, having sold them my normal babies 2 years ago at $8 a pop.....but personally I think they know more about alligators and spiders than cornsnakes. You can BET they don't know what a sulphur is...or a lava....

I say let the people passionate about the species, breed and promote the species. What do petshops know? (And really, this place is nothing more than a glorified petshop).

You are right Beth, I was at shawns store yesterday picking up some feeders since 100 pinks don't last 2 weeks anymore. He was saying that the average customer in his store wouldn't spend more than $40- $50 at most on a pet corn and if someone was going to spend more then they are looking for a specific mutation or hets and are most likley going to go to a breeder instead of a store. I would call Domenic if you need to sell small lots, he offered me $10 for normals,$15 for amel , anery and snows and anything more expensive he will offer to sell it on consignment.