What is the future, from your view!

BOAS_N_PYTHONS · 02-01-05, 06:33 PM

EVERYONE:

This poll is open to everyone be it from Canada or USA or Worldwide.

In the past I have had discussions with people about reptiles moslty snakes and there future as a hobby or business. The basic jazz of the discussion has always been do people have these animals for fun as pets, for fun as a collection, specific species or collection to breed for education or profit, or considering these animals as a method to earn a second income or possibly consider the collection or specific species as your future career.

In this process of talking away with many friends in this hobby I have heard percents in each area. So I thought to bring it up in a thread to see the over all view on this topic with a poll and any comments people have to share on the hobby / business and there future in it.

I myself started collecting and gaining species and morphs mostly in boas and some select pythons. Current ratio is 70/30 being towards boas of course. Although I have my day job career and always figured I would be there till I was at least 45 maybe 50, that is less than 20 years away. I enjoy my career and it took me alot to achieve it from nearly zero so I expect leaving at 50 is early but reasonable at the same time. Wow now thinking it man I am old.

My collection is just a passionate hobby about animals that always got my interest, love to grow them up from babies, the idea of getting adults and then breeding to me seems to easy and can never be claimed there was a love for the hobby, its to much like saying money doesn' t matter (being humble) yet your a millionaire, lol. Once I put anywhere from 3 plus years on a species I do want to breed them more because I want to see the 3 year result in a full circle and see little clones of the parents. Yes alot of the species and collection carries some high dollar and the end result is you can' t keep everything, some must be sold I myself do not consider this hobby a major second income. Both myself and Analisa have careers we enjoy and want our hobbies to self sustain themselves in the coming years. We just don' t see it as a reason to quit our careers or make some future plan assuming this is a gold mine.

Although in my converstions with many hobby friends the answer is different, many do state serious profit is needed, some want this as a career, others want and think there is a gold mine to be tapped, and many think its a good decent amount of coin to cover costs or future purchases and etc, etc.

So please join this thread feel free to give your 2 cents on the subject from your personal view. Also please fill in the poll above.

Thank you all for reading and adding your feedback.

Tony Pharosx

csolis · 02-01-05, 07:03 PM

Great idea for a post Tony. I see nothing wrong on making a muched loved hobby into a carreer. I have taken the plunge into the market of ball python morphs and have put down(along with some partners) some major cash to obtain them. If I make money great, alot of it will go towards more morphs that I wasnt able to afford before I made the initial investment. If all goes wrong and I breed nothing, fine, I will still enjoy keeping them, in my eyes I have lost nothing cause I love the morphs I have bought. I too enjoy my job very much and with my worplace moving and turning into more of a reptile zoo, its going to be even better. I will get to work with all kinds of amazing species like komodos, crocs and all types of venemous snakes. So If I can make breeding reptiles into a carreer , great, if not I still have an amazing job and an amazing hobby that I love.

clint545 · 02-01-05, 07:20 PM

Great post Tony! First and foremost I'd say I'm in it for the hobby/pet side of this. My collection might be small but it always has room to grow

and that's the beauty of it. I never know what the next herp will be that will come along and peak my interest along with the ones I currently have!

As far as the money aspect of it, i'm with you on it and the most I want to ask for is for my hobby to self sustain itself in a year or two.
Myself and the girlfriend just purchased our first home a few weeks ago. It won't be ready till November but I'm already planning out ideas for the reptile room.
I just can't wait to design some cages, and build them myself.

Lrptls · 02-01-05, 07:24 PM

well all the reptiles i have right now i have gotten as pets and they will ofcourse always be my pets. i would like to become a snake breeder and will soon start buying snakes to one day breed them. i will consider them pets as well but they will also (hopefully) bring me some money.

varanus69 · 02-01-05, 07:59 PM

i am a hobbist first and will be a breeder second. To me its all about the love of the animals whether it is a $7000 sunglow or a $125 blue beauty. There are plenty of high end snakes that i won't buy and or breed because they do not interest me.. But at the same time there are plenty of average animals like grey bands and blue beauties that i love and would work with in a second. If you don't love it don't work with it..

