"for some reason I seem to be bad at at picking females. All of my males eat like champs but most of my ladies are picky feeders. I'm a full time student and picky feeders are consuming my time. The prices in bps drop so quickly i'm beginning to think in the end this will probably be a huge waste of money and time. I'm thinking about throwing in the towel on my bp projects and taking the loss. From the guys that have been around for decades how common is this? Do a lot of people start as hobby breeders but get out of breeding after a few years?"



The title of yor post is BP industry patterns?. The first thing I thought when I read the title was another disgruntled person who saw dollar signs in their eyes and it wasn't working out like they thought. Nothing against you, because I was recently told by a person that has a considerable business that they do it for the money, and when the money is gone in ball pythons, they will be gone from breeding them. You need a serious amount of capitol to invest in a business. I shutter to think what is spent in Africa every year by investors. Consider what people like Ralph, Kevin, Dave and Tracy, and BHB have spent in Africa. If you want to run with the big dogs and catch up, you better be able to spend six or seven numbers to the left of the decimal. I know more than $50k has been spent on one animal by one person or a group of people. If you want to be like them, you need to spend like them. You couldn't go to your local chevy dealer and buy an SS Monte Carlo on Monday and go race against Tony Stewart, Dale Jr., or Jeff Gordon on Sunday and compete.



Consider your place in "The Ball Python Industry." Do you want to make money or have fun? Both can be done. Personally, I have been keeping BP's for about 14 years and have only produced two clutches of normals. I now have hets that I am raising and will produce some of the stuff I always wanted from them. It will take me years to ever make back what I have spent on ball pythons, but who cares. Remeber, you are dealing with living animals. Things can, will, and do happen and that is part of it. Living things can die, fail to thrive and breed, and cost may times their value in medical bills or whatever. Nothing is guaranteed to work out 100%.



My point is this. If you want them as an investment, wait until you have the capitol to make the "investment." If you want to do it as a hobby, don't worry about the money.



Best of luck!
-----
Happy Herping,

Jody Barnes

Royal Kreationz



My snakes aren't fat, they're big boned.

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