Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

I think this has been hit on before, but I would just like to hear it from someone with a recent viewpoint.

I am interested in starting a small snake colony for the heck of it. I have a pair of corns, and plan on getting a pair of mexican black kings or black milks, and a pair of hondos. My questions for you are:

How much of a typical years stock do you sell over the course of the year?

It seems like the honduran prices are fairly stable, would you say a loss of 5% of breedable stock is accurate for a hatchling to breeder size time span?

I'm trying to do some calculations before I spend whatever college or my girlfriend doesnt take from me. Sorry if this has been talked about before, the forum search thing doesnt work very well.

Thanks,
Quintin

>It seems like the honduran prices are fairly stable, would you say >a loss of 5% of breedable stock is accurate for a hatchling to >breeder size time span?

What I meant to say was a 5% loss in value from when you get a hatchling to when you can sell offspring (Im calculating in 3 years for that). Sorry for any confusion

If you just want to breed a few snakes for kicks forget trying to figure out the details. Just do it. It is fun, and chances are you should at least break even, cover the expenses of caring for all your snakes and maybe make a buck too. Just try your luck and enjoy watching everything happen, and then enjoy having the new babies around. Tom Stevens
-----
TomsSnakes.com

thanks!

just to give you my experience, in 2005 i hatched 43 babies. it was my first year breeding hondurans. my area took direct hits from hurricanes katrina and wilma, which really screwed up my ability to make selling snakes a priority. out of 43, i held back 7, and i still have 6 left to sell. none died. my sales efforts have been pretty minimal, but steady, and i imagine i will be sold out before i hatch any this year. terry dunham told me a couple of years ago his expectation was to be sold out by the following spring. so anyway, that sort of time frame is probably realistic. best of luck, kd.