Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have noticed a new trend now that the market has hit close to bottom and the hopes of making a big buck breeding your snakes has diminished for lower level breeders. Is it now the cool thing to do to pretend you dont care about money and only do it for the love of the snakes? I think people here are lying to themselves because the reality is they will not make the big bucks they once thought they would. I guess to look good to your peers on the board you should act like money is in no way the thing that attracted you to breeding balls. I dont believe that to be the truth in any way shape or form. If that was true people wouldnt bother breeding their morphs and would just be happy with a nice pet.

Hopefully this "close to the bottom" crash as you so eloquently stated it will send all the phoneys who were only in it for the cash on to some other venture, real estate maybe....
I'll still breed what I want......
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www.strictlyballs.ca

If you are smart about the projects you buy into you can still make money. Hell, you can still make money breeding pastels. Yes, some people may have been kidding themselves in the amount of money that they thought they would make. For me with even having just a decent breeding season this year I will break even after only my second year really producing a decent amount of clutches. After this year I should make a decent profit. If I make enough to pay for rats and any new additions I want I am happy. Anything over that is a bonus. You will never lose money on pieds, and I should be making quite a few of them this season.

You are obviously someone who has never bred ball pythons. For most it is a hobby. I enjoy working with them and trying to produce something unique. That is why I "bother" breeding my morphs.
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John Vandegrift

Yes, there are a lot of aesthetic reasons one might breed morph ball pythons. For example, you like the way they look, you are interested in the genetics, you want to make enough for everyone, etc.

Of course there could still be the question of why breed ball pythons and not some other, perhaps less troublesome snake. I traded in the last of my burms for balls in 1995 because I liked the size of balls better. But I stopped breeding corns to concentrate full time on balls in 1998 because I thought ball pythons would be more marketable. At this point I really like their slow movement and doubt I'll go back even if corns are easier to feed.

I personlly am not breeding for the cash. Mainly cause im 12, whats a kid gonna do with $2000 from selling Bees? I just want to see tiny cute little Ball pythons crawling out of their egg.
Thats just me though. I dont think NERD or RDR do it for fun... I think they have turned it into more of a job. If that sounds offensive in any ways, my bad. Thats just my opinion.

Josh Molone
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Got Balls?
1.0 Pastel BP (George)
0.1 Spider BP
0.2 (1 Huge) normals(Beladona,Mystery!)

0.0.1 Gray Banded king
0.0.1 Red phase Eastern Hoggie
1.0 Cat(Higgens)
2.0 Dogs (Boomer,Andrew{Andy})
1.1 Iggys (Bart, Lisa)
1.1 Beardies
0.0.1 Anery Red tail Boa
0.0.1 Savannah Monintor

I have more boas (all locality, no 'morphs') than balls, and have yet to breed balls. But I think the fun in it would be to find some cool new patterns or something, it's always fun to find something cool, especially when your hard work contributed to it.

So I mean, I know I'm no breeder, and haven't dropped big bucks so I guess your post doesn't actually concern me. But I think it's fun to see what comes out of two animals that you found attractive in the first place, and think, "Hey, maybe they're babies will combine all the traits I like in the first two" But still other people may not like what you like, so then only you can truly appreciate your own work.

All that said, I would kill to be able to breed pinstripes or black pastels or piebalds, because they're gorgeous and I think it might be call to have a black ball python, or just see what comes from any of the other animals. But again, I don't have that kind of money to spend on snakes.

So yeah, I'm not seeing dollar signs, I'm just a guy who really likes snakes.

What the heck are you talking abaout? I am working with double recessives and need to keep everything I produce because of the small odds of making the visual and I need as many animals to do this as possible. I am going to work with fires because I want a white snake and may sell a few of those but nothing else.

How do you know any of us to say that we are just saying what we want others to hear and we don't want to make a dime? It is nice to make some money if possible, but if I don't I will still keep them. I have been keeping them for 14 years and only produced normals so far. My wife will tell you I am years away from making one dadgum dime on what I have spend on my animals. She supports me with the hobby because I love it and it makes me happy.

I recently sold off all my other co-doms to work with only the recessives. I got what I paid for them and the only money I lost was one idiot who ripped me off and I am taking care of that now. The other $200 I didn't get back was because I took two female poss het caramel albinos as partial trade for an extra rack I had.

Learn with a closed mouth, open mind, and not typing and read and listen and you will get that accompllished. I realized a short time ago that is what I needed to do and it has made a world of difference in what I have learned in the past few weeks.

