Glad to hear that $250-$1000 is the sweet spot in your opinion. All of my current breeding projects fall exactly in those ranges. Im working with hets too, so none of my animals costed me much upfront, and they will only produce a small number of the higher dollar animals (since they are only hets).
The way I'm going to approach this in the future is just breeding what I've personally found to look cool, which includes things as simple as a nice pink and clean jungle to stuff like a blackberry. I'm not expecting to ever be offloading multiple litters of even 10k snakes because I peruse through breeders websites often enough to know that many end up sitting on a snake for years, even ones that arent particularly expensive. Your market is everything and how accessible you are is going to be a natural cap on that market. If I'm breeding snakes -I- think are badass then the prospect of sitting on a baby isnt terrible anymore
Such a great topic and super helpful. I’m currently getting setup to breed Hognose snakes. I’m A couple years away from it but I made sure to get middle of the road type morphs because I know I’ll be too unknown to sell any high dollar snakes. Totally agree with everything you said.
Absolutely spot on mate, I started off buying £30 boas then £150 then £200 then £600 and now £1000 over 7 years. How much have I made ? £1200. My first breeding was this year and i bred hypo motley het sharp to a ghost het sharp. 9 babies and I’ve sold almost all of them. I’ll continue to produce snakes like that for the next couple of years starting out as like you said it’s hard to sell high end snakes when nobody knows your name. Great video !
I enjoyed your video. You seem honest and sincere. I have been keeping reptiles for over 40 years. Mostly focusing on GTP's and Emeralds. I think that most breeders keep animals that they truly like intrinsically. I had a friend who used to have over 600 animals while still maintain his normal job. I learned quite a bit from him. I learned about animals I had never even read too much about. I also learned which animals were not for me, despite any dollar value on them. I think that most prospective breeders should research basic economics. I agree with you that there is not a huge market for $5000 to $20000 snakes. Suppose that you bred some animal and had a record clutch and produced 50 babies at 20K per animal ( This is hypothetical, animals will cost 5K because they are rare in the first place). We all would love to have this problem! But would that newbie breeder understand that there probably aren't enough buyers at 20K to buy them all. Ok, you sell 10 at 20K, Awesome! So now what? You will still want to sell the rest (I understand you will keep some) Now that you have cleared the market (met the threshold) for 20K, the next 10 sold for 15K, then the next 10 for 10K. By the way, that's still pretty awesome. Are you ready to understand that you have to sell them cheaper than what you started at? Do you understand that the first 10 persons who bought from you at 20K won't be too pleased that you are selling them cheaper and thus lowering the market value? Do you understand that in the real world when you buy almost any up and coming morph or species that the breeder you bought them from is breeding them too, that others who bought them are trying to likely breed them too. So if you are lucky enough to breed them in 5 years a 1K animal (that's what you paid for them) will likely only be worth let's say $200 to $400. Understanding supply and demand principles, the demo graphics you are selling too, cost to maintain etc... are all variable factors. I again, refer back to the point, most people work with animals they truly like. Making money to maintain or expand your hobby slash reptile business is a bonus and quite frankly awesome. Most persons will start small and use any money made from breeding to buy more or more expensive animals, thus building slowly and carefully. By this time they likely understand that animals die, get sick, can be a pain to clean and feed etc...I always try to remind over anxious (budding breeders) that for most of society these reptiles are worth nothing, they have zero monetary value. Go ask your mother in law what she would pay for your prized $800 ball python (whatever morph), the answer is likely $00000. In these times of our Pandemic it should remind you that we need food, we need water, we need electricity, you get the idea. Reptiles have an intrinsic value that's it. So it's a bonus that I can sell any of them. Whatever you decide (assuming proper care is given) good fortune. AJ
Absolutely right. The affordable snakes are the most appealing to the vast majority of people. Need to accept that not every snake you produce will actually sell. Pick and choose what you breed in such a way that the offspring will be appealing to as many people as possible like the avg joe. Great vid Jason
This is generally good business advice. I think a lot of people see dollar signs when they buy inventory of something to start a store or start a service oriented business. The reality is that reputation and name recognition is a huge part of profit not just the raw numbers of capacity and capability. You have to sell yourself and endure highs and lows as a business.
👍🏽Honesty will prevail in the the end n you'll go far that's for sure! So in a way that's how I see growing a successful long lasting business with content customers...
