Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, before having people flaming me for asking about the money in hognose snakes, I am not planning on breeding hognose for money. but if I am going to attempt to breed them, I understand that there will be a lot of work and time required.

To be honest, if I am going to put in the effort, I would like to make a few bucks

My first question is for the breeders. I know hognsoe clutches can vary, but I am only planning on breeding my male albino to a het albino female. This means that I will have a good chance of producing 4-12 eggs correct? Lets say I produce 5 eggs, have 2 be albino and the rest be hets. What are my chances of selling all of them? and do you breeders usually sell babies at reptile shows and online? what do you guys do with the leftover babies. I am only planning on breeding my hoggies to see what breeding snakes are like. If I enjoy it, who knows what will happen from there.

My second question is, what is the market outlook in the year 2011-2012? I know there are A LOT of albino hogs out there and I am afraid if I breed them, no body will buy them and I will be left with multiple babies. I know recessive morphs hold their values but do you think the market in albino hogs will be lower in the next few years? I see a lot of repeated albino hogs for sale ads on kingsnake which leads me to believe that not too many people are selling their albino hogs.

again, I am not a breeder and have kept snakes in the past as pets. I am confident in my hog knowledge (from keeping them) and I read the breeding conditions and procedures online.

I appreciate all the answers. thanks!

ALL IS FAIR GAME ,,, DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO THERE ARE MANY WELL KNOW BREEDERS , ON K. S. THAT HAVE BEEN AROUND FOR YEARS, AND I'M SURE THEY DID NOT GET RICH , BREEDING HOGNOSE,AND IN FACT YOU ARE NOT GOING TO HURT ANYONES FEELINGS, SO LIKE I SAID, DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO ,, PRICES WILL COME DOWN , BECAUSE THE PRICE OF GAS IS GOING UP NOW, AND IN THE NEAR FUTURE . GOOD LUCK

It's not just the hog adds that are staying around, nobody is buying much of anything anymore. Between what looks like an all time high number of people breeding snakes and a poor economy it's just really tough to move excess offspring right now.

Having said that I still found hognose as the easiest snake to sell for a fair price at shows the last few years. Not sure if it will be the same this year or not?

YA,,, IF BREEDERS DON'T UNDERCUT THE MARKET , YOU MIGHT SEE A SMALL PROFIT.

Here are a few things to think about:

The hognose market has been steady for the last 20 years.

Orange Albino hognose snakes for instance fetched a whopping $1500 retail each just ten years ago. The price dropped to $1000 a head retail about four years later when several breeders put out close to 250 albinos.
The next year close to 500 albinos were sold most by one breeder. This would only drop the retail prices to $750-850.
For the next few years less than 500 albinos were sold per year
retailing at $500 a head.

Today, nice orange albinos fetch 250-400 retail per head, so potentially 5 at a low retail price of 250 each still brings you a gross income of $1250, not to mention the sale of hets. Het albino males normal in coloration can sell for $50-75 each as feeding babies, females can sell for 75-150 retail.
If the hets are red and can produce nice red albinos, expect double the price.
Wholesale prices are typically 1/2 of retail.
So say you dont want to do shows or sell online, why not just sell the whole group of 5 to a buyer for $625 plus the price of the hets. It is quick cash.
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Thank you,
Kevin Rhodes

www.spiderhognose.com

http://www.freewebs.com/spreptile/index.htm
http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc314/lifesciences/?action=view¤t=09-09hognose001.jpg

Kevin, Thumbs up to that!
I'll never forget the first hogs I got about 6 or seven years ago. It took everything I had to scrap together 2k and convince the wife I hadn't gone completely mad! I think the prices on the more common hogs will help stimulate the market do to that it's an inexpensive way to get started and hogs will find there way into more collections. The hogs that are sold in the seasoned connoisseur market is a different story all together, your not going get hogs that have a DVD player Built in with a custom paint job with your name written down the side in LED's LOL for 200 bucks.
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D.Dedrick

Albinos are definitely a cool but inexpensive morph.
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Thank you,
Kevin Rhodes

www.spiderhognose.com

http://www.freewebs.com/spreptile/index.htm
http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc314/lifesciences/?action=view¤t=09-09hognose001.jpg

When and if you successfully breed them you can easily wholesale them to someone that resells them. If having an extra 5 baby snakes around is gonna be a problem then I would suggest not breeding anything at all. I only produce what I wouldnt mind keeping back. Which I end up keeping back most anyway.
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If more colubrid guys had balls (pythons) they wouldn't need to lie in police reports.

www.hognosefarm.com

Thanks for the input guys. It was very helpful. I still have time to grow out my hogs so I still have time to think about it.