Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I saw a post on another forum that I thought would make some interesting disscusions. I decided to split it into 2-3 parts to help focus the topics, and will post the other parts later.

My first open question is: How much experience should a person have before they attempt to breed reptiles?

I will post my opinion seperate from this post.

First let me say that I do not believe that time is a good marker for experience. I have roughly 22 years experience, however that time started from the age of 7. I have learned a lot more in the second half of that time than I did the first 11 years. So I can see how two people with 5 years "experience" could be on completely different levels.

New keepers should be more interested in learning things like temperature and humidity control, reducing stress, and how to cope with feeding problems. I have seen to many people ask for help with shedding problems then turn around and ask what the "minimum breeding size" is. It really seems like they have never raised a snake to full adulthood. But why wouldn't they want to know this. Doesn't everybody breed there snakes at the minimum size.

It seems in the last 5 years the reptile industry has taken off. Every year more and more people decide to give a pet snake a chance. However one big change has been that these new keepers begin in a world many of us did not have early in our reptilian hobby, the internet. Internet forums are full of people showing off their clutches and their future breeders, and new keepers feel a need to fit in with everyone else. Since everyone else breeds they feel a need to also.

The problem comes when someone ends up with a dozen or more animals that they really don't have the experience or resorces to deal with. I saw one person who was breeding an albino leopard gecko to 11 normal females. He could easily end up with over 100 normal babies that would be nearly impossible to place. At the same time he was asking how to incubate all the eggs he was getting. All of his animals were new, and he had less than a few months experience before starting to breed.

There is an over emphasis on breeding in the hobby nowadays. New keepers are robbing themselves of the best part of the hobby. That is learning about the animal. Learning why a proper temperature gradient for thermoregulation is important. Watching behaviors, and always trying to improve your skills as a keeper. Working your way from a beginner corn or ball up to finally getting that retic. Then realizing you don't care too much for retics and going back to corns and balls.

Well that's enough for now, I need to go feed my female holdbacks so I can get them to 1,200 by breeding season...

breathing and cage cleaning skills are probably required.

Mouse thawing skills are a nice add on skill.

I've had a snake for fourteen years, but it's only recently that I've become interested in breeding. The same as you, I've got fourteen years of experience...but I was five when I started! I've learned more in the last year or two about ball pythons than I learned my first 12.
I work at a petstore, with the reptiles. I can't count how many people who come in to get feeders reply to my question "So what kind of snake do you have?" with "I'm not sure...I think it's a python." A guy came in talking about his recently purchased 8 foot snake, and couldn't tell me what species it was, just that it needed large rats. It's downright depressing, and that's what's giving me the biggest pause about breeding - I could, but where would the babies go, and would they have the same good home I've been giving my snakes?
My favorite question when people want to buy a snake:
"Does that snake bite?"
Same answer, everytime:
"Anything with a mouth bites."
Hey, it's what my mom taught me, and I happen to know from experience it's very true.

~jenny