(Sorry, this is a bit off-topic!) What originally drew me to your videos is the fact that you film in one straight shot, no million edited jump cuts. It makes the video feel a lot more like a natural conversation, as if we were sitting and chatting over a coffee. And it's really unique too! I don't see other youtubers really doing that. Keep up the good work! Although, out of curiosity, do you ever have to re-film a video because something happens that you can't just gloss over? Like if a snake knocked the camera over or something like that.
Thank you! That's awesome to hear since I'll get some crap for that as well, but I figured I'd keep doing whats right for me. And I haven't had to yet, but im sure it will happen haha. Usually if I make it 30 seconds or so in I keep going regardless of what comes out haha.
Love your videos, me and my wife are starting to get into boas and will be adding them to our breeding projects soon we learned a lot from watching your channel! thanks
Newbie here. Just looking into starting this business very soon. Recently got an anery/albino snow corn snake and I would love to breed her and see what she will create. This was a great starting pointers video!! Thanks!!
Hey bro, same here man! But I haven’t started yet. I want to start small, should I start out with just buying a pair of corn snakes or something of that sort and maybe trying to get a booth at the next reptile expo? How/who do you sell them to? That’s the thing I’m thinking about. Like if I do make this jump and start, how could I potentially get in the game? Any advice? I love reptiles but just lost the passion for a while with day to day life. Im 21 now and I seriously would like to create a opportunity with this.
@jason Thanks for this video. Im in the process of rounding up equipment to start breeding ball pythons and you made a point here that I hadnt thought of yet. Ive been trying to research what morphs I could get into to maximize profit and the reputation consideration as well as price point for the average customer was something I completely overlooked. That will help alot when hitting morphmarket for my first breeding pair.
I agree. There’s a lot of misleading conceptions on the web about breeding reptiles. When In reality for those like myself that start from nothing knowing nobody you got to start small and build up as you go… I only have 50 royal pythons to date. But selling them Is a completely different kettle if fish. Not many people who are end users are unwilling & don’t have the money to spend crazy money on 1 pet snake. But a breeder who is well astonished and has a custom base to sell regularly will take rink to invest in higher priced snakes.
100%. Ball pythons in general are really difficult to sell right now. The market is flooded with them because they are so easy to scale. There is still a market, but it’s very difficult to set yourself apart.
Great video and your absolutely right about price range and sales. There is also a big difference if you're buying an animal as a future breeder or just as a pet to enjoy. Some of the multiple gean animals are very valuable as breeders because you have more variety in the clutches. As pets I find sometimes less is more. 👍🐍
Great video jason. I'm right now in my 2nd year of breeding as a business and I can definitely agree start small gain rep. My less expensive stuff sells 10x faster then my more high dollar animals.
You make a lot of good points in the video. I hatched a pied ball python clutch last year. The 100% hets were the first to sell. The visuals took a bit longer to sell. So I see your point you can have more traffic on the bread and butter stuff at a reasonable price vs the high dollar stuff. I saw the video you were talking about, yes his model works if you have deep pockets to make the big connections. However I don’t even have pockets to begin with😂. That’s why I only breed what I really like. That way if they don’t sell no harm done I like them anyway and they are part of my collection.
Another great way to break into some nice morphs is to buy a Het. May take a little longer but a nice side project for the future. Of course the morph will be cheaper by the time you breed it out but def a way to break into the morph.
Thank you for this video! I was getting really nervous because I thought maybe reptile breeding would be right for me because I want others to share the love for reptiles like I do but then i hear people say buy 1 to 5k reptiles to start out with. This really helps soothe my nerves. I want to start out with parthenogenic geckos (I love fruit eating geckos like days and cresties so mournings are perfect) first so wish me luck!
Hey Jason, great advice man. I myself have breed bamboo rats before and it was a very satisfying experience. 1 female who double clutched and gave me eggs. Since then I realized this is a part of keeping snakes i really want to get into. I now have a trio of Mandarin Rats, Mexican Black Kings and some Nicaraguan boas that are different morphs. All fairly affordable but animal's that don't get to big and animals that I truly like too. I thinks important aswell, breeding animals or morphs and genetics that YOU like. You think maybe you could show us some of your Mandarins one video? I've heard you mention them but never seen them! Keep the vids coming bro!
Awesome video. Edit: sorry for the rambling below... I'm hoping to get into snake breeding myself. Mostly bullsnakes. What started as me looking for a pet snake in the morph I liked, ended with me having a potential breeding pair just fall into my lap. Really enjoying watching them grow and seeing their different personalities. But also want to get into ball pythons. The axanthic pied is my dream morph, but when I saw the price they're going for, I got sticker shock and came to the conclusion I'd never be able to buy one. But a few years later I saw a single gene axanthic female and fell in love. She was so gorgeous, I had to get her. So might get into the project. Hitting that visual double recessive is gunna be a long journey. But this girl is just the sweetest that I'm just enjoying raising her up right now. Like you said, if I do breed, I'm going to be doing it for fun. If I make enough money off babies to fund for the care of my reptiles, I'll be happy. I also don't like the idea of pushing certain projects. I see a lot of the big breeders that are like "You HAVE TO work with this gene. If you don't have these genes in your projects, you're slacking." I say it's better overall go just work with what you like. Find a set of genes you're truly passionate about and stick with that. Going back to my bullsnakes. I got a pair of hypo white-sided het albinos. I love they hypo white-sides. Started to get to know some people in the bullsnake breeding community and got a 3rd bullsnake, another female, from the breeder I got my first female from. A snow bullsnake. So over the past year and half we've built this nice rapport with each other. One day we're talking and he goes "Now we need to get you some color." And I'm scratching my head like what is he talking about? He explains about getting into the reds and hybinos and really bright and high contrast morphs. Told him to pump the brakes. I LOVE the lighter morphs. The ivory, ghost, and snow bulls are what I love. Same with ball pythons. Everyone is pushing clowns, and OD, and YB, and DG... but that's not what I like. I like axanthics, axanthic pieds, and pinstripes. So I'm going to make axanthics, axanthic pieds, and pinstripes. Axanthic pinstripes would be awesome. I might not be a millionaire, and only sell babies for a couple hundred dollars. But honestly that's all I need. If I end up breaking even by the end of each season, I'd be content. As long as I have beautiful snakes I love and can care for properly, I'm good.
Thank you! And it doesn't mean that you can't make money in this, but it's not as easy as some people make it out to be. A lot of people sell those high-dollar morphs on the dream that it's an easy business to make money in
@@JasonsExoticReptiles Exactly. Also the cost of living expenses for their animals get overlooked sometimes. You're going to spend lots of money before you can even start making sales
Great video, I see a lot of people thinking they are going to become millionaires over night and that's just not how this or any business for that matter works. You grow into business, learning everything you need to know along the way. Personally I focus on creating a particular look that I want, I want to produce snakes that I would buy myself and want to keep as a pet because potentially you could be sitting on some animals for a long time.
You probably didn't bring this up cuz it's obvious, but I'd like to add that it's a good idea to get some experience through getting a simple clean and feed job. This way you can not only learn more than you already know about these animals, but so you can see things on the business end that RU-vid videos can't show.
Would love to see a video on identifying BCI morphs when your new to breeding. Like I dont fully understand some genes like the jungle that are hard to tell if they are or not when your new into the hobby and breeding
Its more just learning the morphs. Just like telling the difference between a Toyota and a Lexus. You need to know what they look like, but I'm going to try to do more morph videos
Personally just getting into my first snake/reptile and my interest is a few different morphs of ball pythons. If it makes sense I might breed them, or get into different snakes, who knows. But honestly I might get into isopods because they are cool, low maintenance, take up little space and you can sell your surplus. That is what I'd like, is to have a "side hustle" that really is just my hobby that I can make a little extra money off of either to pay for itself or a little extra. My expectations are not to be making a living off this kind of thing.
My girlfriend and I are getting into keeping snakes. I’ve been really into snakes my whole life. But we plan on starting to breeding and eventually have that as our career if possible. But this goes with that we were planning. Get snakes we want, which are mostly pretty common, breed them and reinvest to build a business. Maybe in ten years we can be financially independent. If not hopefully we can just make some extra cash back from our hobby.
That’s basically how I did it and it can be rewarding and successful as long as your dedication and passion are there, just like anything else in life.
I plan on breeding my snakes ya to make a few bucks but I'm doin more for the love of the reptiles personally not trying get rich off it I just love my animals I have a full time job to pay bills and live on just would like to breed my babies see what I can make and make a little money would be cool it's more important for me that they get a good home and maybe keep these next gen of youngsters to keep the reptile love goin nice video and right on so many levels thanks for the video
Absolutely. Myself, I will never breed because I am well aware of the risk, the time consumption. huge clutch are fine but these babies need to go. I started with a cheap snake, my next one will be more expensive. but there's a huge gap between someone like me that will buy one or two 1000$ snake and someone that's ready to drop 10k on a baby. But hey, alot of people are not connected to reality at all. let them hit a wall.