Linds · 02-01-05, 10:35 PM

They aren't just one thing to me. They are my pets, but out of most of them, I would also like to breed, and out of a few of them, I hope to make a bit of profit out of. Hahaha my dream is to be a housewife that has a small breeding operation (just one room of animals) to contribute some extra income, but Mike isn't going for that idea... boo! I have to work a normal job

So the future of my animals are mainly as pets that I will breed as I can, and hope that a few of them can help me out with the bills

ChunkyMunky · 02-03-05, 03:19 AM

I'm in the same situation as Linds, even the housewife part! HAHA.

Dan.

SerpentLust · 02-03-05, 07:28 AM

Same as Linds. Right down to the boyfriends name lol

Jenn

lakeridgekennel · 02-04-05, 01:01 PM

For me it's just fun I love raising them and i love watching them eat mostely snakes i even like cleaning cages because i get to interact with them. Only thig i ask of them is that they pay for themselfs. only because i have a bit of a big collection but all the money i get from them goes back to them, if i need a new cage or 100 rabbits all the money i get from them i give to my reptiles only thing i pay is electricity. It's no career but it's just some of the most fun i ever have.

just my 2 cents
Sean

Tim and Julie B · 02-12-05, 02:36 AM

Hmmm, I want to be a reptile breeding housewife too. I have a feeling we'll need a support group at some point!

I will always have my pets and my breeders. I still have my first leo, which Tim got for me so of course it's his fault I want to stay at home with the reptiles, but the ones that aren't pets come and go. I don't think I want anything huge scale, but a little extra income each year would be nice, not to mention rewarding.

Julie

ATBlover · 02-17-05, 04:07 PM

Good post...Im only 15 and i have 6 reptiles all together...not much but i dont really have the money for alot and space....my next snake is a GTP and i might be able to breed it with another girl thats at my sisters house....I also have balls and im hoping they will breed next year...they will probably be normals so they wont sell for much but once i successfully breed my balls...i will probably start breeding other animals...also i might breed my leaf tail gecko but well see about that...I hope to breed morph balls when im a little older and maybe have a high end breeding program....Has anyone bought a GTP from the expo before?..thanks....Connor!

BOAS_N_PYTHONS · 02-20-05, 01:22 PM

EVERYONE:

Thank you for your participation.

Tony

greenman1867 · 03-15-05, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by SerpentLust
Same as Linds. Right down to the boyfriends name lol

Jenn

Same name.....or same B-friend

I am hoping that oneday soon my snakes will at least pay for themselves, then anything after that will go 50/50.

50% back into the hobby and 50% to the wife..........er mortage

By 50% back into the hobby, that means feeders,electricity cages AND when all the upkeep is taken care of, maybe there will be enough left to buy new snakes.

So I guess I might be out of luck

Shawn

D J N · 03-15-05, 11:12 AM

For me there has always been a love for the animals and a fasination for keeping them, and breeding to me is a natural part of keeping them. I guess you can say it's the next step because you know your keeping them happy and heathly if they will breed long term for you. As for making it my job hardly, if I make some money for the upkeep of my animals then whoo hoo bonus. I also think that the market for herps in canada is still to small as well as the dispursion of the population makes it a little hard to make breeding your sole career but thats just my 2 cents.

Although I like the House wife/husband thing I could do that!

Invictus · 03-15-05, 11:46 AM

I can tell you for me personally, it's a combination, like many others here. I have my pets, I have my breeders, and I've got my cash cows. But really, what it boils down to is, I work with what I like.

But for the sake of this poll, I said the FUTURE of this hobby is people breeding for a second income, and I'm saying that because I don't know too many people who just own single specimens that they have as pets, and have no intention of breeding. It just seems to me that everyone new and old skool is either currently actively engaged in breeding programs, or is building up to one in the case of some of the newer people.