Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How much do you spend on the upkeep of your snake collection?
Do not include the price of any snakes you purchased or shipping supplies. Nor the time you invest into your collection. Just the cost to keep, feed an house your snakes....CORRECTLY.......

What do you estimate the following costs you for your snakes only?

Yearly Food Cost
Yearly Electricity Cost
Yearly Water Cost
Yearly Cost of Dry Goods (tubs, bedding, cleaning materials, bowls, heat cables, supplements, enclosures, light bulbs, etc.)

Divide that total cost by the number of snakes you have.....

What would the average cost per snake per year run a serious keeper?

I come up with about $40 a snake a year.......
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

Electricity and water adds a lot.
Not to mention the work it takes to clean water bowls and cages.
As anyone here knows that has an excess of over 200 snakes. It's A LOT of hard work. Especially when the eggs hatch.
Then you have to add in advertising, website maintenance, classifieds etc.

and that is not the worst part.

You better have a cell phone with unlimited hours. Cause when some people buy a snake from you. You have to hear their life story on how they got hooked on snakes and think you are there newest BFF. They call you after 9pm just to shoot the wind. Or right when you are eating dinner, spending family time, doing homework or trying to get the buzz on with your wife. . LOL!
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www.Bluerosy.com

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>>Electricity and water adds a lot.
>>Not to mention the work it takes to clean water bowls and cages.
>>As anyone here knows that has an excess of over 200 snakes. It's A LOT of hard work. Especially when the eggs hatch.
>>Then you have to add in advertising, website maintenance, classifieds etc.
>>
>>and that is not the worst part.
>>
>>You better have a cell phone with unlimited hours. Cause when some people buy a snake from you. You have to hear their life story on how they got hooked on snakes and think you are there newest BFF. They call you after 9pm just to shoot the wind. Or right when you are eating dinner, spending family time, doing homework or trying to get the buzz on with your wife. . LOL!

I agree 110% Rainer......LOL

I wasn't talking about a business though.....
Just what does it cost to keep a collection of snakes per year?
Not your time or effort........Just money spent for the things I listed........
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

I wasn't talking about a business though.....
Just what does it cost to keep a collection of snakes per year?
Not your time or effort........Just money spent for the things I listed........

I don't know.
Someones calling me.
Can i get back to you?

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www.Bluerosy.com

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>>I don't know.
>>Someones calling me.
>>Can i get back to you?

What are they calling you Rainer?
Narcissistic?................Google it so you know what that means.......LOL
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

Hey, don't take it out on me just because you didn't get any Florida king morphs and your phone ain't ringing.
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www.Bluerosy.com

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>>Hey, don't take it out on me just because you didn't get any Florida king morphs and your phone ain't ringing.

LOL....
Screw Floridana.....I'm going to get a Spinnerblast Highway Lav pair of ROYAL Pythons.........hehe

I just need about $45K to "invest."

You wanna go Halves?....lol
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

and it's G O O G L E...hahahaha......I have been trying to call you for the last 20 minutes. Where are you?
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Gerard

"I am the one that hides the universal secret of all time"

www.livebaitclip.com

GONE FISHING!!!

John,

DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE!
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www.Bluerosy.com

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John, I am in line with yours at around 43 per snake. I did cut about 8 bucks off per snake since my mice are now producing what I need to feed. Thats a huge savings in my food bill and only costs 60/month for food and bedding and roughly 10 hours of my time per month. Its nice to have children that want to help out with them too. Lol.

My biggest expense is electric, having an air conditioner keeping a stable 70-73 ambient room and then heat tape for hot spot. Now, I have a wine cellar unit running this time of year too is huge. Keeping that closet at 52 is tough when its still 85 during the day. It'll be worth it for sure.

Now tell us what you spent on colubrids this year! I think, I spent......to much! Maybe pet rocks would have been a better investment. Lmao
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Jimmy Tintle

Assuming a 24 snake occupancy, my "maintenance" cost is 92.93 per snake. About a third of that is feed. I currently keep only 18 snakes but could easily quadruple that amount if I wanted to which would significantly reduce the per snake cost.

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“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” Emmerson

WWW.TDSNAKES.BLOGSPOT.COM

Is that a kitchenette and you keep a snake-rack where the dishwasher would go? LOL! Cool! Did you purchase that and install it with that in mind? I am sure the double sinks and all that counter top space is the way to go for a snake room. I just have a laundry sink.

Also the wall mounted TV and speakers around the room. Sounds like you have fun in there.

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www.Bluerosy.com

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The counter and cabinets came from Lowes. I spaced the two 36" units wide enough apart so that the rack would fit between them. The height just worked out.
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“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” Emmerson

WWW.TDSNAKES.BLOGSPOT.COM

..and whats is that tile? is that a converted bathroom or did you install that tile?

I see you even have a landline hookup. Must be part of the house and not a basement/garage. Perfect room size for a small hobbiets. Nice!

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www.Bluerosy.com

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Would have thought more, being how disorganized your snake room is.. lol!

Yearly Food Cost = 0, because I raise my own rodents

Yearly Electricity Cost = I use a small space heater for about 2 months in the spring and 2 months in the fall....so about $40

Yearly Water Cost = $10 maybe, my water is free, just a little elctricity to run the pump for my well.