And lastly, don't single folks out on here because that will get you in a bind and you won't be liked or listened to.

Have a good one.

AMEN STEVE!
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Happy Herping,
Jody Barnes
Royal Kreationz

My snakes aren't fat, they're big boned.

"My snakes aren't fat, they're big boned."

ROTFLMAO!!!!!

i breed for fun, mainly normals...
i do have a proven het pied male and a possible het pied male, heres the reason for it.....
there would be no way to save up the cash to buy a pied, so i bought a het male, and what i was told to be a possible het female which turned out to be a male, so now i am looking for a het female, but in the mean time i have allowed both males to breed 2 of my normal females, i will keep most of the female babies.
my thought was i couldnt save the money up for a pied so i would buy 2 hets and make my own, thats the fun of it.
seeing what you do produce.

>>I have noticed a new trend now that the market has hit close to bottom and the hopes of making a big buck breeding your snakes has diminished for lower level breeders. Is it now the cool thing to do to pretend you dont care about money and only do it for the love of the snakes? I think people here are lying to themselves because the reality is they will not make the big bucks they once thought they would. I guess to look good to your peers on the board you should act like money is in no way the thing that attracted you to breeding balls. I dont believe that to be the truth in any way shape or form. If that was true people wouldnt bother breeding their morphs and would just be happy with a nice pet.

It may make things easier if you explain who or what you are directing your post at. Are you saying anyone that breeds their mutations and tries to sell them for a profit is in it for the $$$$.

Just want to understand the question before my "DARKSIDE" comes to play.

I was interested in ball pythons WAY, WAY ....W A Y before they were worth a DIME! In fact, I got into them because I did not have the money to buy the expensive species like Black Heads, Womas, Angolans.......

SATAN
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"Satan™" is a registered trademark of NERD, Inc. Any copyright infringement is punishable by ETERNAL DAMNATION and some other terrible stuff.

Well said Satan,I feel that is the case....
Kevin S
www.kmsreptiles.com

My point is that its ok to be in it for the snakes as well as the money... I see nothing wrong with that at all... this is what makes the world go round,,,,

I guess I was sick of reading all the,, u cant make money in this business and I just do it because I love taking care of 500 snakes kind of posts.

I have kept, raised, bred, collected, respected, admired and appreciated Ball "Royal" Pythons before there was any trend.
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Kyle
www.royalvariations.com

"be safe, be happy and dont let anyone make you afraid" David Coverdale

what this market realy needs is more of a general public demand for somthing diferent. advertise i didnt know there was anything but normal bp till i was on the web and stumbled onto this site and was shocked by the amount of morphs out there. i eventualy purchased a pastel male. this is coming from a beginner i know that many of the snakes are purchased by breeders from breeders to continue their morphs. somone made a statement about a backyard breeder and his low prices. who do you think breeders have been selling all of the posible hets to over the years. i know i couldnt afford a morph other than pastel a few years ago but now everybody that has been snaching up the hets are now starting to produce morphs from the hets. i have wanted a Bumblebee but couldnt aford it so i am just going to make one myself with some het snakes. in the end the journy will be worth it. the price will come down over time but money will be in cleaner collor and high quality snakes.

there are no hets for bumblebee. You need a spider of the opposite sex than you pastel to get the job done. As far as people snatching up hets goes, that isn't so much the case. If you watch the classifieds, you will see lots of hets that take a while to get sold. I think more people can afford a homozygous animal of their favorite morph and a het of the oppostite sex. I think alot of people just starting out buy hets and then get bored with them because they take at least 18 months to two years or more to make the morph. This takes dedication to stay in for the long haul. We are a society of instant gratification, and that is why you see people getting out of the hobby all of the time. As far as advertising goes, what are you suggesting? I think you have a target audience and tv or radio would not really be beneficial.
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Happy Herping,
Jody Barnes
Royal Kreationz

My snakes aren't fat, they're big boned.

But there are people like myself who were looking at the get rich side of it until they realized that the money is there but do I really want to spend that much more on equipment just to make a buck when I already got the "nice pets" I wanted. Now I could make a living off my collection because their prices are more reasonable and within range for the small guys. I sat down and figured out that 49 snakes can produce 38 morphs at this market pricing, earning a million dollars without the high end platty's, lucy's,fire's or yellowbellies. With that said only people who truely love these snakes are still breeding them. Money isn't an issue anymore it's bragging rights. Who produced the newest prettiest morph!!!