Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Im thinking of getting into Leopard gecko breeding, and I was wondering how hard it is to sell leo's since so many people breed them. Anyone have trouble with it? And does anyone ever break even with their bills and their sells? lol. Also Can you give me a somewhat basic range to sell different species?
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www.mplionhearts.com

I have only sold a few geckos as this is my first breeding season. I have sold normals through my local classified adds and had no problem. I sold them for $20 a piece. From my own experience it is very hard to break even. Especially if you plan on it as a hobby. My personal advice is to enjoy it as a hobby first and worry about profit last

Hey, nice to talk with you. I see you are into marching bands. Check out my daughters marching band - one of the finest in Minnesota, which has a killer marching band competition reputation.

Go to 77lancers.com and check them out. She's a trumpet player!!

Now for the geckos. It's fun to breed them - but it can be tough to sell them, unless you have absolutely killer stuff or have an outlet to sell them to pet stores. I haven't had much of a problem selling - outside of producing too many males this year because of a little incubator proble - but I'm just a small breeder.

The only good advice I can give you is to breed the stuff YOU like - don't just go into it for the quick buck with the latest fad. If that's what you like - go for it - but only if you really like it. Personally, I like pattern morphs - bold pattern morphs - and the market right now is really into fru-fru cute stuff. That's cool though - because I still enjoy my end.

As far as making money - this year I sold enough to pay for food and some other stuff, and I considered that a good year - but like I said, I'm strictly hobby. I have 20 breeder sized leos - 5 of which are males, 2 of which I will not use this year.

For price - you get what the market bears and how cool your stuff is. As your rep grows, so will your ability to charge a higher price.

Have fun. Find something YOU enjoy and go for it.

Don't quit your day job, though. LOL
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Monte Meyer
Powergeckos
Email

No Fru-Fru morphs in the herp room

Ha! Day job, and marching band, at the same time?! yeah right! lol The 4 months of marching season, including the 5 competition weeks totally fill up my schedule. I have absolutely no time for a part time job right now. Once marching season ends though, I plan to get a part time job for my source of money.

I noticed with your daughters marching band, are they only a parade marching band? Thats what it seems like they are... I've never heard of strictly parade style marching bands.
We have a field show to contend with and 3 hour rehearsals every and, 3 hour rehearsals on saturdays (when we dont have competitions). But yeah, strange, were not the best in arizona, but were pretty high up there. Anyways good luck to your daughter.

About the geckos, I love albinos and blizzards. I dont think I'll be breading blizzards any time soon though. I think Im going to buy 1 albino male, and 1 albino female, and when i get the money Ill increase it to 2 albino females, then 3, and maybe 4. So like 48 eggs a year if im lucky. I just love albinos. Oh yea, do leo's breed twice, or only once a year? It takes 6 months to lay all 12 eggs doesnt it? or did I read wrong...
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www.mplionhearts.com

Leos breed once per year.

If you buy one albino male and one albino female, you can breed them and incubate for female, and save some of the offspring to breed back to the male when they are sexually mature. If you have money to buy more than one leo, I would suggest putting it into increasing the quality of your original breeding pair (e.g. a tangerine albino male, or striped albino male, and a regular albino female). You can always sell or trade the offpsring the following year to help fund the next steps in your breeding plan.

To increase genetic diversity, you can trade geckos with someone else, and you may want to consider outcrossing into a completely unrelated morph, and create hets, breed back to eachother (brothers and sisters to hopefully get a couple animals which are hetero for both traits. Or you can breed out into a less predictable selectively bred morph, and breed back to father for albino w/ some of that trait.

I have been breeding for two years, this is my first year selling, and so far I have spent way more on animals, housing, equiptment, electricity, food, vet care, marketing, etc...not to mention time, than I have made, but selling *does* offset the cost of the hobby. I breed relatively high-end animals, but my stock costs and housing/feeding costs are very high as I house many animals individually and feed a diverse and often expensive diet to my animals, as well as vet care when needed. As others have said, only get into breeding for the hobby because you love it, and breed what you love, what you personally think is beautiful. At minimum, you should be able to help pay for the cost of your hobby. I personally feel it is easier to help sell your animals and recoup some of your costs (housing, food, electricity, etc..) if you breed higher end animals, staying on the cutting edge of leo morphs, and that you have more assurance that people will treat the animals you sell them well. I believe a $150 animal on average recieves better care than a $10 animal, some people feel a $100 vet visit for a $10 animal is "not worth it" and they tend to view such animals as disposable, while with a gecko that costs more money,I think people tend to see proper care, including sometimes expensive vet care, as worth it considering what they paid. This is part of the reason I prefer to work with "higher-end" animals, I feel more assured that the people I sell to will "protect their investment" and provide good care. I raise each of my geckos seperately or in clutch pairs, and provide a great deal of very in-depth care for each one...what happens to them after I sell them is important to me. I personally would not want to breed if I felt that frequently the animals I raised with such loving care were being neglected and abused. I do think this happens frequently with "cheap" petstore leos. Of course SOME people who buy cheap leos provide EXCELLENT care for them despite the low cost of the animals and the high cost of vet care, but one can't easily predict who those people will be.

Most of the animals I produce sell for between $150 and $200, though a number of animals fall significantly both above and below that range.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

Well, I plan to breed my own meal worms to cut down on food cost, I breed my own crickets for my dragon, and frogs, cause they get really expensive after a while, with so many mouths to feed. I already have tanks for the leos, Id just need to get a few more light fixtures and such. Its probably the incubation thats going to cost more then the actualy raising of the geckos. Whats a good size tank to use for incubation? 20? Or is it better to just buy an incubator, what are your experiences?
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www.mplionhearts.com

I have 2- one for male, one for female
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

With the exception of the large-scale gecko mills, most of us who breed Leopard Geckos are lucky to break even. The market is saturated with Leos for sale, and now "super-hypo carrott-tails" are a dime-a-dozen. When this happens, it drives the prices down which is great for the buyers, but not-so-great for the breeders.

This is an example of the approximate costs involved in running my business:

$3,600 per year on feeders (at wholesale costs)
$1,000 per year on Veterinary costs
$500 per year on supplies
$600 per year on sponsoring forums
$1,800 per year in extra utility costs
$200 per year for my website
$800 per year in advertising
$750 per year in reptile show booth rentals
$1,000 per year in travel

These figures are very conservative, and if you do the math it comes to about $850 per month in operation costs alone. This does NOT include the intitial costs of all of my breeders and set-ups, the 4-5 hours a day, 7 days a week without a vacation that is spent on the care of the geckos, answering countless email and phone calls (most of which do not even buy geckos from me), 12-16 hours a month shooting pics, cropping and posting for my website updates. This would mean I would need to sell a minimum 12-15 geckos per month just to cover my costs alone.

So you might ask, "why do I do it?" Well, I think I could safely say it is either because I am crazy or I love my Leopard Geckos... or both. I can't speak for other breeders, but I often feel overwhelmed and trapped... and wonder myself why I do it. Gee, I guess I must be crazy!!!

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Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com

It costs me about $5.00 for every gecko I ship for the box and materials, and sometimes even extra shipping charges that I cover myself... so add another $400-$500 per year.
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Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com