Yearly Cost of Dry Goods (tubs, bedding, cleaning materials, bowls, heat cables, supplements, enclosures, light bulbs, etc.) = $30 for the small water dishes. I haven't spent $ on tubs or racks in over 10 years. Since I do raise my own mice I do buy food and bedding for them.....sell enough extra rodents to cover theat cost and make a few bucks.

Sell a few snakes.....make a few bucks.

This winter I am trying to reduce my breeder snakes to jst a handful and reduce my rodent production in half.....I would rather be doing taxidermy.

Kerby...
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Life is like a bunch of fish in an aquarium....we all get along (bonding) until I want to eat you....and I do.

hahahahahahahahahaha so why did you dismiss your time and cost and shipping. hahahahahahahahahahahahaha you already made this estimate inaccurate. Or do you feel you have no value. hahahahahaha joking, its about love and love is considered worthless. hahahahahahaha I better stop or I will get in big trouble.

I know my answer, A FORTUNE. hahahahahahahahahahaha

I did figure that out with small varanids and it was close, about $50 per offspring. But they sell for way more, even now.

Their individual cost per adult is higher, but they lay way more eggs. Cheers

I think he was just getting at what a hobbyist spends but you are right about the time factor. It makes the cost go WAY up. I did not figure it that way back in the day. I had a logarithm set up for the time I spent with each adult and average time for each neonate plus a set factor for marketing and shipping based on the number of offspring; this gave me a projected total time cost. This was divide this into projected revenues minus production costs to come up with an estimated dollars / hour I was making.

Whenever I considered a new project all I had to do was plug in a few numbers and see what the impact was. The answer never influenced me very much
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“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” Emmerson

WWW.TDSNAKES.BLOGSPOT.COM

>>hahahahahahahahahaha so why did you dismiss your time and cost and shipping. hahahahahahahahahahahahaha you already made this estimate inaccurate. Or do you feel you have no value. hahahahahaha joking, its about love and love is considered worthless. hahahahahahaha I better stop or I will get in big trouble.
>>
>> I know my answer, A FORTUNE. hahahahahahahahahahaha
>>
>> I did figure that out with small varanids and it was close, about $50 per offspring. But they sell for way more, even now.
>>
>> Their individual cost per adult is higher, but they lay way more eggs. Cheers

Yep you missed my reasoning and made up your own reason....no big deal but I was just trying to compile some info but No One answered the question correctly.....hahahahahahahahaha
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

Thats because you only wanted a partical answer.

Also, the costs vary to place to placed based on the cost of resources. Like electricity, space, food, etc. And you did forget the cost of space. When running a business that is a key important cost.

If they are in your house, you pay/paid or your house, how much space are the animals taking up. Or a building, on the land, renting, etc.

So while you wanted a particular answer, it was not very accuarte to serve any purpose. Other then hinting at, we pretty much lose money keeping these wonderful creatures.

So i have a better question, how do the HUGE breeders like reptile industries, sell snakes to the giant pet chains for 8 bucks and make money. Consider, they have time, hard costs, labor and building cost to pay for? Thanks

The numbers work Frank as long as you've taken the time to raise a good bit of the capital costs. I don't think I'd want to be in that business though.
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“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” Emmerson

WWW.TDSNAKES.BLOGSPOT.COM

I used to figure 50$ a snake......good round number....

I spent over 8000 $ on just mice supplies....

I know a guy that says his rat/mice bill is 250,000 a year...the next show he says 150,000$...
guess he had a brain frat...?....LOL...one day or the other...

....50$ a snake...baby worth 40...raise it 2 years...= 140...take it to Hamburg show..sell to fred or ian....for 30-40$...total loss ...$100.......alot.......(colubrids)....people wonder why I wholesaled as much as ossible right off the bat...

bat,....like to breed bats...wonder if there's still a law against selling them....hmmm..>>>.Google time..>>>

good luck...
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........JY

My surplus mice pay for the upkeep of my snakes. Selling the surplus mice covers the rodent feed and litter. When I first got started with mice and snakes I had an expense concerning equipment, but have since bartered for nice glass tanks for the snakes and have all the other tubs and equipment I need for the mice. So the main expense is the mouse feed and litter, which as I said is covered by selling surplus mice. The water and electricity would have to be generated anyway, and the snakes don't use much, as they are all colubrids who mostly all brumate. Running the incubator uses a bit more juice in the spring, and turning all the UTHs on again adds a bit. But I have only 32 snakes, most co-habitating in big cages, so not having to use a lot of individual heaters.

The biggest expense is my labor to care for the rather substantial mouse colony. Because this is a labor of love, and also pays not only for itself but for all the snakes' upkeep as well, I am coming out ahead on this hobby. Another side benefit is the copious amounts of premium compost the mice generate.

Alas, I have not sold any baby snakes yet, although I do have one buyer who wants a pair of baby pyros (but his wife just had a baby so this may not happen! LOL!)

Sorry I don't have actual numbers to post, but as I start the new year with a stable static condition concerning feed costs I will be able to break it down to the penny. For awhile this last year times got pretty lean and the mice income was feeding us, too.
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

I'm not really sure but I'd say under $500 a year and I don't make any of that money back.
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