Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm about to come into a good chunk of money and was wondering what I should buy to get into the bp business. I already have a few cornsnakes and a couple normal ball pythons. My wife and I really love snakes and want to start a breeding business. I know it'll take a few years, but I'm willing to make some initial investments to get started. Time and money I have. I don't want to waste either. I'm pretty excited as this has been my dream, but I've lacked the funds until now.

Let me know what a good investment would be for 20,000 dollars.

Josh

Hey,

You could diversify and get a spider male, pastel male, pastel females, and some normal adults and do pastels, spiders, and eventually super pastels and bumblebees. Or you could roll the whole wad on a lesser male and some normal females. It depends on if you want to sell a bunch of lower priced babies or an occasional high priced individual. You will ALWAYS want to consider- if the market ever crashes (Not saying it will), what do you want to OWN and take care of for 20 to 40 years?

E-mail some guys like Graziani or others and ask- they will be very helpful.

Good luck, and invest wisely.

Steve Harrison

I think many of the big breeders woudl recommend go with simple recessives for the long haul. Co-Doms are great cost a ton, shoot to fast offspring but fizzle just as fast in terms of price. So perhaps a bias toward simple recessive with afew co-doms...if you want staying power vice a quick thing. So that's my two cents...and those of the couple of big breeders I am friends with.
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Mike and David at 3-D Pythons
www.3dpythons.com

It may be easier to give advice if you list some of the morphs you and your wife like. Then others can give you their $0.02.

I like clowns, pastel females for breeding stock ( so versatile )...

Buy something big!
Hi there,
20K is not going to take you too far in this business. If I could start all over again, and all I had was 20K I would buy a "Double Threat Morph" or a "Triple Threat" if the price is right. Maybe you should save some more $$$$ so you can start off right. TOO many people are buying pastels, spiders, etc. There will be too many babies coming around in the next couple of years, so buy a snake that isnt readily available. Platinums are a great way, right now, to make some $$$$$, but they cost so much! Right? Wrong. You can make your money back in one clutch of Platty babies. I have seen them offered on Kingsnake for 18K and gone the next. Babies go for around the same, so if you where to breed it to 5 females and harvest from each, well you do the math. How often are Plattys up for sale, NOT VERY.
Now if you can get a doulbe morph, for 15K, lets say a Pewter, you should be able to make your money back in only a couple of clutches. When bred to normals, they make Cinnys or Blk Pastels, and Pastels. If you breed a Pewter to a Pastel, you get 30K snakes, plus Cinnys and Pastels. If you breed a Pewter to a Blk Pastel or Cinny you get more expensive snakes. Dont forget, you make a bunch of normals too, so you could keep all the females you make, and have an army in a couple of years.
Think about it!