Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How many adults do the well-known, successful breeders have? I've heard people say they might only have 100, but the morphs are really valuable. I've heard others say they have 1,000 .

How many breeding females does it take to have a full-time, successful business?

Thanks.

Depends on the breeder and the focus.

For instance, co-dom morphs don't take as many breeder animals. One male mating with multiple females will produce clutches that average 50/50 visual and normal babies. With males that have multiple genes (Bumble bees, killer bees, etc) you can get varied offspring with several different displays possible. Breeders will often maximize the variety by having a killer bee male breed to several different visual and normal co-dom morph females to get mixed offspring clutches.

Recessive traits take more animals to get started, but once you get them going they can be very efficient. A clown male bred to a 100% het female will give 50-50 clowns and hets. That same male bred to a clown female will give 100% clowns. So once you get your recessives established, you can reduce the size of the breeding pool.

Also depends on if the breeder is going after volume production of staple morphs (pieds, albinos, clowns, pastels, etc) or if they are after designer morphs.

In short, there's no hard answer. Lots of variables decide how many breeders a "large" operation will carry. It all depends on morph selection and target of production.