Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I always wanted to know how good of a profit can you make from breeding boas. Like to who ever breeds boas whats the average income you make lets say in a month to a year from breeding them. Also how much do you normally make at a expo. i don't think you would make allot of money since allot of other boas breeders are there and there always some one that sells there for a lower price. What do you do when that occurs do you lower your price also right then and there or do you just hope to god that some buys from you. If you ever went with the 1st approach then what about the people who bought boas from you before you lower the price don't you lose buyers like that because they would have bought them at regular price then to come back and find out that you lowered it i would be pissed for sure. Do you ever loses money from breeding them and who has had the most success with making a good living off of them. I'm not saying that i want to breed boas for profit i think its bad idea and that you should breed them for the joy of it but I'm curious to know about the whole boa sales market.

I have bred and bought and sold herps sucessfully for almost 40 years. I got into it by accident because of my love for reptiles. In the beginning money played no part in me doing this. I did it quite simply because I loved it. If you begin strictly from a monetary point of view it's unlikely you will excell. Most of the "big breeders" all started NOT for money but because of a passion and love of reptiles. I do now and have made a good living my entire life buying and breeding herps but if I were a billionaire I would still do it because I can't imagine life without them. It's the herps and the comraderie of herpers that fulfill my love and in spite of mistakes, bad times, good times, etc I have truely lived my dream. The money was always secondary and still is. There is NOTHING wrong about desiring to make money. I hope the love is there as well for that is an essential ingrediant to everything else. I wish you all the luck....TC

Well said Tom! Great post.

point about doing it even if I was a billionaire. I started out with a nice pastel pair that were given to me by an animal control guy that needed them taken care of because I had wanted a boa since I was 8 or 9 years old. Then I saw the striped albinos and wanted to my own full striper albino. Then my addiction got out of control and I came across a super cheap way to make lots of cages by aquiring a HUGE amount of lab rat racks and started raising rats. That soon was out of control and I had to start selling the excess which perpetuated the buying snakes and building a rat house and more animals and . . . well you get the idea. Then I got hurt and I was blessed to have started making a profit just when I needed to. If this year goes well I should be on my way to living everyone's dream of earning a living doing what we love. Either way, I am hooked for life and spend my days dreaming of the next project. You lose a lot of sleep but do it while dreaming. It is crazy. Their are way to many variables to tell someone how they will do but if you love what your doing the money is just a bonus. . .IF you make any at all. At least your still making killer boas and that is what really matters. Good luck to all out their living the dream and dreaming of litters!
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Ty Hege
Rat Race Solutions
www.ratracesolutions.com

I used to work at Rare Earth Inc. for Joe Lewis. He had a surefire plan that he guaranteed would let you retire with a million dollars.What's the secret?
Start your reptile breeding "business" with $2,000,000.
When that's half gone, retire.
There is always someone to tell you it can't be done. Every successful person has had it explained to them why it can't happen.
The people who go ahead and do it anyway are the ones who make it work.
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give up television - 100% cold turkey. Leave what isn't real and go to what is real.
Spend time with nature, see the ground and the sky, feel your place on this earth,
see the trees, the plants, birds, animals, feel their life. And feel your own life.
Dr. William Pierce (paraphrased)

I've kept and bred boas for about 13 years and I'm still not sure I have made all the money(cash) I have spent on them back. What I do have is an incredible collection of boas though and through breeding, each year my collection gets better. Last year I kept some very nice possible super striped salmons, some cool sunglows and traded for a salmon motley het. ghost and a motley het. sharp and my pockets didn't get touched. This year I'm hoping to have my best year yet producing some very nice boas and I'm sure I'll be trading with someone for something. Have I made much cash, not really? Am I as cheerful as a kid in a candy store when I get home to find babies, hell yeah! I have to say that getting that one amazing looking boa in a litter is much more exiting then getting a couple of $k in the mail. Then you keep that amazing boa and sell all the other ones so you could buy another amazing boa from someone else. You can't get into this if you are just trying to make a buck, producing babies is not guaranteed. You might spend $3k to $4k on a fancy Motley and the only litters you may get are from your $50 normals.

im sure for many of us here also have other hobbies or at least something else they enjoy and spend money on, like me i hunt an fish. Now with the amount of money we spend on gas, tree stands, arrows, licenses it would be cheaper to buy a half of a cow but we enjoy to hunt and the meat we get out of it is an added bonus but if say we go a year with out harvesting an animal or two were not gunna give up. Most hobbies only suck money out of you without ever giving back financially which is fine but our hobby is one that some times it gives back monitarily if you break even your lucky but then you can get to do what you love for free

NP

If I won the lottey, the first thing I would is go out and buy all the Vision Racks I could fit into my new Mansion.
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2.2 Chondro (Aru / Sorong / Biak / Mix)
1.1 Eastern Indigo
1.1 Retic (Calico x Dwarf / Calico)
3.6 BCC/BCI (Peruvian / Albino / Albino Het / Guyana / Albino Het Snow / Anery Het Snow)
2.2 Crested Gecko
1.0 Western Hognose
1.1 Western Coachwhip
1.2 Black Racer
2.2 Ball Python (Spider / Pastel / 1.1 Het Pied)
1.3 Homo Sapiens
1.0 Pit Bull
0.1 Bull Terrier