Reptile & Amphibian Forums

would i be a good investment to buy a male supersalmon 100het albino and a female albino. both are adults and are proven breeders. The pair cost 10k. do you think it would be a good investment, i mean you could make your money back probably 2-3fold. I am just wondering hoewlong it would take to sell the babies. And it would be nice to know what the percentages of what morph you would get. thanks

the result of a super salmon het albino x albino should be
50% sunglow
50% salmon het albino

i dont know the going rate on either of the possible outcome, but you could look that up and then determine a theoretical profiton the litter. problem is its all theoretical including the size of the litter. if all works out then you should be able to make your money back on the first litter. but things dont always work out how they should.

Boas aren't the easiest to breed... even though one or both are proven, that means nothing as far as breeding/producing this year or next.

Now, let's say they do breed for you now and produce early summer. You will be down $10k for the snakes, atleast $1k in caging, feeding, supplies, maintenance and more, and then an additional amount for baby racks/housing, unless you have all these items laying around and at little or no cost to you.

When the babies do come, let's go ahead and say you've had a wonderful litter or 10 live DH Sunglows and 10 live Sunglows, after the slugs and stills.

Honestly, here is what I think about price....

If you are Rich Ihle or Tom Burke, maybe $8-10k on Sunglows and $1500-$2000 on DH's. They will probably sell out before they are born.

If you are a more 'middle level' breeder, still popular, nice guy, but without your own 'special name variety (Lipsticks, Boaphile, etc.). They can probably sell for $5k for Sunglows and $1000 to $1250 for the DH's It will take substantially longer to sell them... perhaps a whole year or more.

If you are an unknown, or smaller breeder, or first timer, etc., you will be lucky (IMHO) if you can get $3500 for your sunglows and $750 for your DH's.. and you will likely have half the litter or more still in your posession within a years time.

With this last scenario, even though your litter would essentially be valued at approximately $40k or so, chances are it will take you more than a year to reap even half of that. Nowhere near as good as an investment as the first or even second scenario.

Now this is not written in stone, nor is it guaranteed.

This is what I can say from experience and from watching the market/industry for the last 10-15 years.

Just my $.02

take care, Bci Joe
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

so it porbably wouldn't work out, but it could. Whell i am almost done with a new cage system i am building. it could house babies as whell as adults. the only things left to do is make the doors and i am finished.

also how do i become a reputable breeder. is it selling good healthy animals or having a special kind of morph or what. I would want to come out with my own kind of cages that are made from wood. all the cages these days are made out of plastic or some other type of material. These cages are sturdy enough to stand on them but it probably would be the best idea to do that. I will try to get a picture of what they look like just to see what you guys think of them.

To become a reputable dealer/breeder, there are many things one needs to do....

-lean as much as you can, and learn to do things RIGHT

-practice foolproof husbandry techniques (that you have learned) and keep your animals in pristine conditions

-maybe become a member of your local herp society, or visit local groups and become familiar with them

-join and frequent many forums and BOI's where there are others that share your interests/snakes

-be honest and strive to do what is right for the animal and your customer

-brand your name, whether it be with a website, by becoming a vendor at your local shows, or any other way, make sure people know who you are

-should definitely try to go to all local shows and expositions.. this is one of the best ways of getting out there, getting others to see you and meet you, meeting others, and staying on top of what's new and what's hot out there.

There are countless other ways to do this. They all take years of experience and getting to know your snakes and the market as a whole.
Be careful getting involved with the wrong people. People tend to judge you based on who you know, who you stay with, who you deal with.

If you are known for dealing with scam artists that import and sell sick snakes, chances are when someone is looking for a healthy, cbb animal, they will NOT go to you.

When you get satisfied customers, ask them to say so and let it be known! references and good guy posts are a big help!

Take care, Joe
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin