Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I fell in love with snakes a long time ago, as a small child chasing garters. Now Im going into my senior year in high school and Ive been spending every paycheck since I moved out buying snakes, and aquariums. (and of course food, and a little bit stashed away for after high school but thats not the point) The point is that I have finally decided what I want to do with my life, I want to be a professional snake breeder. I have posted this ambition before and people said i could never make enough to support myself. So I thought of a new idea, instead of targeting the reptile hobbist who always wants the latest morph (which are varible and expensive) I want to target families. Too many children want pet snakes, and arent allowed to have them because they are expensive and temperental. I want to specifically breed a new and different snake that doesnt get over 5ft long and has a great disposition, and is beautiful. Ball pythons are old hat. I want to crossbreed until I get these cretures so they are sterile, thus making me the only breeder to offer them. I would sell them for cheap but make my money off the mice. I would grow my own mice and a small feeding supply for them (which lowers ingredient cost) and keep my mice immaculately healthy, and have a guarentee that as long as they buy my mice and use the care sheet I make for them the snake will stay healthy. If not they can ship it back, not a big deal. Thus the snake is a one time purchase, but the mice are long time commitments. My thing will be that I sell friendly, small snakes, how can a mom not let her son buy a snake if its cheap small and friendly? and she can just ship it back if she has any problems? Please tell me what you think about my business idea.

I do not think it will work.

Even if you manage to breed your sterile dream snake - you won't make money off of the mice unless they are competitive.

Your typical family is not going to want gobs of frozen rodents in their freezer, and the shipping cost on smaller quantities is going to be cost prohibitive.

If you want to make money in herpetology, the way to do it is either as a herpotologist - or get a business degree and run a pet store. Running a pet store though is difficult in the age of of the big chains like Petco. Hell - I like to support the local family owned pet store, but I get stuff at Petco because they are big and have more selection at better prices for a lot of supplies.

Do what you love as a hobby - but get your degree.
I dropped out after my Junior year as a math major - I meant to just take a year off but never went back. During the 90s I was employed in Silicon Valley and smug about how my salary was higher than most combined incomes where I lived - and then the dot.com bubble burst, and it was incredibly difficult to find work because I did not have that piece of paper saying I finished college.

Go to college, major in biology or business, finish college, and then think about how to put your skills to use - either in combination with your beloved hobby or in a different field.
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3.0 WC; 0.1 CB L. getula californiae
0.1 CB L. pyromelana pyromelana
0.1 WC Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata (gravid)

dont make them sterile, if they dont want babies sell them lone males. plus hybridizing doesnt cause sterility in snakes, if you did cross breed so much it was sterile, they would be deformed. plus if your attitude is to not let anyone else produce what you are produceing would be to not let out the names of the species involved. making them sterile will make you enemies

you say as long as they feed it your mice the snake will be healthy, dont guarantee that.

you want a great starter snake that is uncommon? african house snakes check out kingsnakes care sheet on them. i think they are pretty docile but to make them more docile try breeding one to a corn(never been done)
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jake

my addiction:
1.1? normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
0.1? amelenistic corn snake (zyklon)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)
hybrid breeders association
hybrid haven

Not yet, at least. As with any idea...You COULD get it to work eventually with enough research & hard work. I suspect you will be changing your plan as you go along & figure out that some aspects of it simply won't fly. A degree in the field would certainly be a plus. Good luck. Duffy

Thanks, I needed a good laugh today.
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1.1 Corn (Butter-Jack Straw '06/Amel Motley-Cosmo '03)
0.1 Baird's Ratsnake (Sugaree '04)
1.0 White Oaks Grey Rat (Tennesse Jed '04)
0.1 IJ Carpet Python (Cassidy '04)
1.0 Western Hognose (Samson '05)
1.1 Shepherd mix (Dylan 7yrs, Porter 2yrs)

hey!!! thats definatly not friendly! Im serious, I want to be a professional breeder! And I will do whatever I need to do to make that happen

I hate to sound just as negative as everyone else, but you seriously need to rethink things.

Your understanding of breeding is completely confused. You've taken either a lot of marketing hype from breeders or a lot of old wives tales way too seriously. Do a bunch of reading about genetics, selective breeding and the effects of inbreeding and I think you'll find that none of it works the way you think.

I'm also 95% sure your business model won't work anyway. If you sell the snakes cheap, no one will care about your guarantee. If they are expensive, you won't sell enough to make any money before they're "old hat".

Other than (theoretically) being sterile, what you've invented is called a corn snake and they are availible in hundreds of colors for less than what it would cost you to ship your super snake. Frozen rodents are also availible over the internet for less than what they will cost you to breed.

Oh, and if people took your guarantee seriously you'd be out of business real quick since no matter how healthy your snakes are or how good your mice are, most of the snakes will die in the first year because your customers didn't take care of them properly and there's no way you can prove it.

J....Figured you'd get dumped on a bit, here......I'll email you
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1.1 Blackheaded pythons
1.0 Woma
2.1 Aussie Olives
1.1 Timors
1.0 Angolan Juvie
1.1 Savu
1.1 Juvie Bloods
1.1 Juvie Balls
1.1 IJ Carpets
1.1 Coastal Carpets
1.2 Macklotts
1.1 Papuan Olives
1.0 Jungle Carpet
2.2 Scrubs (on breeding loan)
0.1 Jungle/Diamond cross
0.1 child, CB
0.1 wife, WC

I fell in love with snakes a long time ago, as a small child chasing garters. Now Im going into my senior year in high school and Ive been spending every paycheck since I moved out buying snakes, and aquariums. (and of course food, and a little bit stashed away for after high school but thats not the point) The point is that I have finally decided what I want to do with my life, I want to be a professional snake breeder. I have posted this ambition before and people said i could never make enough to support myself. So I thought of a new idea, instead of targeting the reptile hobbist who always wants the latest morph (which are varible and expensive) I want to target families. Too many children want pet snakes, and arent allowed to have them because they are expensive and temperental. I want to specifically breed a new and different snake that doesnt get over 5ft long and has a great disposition, and is beautiful. Ball pythons are old hat. I want to crossbreed until I get these cretures so they are sterile, thus making me the only breeder to offer them. I would sell them for cheap but make my money off the mice. I would grow my own mice and a small feeding supply for them (which lowers ingredient cost) and keep my mice immaculately healthy, and have a guarentee that as long as they buy my mice and use the care sheet I make for them the snake will stay healthy. If not they can ship it back, not a big deal. Thus the snake is a one time purchase, but the mice are long time commitments. My thing will be that I sell friendly, small snakes, how can a mom not let her son buy a snake if its cheap small and friendly? and she can just ship it back if she has any problems? Please tell me what you think about my business idea.

Well, I really think that everyone here has posted some good things for you to think about.
I am not trying to sound negative, but the breeding and genetics way of how you are planning to go about it does seem a little misunderstood. The crossing aspect you mentioned turns off people like myself who do not agree with hybrids but that is even beside the point. Crossing to develop this " snake " into what you are thinking it would turn out would take many, many years, if it even worked at all. Also..you are not guaranteed an income from this steadily. In other words, no one HAS to have pet snakes, they are a pleasure, not a need ( even though I do feel I need all the ones I can get.. ha ha.)
I know several breeders who make a living off of selling reptiles. It is not an easy one though. They have appr. 1000 breeder snakes each, and it is a very full time job. Not many in this industry can make a living off of reptiles.
So, not trying to be negative but trying to be realistic. Learn more about breeding, genetics, and such as well. I applaud your enthusiasm.

Billy
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Genesis 1:1