Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Too all but a VERY lucky few, breeding and keeping, and hopefully hatching eggs, from our Ball Pythons will never be a full time job. Those who choose to breed Balls as a full time job are taking a big risk, and we as hobbyist/part time breeders should respect those that do it for a living.

That being said, I have heard people talk about receiving emails from breeders that have "yelled" at them for choosing to sell THEIR snakes at a price perceived to be too low by some. I think that is appauling, and stepping way over the line. The part timers and full timers have different agendas, and I think we each need to respect eachother, and the right to do what is right for them.

I sold my male Pastels for $275 this year, shipped. Why?, that is all I could get for them during the time frame I gave myself to sell them. I have a nice set up, plenty of space for hatchlings, yearlings, and my adults. Yes, I actually have unused cage space That being said, with my Pastel males, I decided to sell them, as I had no use for any hold back Pastel males. I gave myself a month to sell them, in the meantime, I fed them very well, I kept them nice and warm, changed their bedding, cleaned their cages and water EVERY day. Combined with my fulltime day job, I have a certain amount/limited amount of time that I give myself to devote to the Balls. So, I keep only what I can take care of 100%, period. So, I prefer to sell my hatchlings over keeping and caring for them for up to 6 months. Can I keep them longer, sure, like I said, I have purchased cages well in advance of when I will need them. My adult Vision cage is totally empty! But, I know I will need it soon, so bought it when I got my hatchling rack. I kept back my Sulfur Pastel, and have a Sulfur female that is sold, but we have not been able to ship because of the bad weather. So yes, I can take care of any and all animals I hold back, already have, am holding waiting to ship, but for me, the fewer animals to take care of, the better. Others might have a different opinion, they might love to hold back several animals, and try to get more money as they approach yearling status. Some people may wholesale all their offspring, because they want cash, or do not want to take care of babies.

I guess my point is, we all have different agendas, and we ALL need to respect the other person's agenda.

Dave

n/p
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1.0 Het for pied
0.1 Het for Pied
1.5 normal balls
1.1 bearded dragons
0.1.0 Sulcata tort
1.3 kids
1.0 husband
To many little critters list

Well Said Dave...
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Nick

The smaller hobbiest has less overhead and less expenses to re-coop. So we have an advantage in that regard. The big boys have more at stake and their break even point is much higher so the decline in prices hurts them. There is a "Diminishing Point of Returns" were by mass producing actually lower prices. Look what happened to the corn snake market. So that is the reaction you see when pastels drop from 1000's to 100's and more morphs will soom follow. The market is buyers and sellers. Period. Great topic Dave.