Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was thinking about what kind of milk snake or kingsnake I wanted to buy recently. At first I wanted it soley for a pet, but the more I think of it, the more I realize I want to breed snakes a few years down the line when my hatchlings grow up.

I was thinking of getting a pair of tangerine hondurans. These are affordable snakes for me, but the babies will sell for at least 50 bucks three years down the line (at least, I hope so). Does this sound like a good idea to you guys or are there better choices for beginning breeders?

Or should I go with something like albino california kings? Any advice?

You know, if you invested $50.00 a month every month in a mutual fund or other vehicle, you will have in 20 years far and away more money than you would get by breeding the snakes you mentioned every year for 20 years.

Please don't enter this hobby for money, because you will be disappointed. If you want to breed snakes, pick those types you are interested in, and do your best to produce the healthiest babies possible.

This advice comes from a guy (yours truly) who spends far more on cages, food and other snakes than has ever made selling snakes, so keep that in mind too.

But, if you are bent on having an investment snake, get into something that everyone doesn't have everyday access to yet. Hypo Pueblans or albino Hondurans come to mind. In this case, you will need to lay out $1000 or more, but at least when you do produce babies there might be some interest. Remember, it wasn't that long ago that albino nelsoni were $1000 a pop. Now, people offer them for $150.00 and the snakes still don't sell as quickly as they did when they were more expensive. I wish I would take my own advice on the hypo Pueblans, but I'm too stuck on locality rosy boas and odd stuff like rubber boas that aren't worth money but interest me to no end.
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Mark

Money is definately not the most important thing to me. I just want a snake where I can some money back when I sell the babies. For example, I don't want to breed normal phase Cal Kings, cause I'll get maybe 20 bucks for a hatchling. I might as well get something a little more exotic eh?

I'm pretty sure I want some tangerines now. They're affordable for me but I can make a couple hundred bucks from hatchlings each year.

Well, thanks for your advice!

I don't know how much your area sells tangerine hondurans for, but when I bought mine on the East Coast, they were only about $40 each. And that was 2-3 years ago. I know the prices have not gone up, and by the time you get yours to breeding size, they very well might be even less. But they are gorgeous snakes when they are little. You might want to check out how many are available at shows in your area to more realistically assess the saleability of hatchlings.
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sue

Excellent advice Mark. I agree, buy what you like. If you like the tangerines go with them, don't worry about what the price will be in 2 or three years. Same goes for the Cal kings. Normals might be sell for less but to me the albinos are ugly so it wouldn't matter if they were more valuable. If you like the albinos then go ahead and get them. I don't want to get into anything that I don't like, and I really don't like morphs so I guess, like Mark, I am stuck with snakes that interest me to no end but aren't worth a hill of beans. If you aren't in it for the money what difference is it if the snakes net you 200 or 500 bucks a year. As long as you enjoy them.

Mark, I am still trying to convince myself that I need some rubber boas, I think they are very interesting, but everytime I get close to buying one or two I chicken out.

Steve Schindler