Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok i have a friend that wants to loan me money to breed snakes so i can make extra money so i can cut back hours at work and go back to school....he wants to loan me $20,000....so my question is where do i start? i love high contrast albinos so i was going to get some of them and start with that, but should i just stick with all albinos or branch out into other morphs...any input would be nice....i would like to at least be able to pay him back most of this loan by the end of the first year...just because i hate being in debt...thanks in advance

WOW thats one hell of a loan, and one hell of a friend. LOL If it were me I would think in terms of diversity. You could do a lot with that kind of money, I wouldnt put it all in to albinos. And, im not sure if you can turn that kind of profit in just one year. Im sure its been done but I dont know what the odds are to be able to pay it back that fast.

EP
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Occupants not paying rent:
1.1.5 balls
2.1.8 corns(candy cane, creamsicle, ghost, 4 normal,
4 anery )
1 pueblan milk
1 everglades rat
1 cal. king
1 gray band king
1 w. hognose
1 bearded dragon
1 fish
1 mouse
3.3 cats

If he is giving you $20,000 to start, why bother with the little snakes?
(no offense to albino lovers and such, i think they're great

I say drop $12,000 on a mojave male and a few hundred on some normal females. $500-700 on a good rack system.
You breed the mojave male to the normal females, you get all mojave babies. Sell TWO and you've paid him back. The rest is yours.
Then you have the mojave X mojave breedings, possible Lucies...
reinvest in some lesser platinums and such...
or reinvest into whatever you like. Point is, the mojave market is still good.
Even IF prices drop on them, they're still going to sell for at LEAST $9,000.

That's what I would do personally, if he is willing to front the $20,000.
Just make sure you get GOOD stock and a GOOD rack to protect his/your investment.

"You breed the mojave male to the normal females, you get all mojave babies."

not true you will get

50%mojave/50%wild type (normal)

probabilty wise.

TomChambers

I would not even consider paying 12K for the mojave. There have been some posted in the classifieds for quite a bit less and those were 04's.

The only females you will find that cheap will be juvi's or wc females.

"Even IF prices drop on them, they're still going to sell for at LEAST $9,000."

We are now looking at 06-07 mojave babies, and I highly doubt they will bring $9000

Just my thoughts on the issue......

If it were up to me, PASS ON THE LOAN. If you like this species then save up and breed it. There is a greater chance you will fail if you feel you MUST produce so you can pay him back.
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www.NEWReptiles.com

"If it were up to me, PASS ON THE LOAN. If you like this species then save up and breed it. There is a greater chance you will fail if you feel you MUST produce so you can pay him back."

I'm certainly not trying to discourage your excitement....put a 20K loan put's a lot of pressure on you to produce. It makes all the fun.....get real yucky if things don't go your way.

Ball Pythons are unpredictable and many times reality has looked very different then my forecasting. Some animals chose not to eat....not to breed. If your banking 20k on 1 boy breeding for you (and he doesn't).....you could potnetially really piss off an investor.

I'm not saying absolutely do not do this. However, you may want more realistic about your goals. I think a 1 year pay back is way to aggressive. I would go with a 3 year pay back....and then if you can do it sooner....great. I would definitely diversify as indicated above....develop a strong base rather then relying on one major male morph. Get your females before you get your males.....they are the key....their size and maturity are always the restricting factor.

I would also make sure you really (clearly) understand the expectations of your investor. Paint a worse case scenario.....and how you will handle it. Are you taking all the risk and no matter what happens you owe him 20K.....or will he share in the risk.

Just a few thoughts.....goood luck with your decision.
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Jim Perron
Python Passion Reptiles
pythonpassion@hotmail.com
www.pythonpassionreptiles.com

I thought Mojave was dominant

It's said to be co-dominant, but even as dominant it would only produce 50% Mojave /50% Normal. (They work the same.)

Chris
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“Life sucks. Close your eyes and enjoy it." -- Me

The thing to remember is that the Mojave is only a het. Even if it where completely dominant it doesn't change the genotype rules that het X normal = 50% chance het. Now if you had a homozygous completely dominant morph and crossed with a normal you would get 100% hets that looked like the homozygous.

If I had to look at it as a short term loan I would shell out the high price of 500 bucks a piece and get ten nice big CB breeding size females. Then I would shop around to see if you could get a deal on a spider and pastel male from last year that should breed this year. Spend anything left over on a good rack and other supplies like a good incubator and thermostat. It is a lot like the stock market if you out all your money into one high end snake and it doesn't breed you will get a big zero. If you spread it out you are more likely to get babies. Also with any profit you have left over you can get something else and you will have all those big females to breed it to the next year. Just as a word of caution I know a former breeder that wanted to start out big and he had 20 huge females ready to go so he invested in a lesser thinking he would make a mint. Guess what. The snake now rests in peace in his freezer. And that was back when they were in the 50k range. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

It depends on many factors. How much time do you have? How soon do you want to produce animals? Do you want to diversify or specialize? You could by a few animals that will produce immediate results - such as the Spider or Pastel - and sell off some of the offspring to fund further projects or pay back the loan. You could get het pairs of many different morphs raise them up and produce a large diversified collection of animals.

Most importantly, do not be in a rush and research, research, research.

Good luck!
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles