Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was just wondering as i havnt bred anything before whats a good easy snake to breed that has a high cash yield.

First of all, posting your question just once will suffice. Try hitting refresh before you repost.

The problem with your idea is that thousands of others have the same idea. So if a new snake comes into the hobby that is relatively expensive but easy to breed, everyone gets a pair or two with visions of new found wealth. Of course, in a couple of years when all those babies grow up, suddenly there are 10X that many available on the market and the price plummets and pretty soon you have trouble getting rid of babies for any amount of money, let alone what you paid. This happened about 10-15 years ago with Pueblan Milksnakes.

I suggest you find a snake you like that is reasonably easy to breed. Many of the cornsnakes and African House Snakes are good starters. They are easy to keep and breed and easy to get rid off because you can sell them for $25 or less. Cal Kings are easy to breed, but harder to sell because the babies can be a little snappy.

Of those 3, African House Snakes are probably in the lowest supply in the hobby. I used to produce 4-5 clutches of House Snake eggs per year, and never had any trouble selling all of my babies. I didn't get rich, but they provided enough income to pay for frozen rodents for all of my snakes and occasionaly to add another more expensive snake to the collection.

Another thing to consider is how you are going to sell the babies. You could sell them really cheap to a wholesaler, but that is assuming they will buy them at all - most have access to large numbers of inexpensive corns, etc. They don't need yours. I used to breed a couple of pairs of corn snakes with my other snakes. I used the babies to pay for gas when I drove down to the wholesaler in FL to sell my other snakes. He used to give me $4 per baby for the corns, and only because I was a good customer. Most people got $2 per baby corn, if he needed them at all.

You could take them to an expo and buy a table. But a table at an expo costs $100-$150 or more. That takes a big chunk out of your profit margin right off the top, and there is no guarantee you will sell anything. I have been to expos and seen people who bought a table, paid for a hotel, paid for travel expenses, etc and ended up spending $250 just for the opportunity to sell their snakes. Then they sold $50 worth of snakes!

One last thing to remember,....while you haven't sold the babies, you have to feed/house them. If you buy pinkies prefrozen in large quantities you can expect each baby to cost you around $1 per month to feed. What if you had 100 baby snakes? Gets expensive fast.

I am not trying to discourage you. Rather, I just want you to go into this with you eyes open. Find a species of snake you really like. Get a pair of those and enjoy raising/keeping them. If you get lucky enough to breed them, feel contented. If you are waiting for the financial payoff, you are likely to be disappointed.

There are some (few) people who make decent money breeding snakes. But those people "invest" huge sums in rare, high dollar snakes or keep hundreds of animals.
-----
Chris Harrison

hmm i really have no idea why it posted that many times.

Well thnx for your input.I've really been pondering the african house snake they are great little snakes with a good disposistion.Im not looking to get rich or anything in truth im just looking at having a little pocket cash.