Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been lurking around the Kingsnake Forums for a while now, mainly the Beardie forums. My name is Richie, I'm a junior in highschool and I am planning on opening a Herp shop when I finish college. Does anyone, I know this is a bit random, what courses and all that I would need to open a herp shop. Also, how much money I would need to start it, aproximately? I won a bearded dragon, snow phase, named Athena. She is about 2 1/2 years old, and just plain beautiful. I will get pictures up ASAP. I'm gonna be breeding her soon, and I'm gonna be looking for help from experienced breeders. A few more questions.
1. How much money should I have before hand for breeding. including money for feeding, lights, ect. I am only breeding 1 pair. I have 3 tanks, one being for my beardie and her soon to be lover, lol.
2. How much do babies normally sell for. It's gonna be 100% snow phase babies. Aproxamit price welcome.
3. Which online store has best shipping and healthiest worms/crickets/ect. for the best prices.

Hello there:

To start a business does take a bit of effort and willingness to spend all your time working on it. At first you will need to man the store every day as it isn't likely you will make enough money in the first three years to pay somebody to watch the store when you are not around or need a break. Also, it is best to evaluate the market for a reptile store in your area. THings like, what stores are already in your area that either specialize in reptiles or sell reptiles and reptile supplies. Then there is the cost of leasing store space (determining how much space you will need), utilities and finding a good location. Advertising them comes next to make sure people know your store exists.

Good courses to take in school before you start is Small Buisness Management. This typically includes management, accounting, marketing and other courses. Small business management is often a course you can take separately in college as well. Before you are in college, good ideal to take basic accounting as well.

Start up money to have before starting to breed is pretty much as much as you can save. Three tanks won't be enough, though it is enough to have your current dragon and the male you plan to purchase in the near future. (good to house the male and female separately, this way the male won't be badgering your female too much, prevents stress on her. Also eliminates stress from food competition, dominance issues etc.).

For babies, you need 5-10 small cages, roughly 10-20 gals each, as well as fixtures and bulbs for reach cage or large ones that can be stretched over several cages (large single or double florescent fixtures around 4' long are good for UVB tubes and typically you can get 2-4 tanks underneath them to provide UVB for babies). Basking light fixtures will have to be one per tank.

Of course you need basking logs (or equivanlent) for each baby cage, feed dishes, watering dishes, spray bottles, multi vitamins, calcium powders and substrate (paper towel is best for babies and cheapest to use, or newspapers are fine too).

Find a good herp vet experienced with bearded dragons, or at least lizards. Get him/her lined up even before you breed, this way should any health concerns arise, you have one already lined up. Bring your female to him for a checkup, even if she is perfectly healthy, this way you can ask questions and find out how much he knows about bearded dragons, if you like how he works etc.

Initial setup will cost you the most, as you need to get everything you need. Fortunately the majority of stuff you need, can be reused year after year. It is always good to start buying stuff right away, this way the cost isn't coming at you all at once. Keep an eye for sales, used tanks or free tanks advertised in your local paper etc. Buying tanks cheap right away will save you alot of money or hassle later. UVB bulbs can be purchased ahead of time as they keep fine when not in use. Again watching for sales is always good. You can also use rubbermaid or sterlite containers to house babies, instead of glass tanks, these are of course cheaper, easier to clean and move around, than glass tanks. Just have to be careful they do not come in direct contact with the hot heat bulbs.

As for the price for 100% het snow, not really sure. Doesn't seem to be as many snow or het for snow bearded dragons around as there have been in the past. Probably around $50-$75 US, but this is just my guess.

Back to setup cost, below is an approximate price list of stuff needed to setup.

tanks: $10-20 each (for 10 baby tanks) = $100-$200
Fixtures - basking light: $10 hooded fixture x 10 = $100
Fixtures - UVB florescent tubes: (4' single fixtures, covering 3 tanks each, total of 4 (may be able to use just three, but better to over estimate than under) $20 each = $80

feed dishes/water bowls: $5 (if bought at a petstore) x 20 (two per tank) = $100

Incubator: hova-bator brand: $40 (may need more than one even with just a single female)

Multivitamin and calcium powders: $20 for both together.

Basking Bulbs: $6 (petstore price) x 10 = $60 (if using regular lightbulbs, cost would probably be $2 for 16 60-75Watt bulbs)

UVB florescent tubes: Reptisun 10.0 (probably the best to get for babies) $30 x 4 = $120

So far the total is: $720

Ordering crickets online is your best bet. There are many feeder supply stores available, many are listed on kingsnake, under breeders/dealers/stores. Baby bearded dragons can eat alot of pinhead crickets, as many as 100 each per day (spread over 3-4 feedings during their first month, by this time they should be big enough for 1/4" crickets and can be fed 2 a day with greens offered all day). For this cost estimate, will say each bearded dragon eats 50 crickets a day. Will also set the clutch size at 20 per clutch that hatch successfully. Keep in mind a single female can lay as many as 6 clutches in one year. But we will just assume you had three clutches in your first year.

First clutch: 20 babies eating 50 crickets each a day = 1000 crickets a day. Typical cost of 1000 crickets = $20 shipping. Cost for crickets (without shipping or taxes for one week = $140

Second clutch (hatching roughly one month after the first clutch hatched): 20 babies (now you have to order two sizes by now, pin head and 1/4". Fortunately most cricket supplies sell sizes below adult for the same price. Now your need for crickets has doubled. So second month you will be paying $280 for crickets.

Third clutch: (first clutch now old enough to start selling them, so prices for bigger crickets (half inch should or bigger should be eaten now). Going to assume you have all three clutches. Thus three times the cost per week = $420.

As I am not taking into consideration the cost to feed the crickets (as you do have to gut load them for 24 hours before offering them to you babies (they can loose alot of weight, the crickets that is, during shipping, even overnight shipping, so good to give them a good healthy meal before feeding to your dragons, otherwise, they are not going to be more than just empty shells).

Monthly cost for the first month: 4x $140 = $560
Second month total (two sizes) 4x$140x2 = $1120
Third month total (3 sizes) 4x$140x3 = $1680

As you can see, your biggest expense will always be food. The above numbers of course assume you have not sold any dragons for three months. Though I do hope this doesn't happen to you, it is a possibility. Also, the intitial setup fee is for one clutch. Once you start getting secondary and third clutches hatching, you will need bigger baby tanks to house the one month olds and free up space for the new batch. Hence why plastic cages come handy, as they are cheaper. Realizitically, you would probably need closer to 20 tanks (with up to 5 babies per tank) plus larger sized tanks within those 20 tanks to house older babies and those babies who just can't get along (tail/toe nippers or dragons that grow faster than others).

For your first breeding year, I deffinitely suggest having $5000 saved up to buy equipment and help manage feeding costs. A good steady job is also a must, as you can't expect to make a profit from sales of babies. Even if you get $50 for each baby you hatch and sell them all by the end of the year, your baby sale amount will be: $3000 which wouldn't even cover your first year expenses.

For instance: Lets say you sell all your babies after they are a month old. Thus, your total food cost for insects (not including shipping and taxes) would be $1680. Add in your first year expenses, $720. The total expensive would be: $2400. Of course, in this 'everything went right and babies were up to 6" in one month and I sold them all before needing to feed them during their 5th week) you would make $600 profit. However, the cost of shipping and taxes would probably eat all that up anyway.

As a comparison, lets assume it takes two months to sell a single clutch of babies. Thus your food expenses would be as follows:

First clutch x 2 months = $1120
Second clutch x 2 months = $1120
Third clutch x 2 months = $1120

Total cost for feeding three clutches = $3360
Total cost for first year: $720 (initial setup cost) $3360 (food costs) = $4080

Here you see the money brought in from sales, would mean you lost $1040.

Then again, if you sold every baby for my top estimate of the price for a 100% snow, you would make $6000 which would mean a profit of $1020 so there is potential to come up on top, just not too likely, unfortunately. However snows or het snows (even these can show some of the same white/pale lack of pattern as full snows so really hard to say what price they will fetch) may sell at higher prices.

Market research deffinitely is a good ideal. Search the various breeder webpages, find out what lines they carry, what price they typically give their snows and part snows, send them emails asking them what prices they are thinking of offering for next years batch etc. As we are approaching the off season, most breeders are starting or have already started brumating their dragons for next year's season so may not be as busy taking care of babies anymore, having most already sold now. Thus they may have more time to help out a newcomer into the wonderful world of breeding.

Sorry for how long this post turned out...I became way to wordy for my own good at times.
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PHLdyPayne

Wow, i'm sorry my reply wont be nearly as long. I did appriciate all the math and typing you put in to that reply though. It's nice to meet you, wow $5,000 top start, im gonna wait another year I guess. I am currently going to court for STUPID mistake of the past.W ell about a month in the past, I was dealing drugs. Got caught at school, face 2 felonies and a misdemeener and I am paying for the attorney, I'm only 16. Well that was an eye opener and I started thinkin about what I want to do in life, that I love, and thats fun and can make a profit, I thought.... - Reptiles lol, well I've learned from my mistakes and I'll come on ehre again ASAP Thank's again

If you are lucky the felony charges willo not stay on your record past your 18th year. These days having a felony conviction on record is a huge disabiling thing when it comes to finding work and in some places even a place to live. If your like me then you will learn from these misjudgements and not have them repeat. On the good side, you can still own and bear reptiles

Yeah I know, I know. They said my lawer MIGHT be able to get me on this probation program thats home arrest/probation that could take it off my record comepletely. Yeah, trust me this experience has been an eye opener. Basically I've elarned my lesson and I hope I don't get juvy. Haha, oh well I get what I deserve I guess. But I love my beardie I'll get pictures up when I can I'm thinkin ill be 18 in 1 1/4 years and I am gonna get an argentina tegu I think thats what it's called. Oh and of course more beardies