To add something as well, Always go into projects you like. Don't just jump on Ball Pythons because they're popular but you don't like them. If you have a collection you personally like, a lot of the maintenance work will not seem like a job and if the breeding part doesn't go to plan.. you will still appreciate your collection
Love your video big brother please keep making more and can you please teach our RU-vid video talking about the different of a dwarf boa please thank you
@@JasonsExoticReptiles Ok thank you so much it's because I'm interested and a dorf boa and I hope you do have that in your collection so by any chance for future reference I can get one from you and I follow you on Instagram so if anything I can text you through Instagram
Hey jason quick question. I have had a ball python for quite some time and wanna get a boa. I love how boas have that square look. What would you recommend that’s on the smaller size like 4-6 feet ish?
I have a question, I applied to two or three different pet stores. One of them was exclusive to reptiles and the other ones who focused on common pets like dogs, cats, fish. I want to get into working at a reptile shop to see if I might like it and maybe learn a potential skill or talent through the reptile hobby but the thing is I lack any direct experience handling or working with reptiles on my resume but I did updated my resume where it mentions interests/hobbies to say "Reptiles" despite my lack of experience. Any advice you can offer? I only seen videos on RU-vid.
If you are still trying to get a job at a reptile shop I'd be happy to help you with what to put on a resume. Mostly you need to convince them that you are OK with being on "poop duty" for awhile. Thats most of what they have you do when you 1st start at places like that. They expect you to think its all fun and games with the animals, because thats what most other new hires think. You need to convince them you are ok with doing the nitty gritty work for awhile. Just like any other job all you really have to do is work at a decent pace and make as few of mistakes as you can. Once you prove yourself, they will move you on to the cooler stuff like incubating eggs etc.
Yup. Not only need to have the passion for the animals but also be good at SALES. You’re either selling or being sold to in this day and age... I think working with Animals or morphs you LIKE is also a very important point. The market is important of course but I would never work with animals I did not like.
Great content man! Personally I’m planning on breeding soon after grad school as a hobby. I figure it’s better to figure out if I actually enjoy it before I go in thinking about money. I feel that if people do it for the money the animals suffer and I don’t want that.
Mail l I don't wanna burst your bubble buddy,,,don't wanna be the bearer of bad news,,,but the people your talking about mentioned people who wants to breed for money well it sounds... Sounds just like you...so much hypocrisy in this one comment...you just wanna start a reptile business and sell it and you wanna watch videos to enjoy the business...oh man its so you dude
Nazzal Winchester Way to completely misunderstand/interpret a comment... I genuinely love reptiles as a hobby and I will likely lose money breeding them. I’m interested in it because I love the animals and being able to share them with others. Also raising babies up is very rewarding, albeit makes it hard to let them go. I don’t know what crawled up your rear end but being a jerk on RU-vid for no reason isn’t a great look. Sorry you have nothing better to do than insult people minding their own business sharing a passion for reptiles.
I got 2 boas hypo pastel dream m and pastel dream f I'm gonna rise them I'm also gonna try to get 1 more female. What is a good female to get for him? I want to make kind of expensive babies.
sounds like you are talking about a sertan ball python breeder for Colorado. I am planning on breeding corn snakes, but I don't plan on breeding each snake each year. I might if the clutches are small, but I see my snakes as my pets first.
Haha I honestly don't know where he's from or his whole story. Never really watch the channel until someone referred me to it. Seems like a great guy, but I didn't like how he was doing more of a sales pitch then a video. Either that, or he is buying into the hype that others are selling him.
@@JasonsExoticReptiles yeah, i think we are thinking of the same guy. The guy is a diversified rancher, and has always bred animals for money. He seems to really like ball pythons and it is his favorite thing to bred because they are lower maintenance then most livestock. I think he likes the cool morphs, and is doing a good job at keeping the snakes healthy, but he is in this for the money
Hi I want to buy crimson iguanas and sell them. Are they hard to keep healthy? Do you know what the best supplies would be for them? Such as cage , humidifier and uv heat lamp?
Some will eat things like birds or guinea pigs, but either way rats and mice are going to be your staple diet for most. Nothing to be afraid of woth rats and mice, but most snakes will take frozen thawed prey that you can purchase online or in many petstore. Petstore will be much more expensive.
How does one get into contact with other breeders to breed your male snake with their female in case maybe you're not looking to make it a career and just want to see what babies your snake could make? Would this even be advisable? I have a beautiful banana pastave het clown with a wonderful temperament and have thought about studding him out once to see what his babies would look like, and I guess maybe get a small percentage of the sales (not my priority). But don't know where to start, who to talk to, or even if it's a good idea. I'd never do something actually harmful to him, so anybody with knowledge please enlighten me on how to or why I should/ shouldn't try this.
Hi I dont know if you reply to your comments but I am a person who wants to be a breeder and idk if I need to partner up with a shipping company or not or even know which one is the best ( I'm from uk) I would love some advice
Garrett at ReachOut has a wonderful business model. He's got unique and high-dollar stock. A limited supply. A humble attitude and nice new logo. Love your videos man.
@@JasonsExoticReptiles Super random, but have you done a video on thawing and heating rodents? Can you share your method? Do you offer them wet? You're awesome!
I wish the breeding of snakes in Greece was as easy as I imagined. If I manage to get the breeding license the job will definitely go well and will be successful im sure.. All snakes all beautiful and im sure there are many snake lovers here.. But the time-consuming bureaucracy and the high fees do not help me with my dream job... :D
If you haven't already maybe a little n video of the differences in owning and caring for captive bred / wild caught Boas... And one thing I've been seeing to much of is new owners having something go very wrong (sickness,burns ect) asking in Facebook groups what they should do and as soon as the word vet is mentioned the poster starts shooting off excuses about doesn't have the money and so on... I think prior to buying an animal you should have a couple/few hundred put aside for emergency purposes if God forbid something does happen.. Anyways I picked up a wild caught Suriname (I am NOT pro wild.caught, I don't agree with it but I knew if I didn't buy it someone would have gotten her to breed likely to early,over fed her and her never see the light of day, but man is it different then caring for captive bred...
I have a video somewhat like that for BCC. Basically saying don't get wildcard if you can avoid it. If you search jasons exotic reptiles BCC something should pop up
That stuff dont happen overnight ... It takes alot of hardwork and dedication. And he probably got lucky with some clutches.... Imo. But like you said im not rich either it takes money to make money. Plus you have to make a name for yourself.. I dont know i think your not going to make alot quick ... Its a hard long road..
I want to start breeding ackie and Timor monitors. If I pay my bills doing it, great. If I just get to provide quality animals for the community, great. I love varanids more than any other animals and they sell for decent money, so they're what I'm focusing on. I don't want to be a millionaire, just to make enough money to keep breeding animals I love.
@@JasonsExoticReptiles I know the market is small, but money isn't why I'm doing it. If someone is doing this trying to get rich, they're in the wrong market.
If it's very difficult to sell a $20k snake for $20k, it's not worth $20k. It's worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it in a reasonable amount of time. Any snake that won't sell is over priced
Yes and no. Sometimes that is absolutely correct. Most of the time it is more about exposure and being able to access the right customers. For instance if I am trying to sell a high end Rolex, I may struggle, but a dealer has a waitlist a mile long for the same thing because they have the customer base and exposure to the clients. Even if I have exposure to those same clients, they may not trust me and if my price is lower than market, they may think it’s a scam.
@@JasonsExoticReptiles what is a $20k snake for one seller isn't a $20k snake for another. The seller's exposure/reputation is part of the snake's value. If a seller can't sell a $20k snake for $20k, it's not a $20k snake for him.
@@JustMe-999a it’s possible, but if it’s really a 20k snake then it’s a 20k snake. That person just doesn’t have access to the customers to buy it. Dropping price to the price the customers that person has to sell and animal is a downward spiral that is very bad in all aspects, especially if they are trying to become a breeder and enter the market. They are better off building the client basis and reputation before they enter the high end market. What you are suggesting is how markets fall. Again using the watch analysis, to some people, a Rolex is no better than a timex. Just because I can’t sell a Rolex for a Rolex price doesn’t mean it’s not worth it, it just means that I don’t have access to the people willing to pay the price it’s worth to others. So in one sense you are right, but you’re looking at it to singularly and not globally for the long term.
@@JustMe-999a everything is a currency. This could be a snake, watch, drugs, or actually money. Just because the people you know don’t value the product or currency the same, doesn’t mean it’s not worth it. A house is another example. I may look at a hose and it’s not worth half what someone is asking to me, but it only takes one person of the thousands to see the value.
