Reptile breeding for a future?

[Nicky]

Hey everyone:),
After reading alot of postes around the sites it seems like some of you are reptile breeders and from your various post it sounds very exciting. I'm in highschool right now but I'm either considering becoming a vet specilizing in reptiles and amphibians or a reptile breeder. For all of you who are breeders is it like a full time job or just a on the side thing and how old where you when you started. I'm hoping to get a breeding pair of ballpythons and expand from there but is it possible for it to be a full time thing or is there just to much competiton for it to be a fulltime career also what are some of the things you need to have befor you begging launching a career... equipment, websites and so on. thx
Kayla

[Lisa]

You're better off being a vet, the comunity needs alot more reptile vets.

[Nicky]

ya but could i still be a breeder on the side or would there just not be enough time and i could always just breed them until i'm done studying for a vet but the thing is if i showed up at say next summer or acouple years form now to the monthly reptile expos at the army base place in mississauga would anyone even take a teenager selling reptiles seriously or just think there bad quality reptiles.

[ohh_kristina]

I agree. Be a vet and breed on the side as a hobby. It's the best way to go. You will be helping the hobby on two different levels.

[ReptileHQ]

Most likely there won't be enough reptiles coming through your door to be a "reptile vet", but you could specialize in "exotics" and also treat cats, dogs....etc. and of course breed herps for fun on the side...

Chris

[Nicky]

ya the only thing is about the vet i dunno if i could put an animal down and i'm no good with blood that why I wanted to breed reptiles I dunno I could look into herpterology but don't you need to go into med school for a long time to be a herptrologist or maybe a conserationist how would you go about getting into that line of work.

[HetForHuman]

Originally posted by Nicky
ya the only thing is about the vet i dunno if i could put an animal down and i'm no good with blood


Well there will be a time with breeding herps that you are going to have to put some animals down, and see some blood.

Its a hard thing to do but sometimes it is just the way it has to be.

[BoAddict]

getting into a vet school is really tough i think there are only 2 in canada 1 being guelph
to be a full time reptile breeder it takes a tonne of start up money
like about $100,000 if you wanna make some money

in highschool i did my co op @ dixie animal hospital it was great but the idea of putting animals down was tough
i had to hold the legs of dogs and pop the veins so they could put the needle in to put the animal down i also got to see them descent ferrets

just make sure you have top marks if you want to get into the vet school

just my $0.02

[Nicky]

ya i guess your right thx for everyone who replied maybe in acouple years i'll be selling some herps at the shows.:)
rock on kayla

[mykee]

There are VERY FEW people out there who breed reptiles for a living. Have something to fall back on to actually make your money that you can, in turn, sink it into your reptiles for years.

[Invictus]

I agree with everyone here... we need more herp vets.

I have the same goal, man... to make a living breeding herps, but also doing other things on the side - T-Shirts, terrariums, supplies, maybe open a couple of retail stores. It's a good goal to have - but in the mean time, I'm working in the Information Technology field, so I'm not ever going to depend on my critters for my income.

Remember, having goals is great. Making sure you can live to achieve them is even better. :)

[Nicky]

Ya i'll just do it on the side for a hobby probably become a vet dunno ye thoe anyways thx again. oh ya what are some of the easiest reptiles to breed to start off with. I was thinking ball pythons because there so beutiful any other suggestions thoe.

[Invictus]

I'd start off with corns. I've known people who incubated corn snake eggs at room temperature and had a 100% hatch rate. Python eggs, on the other hand, are very unforgiving.

[Stockwell]

Hi Nicky! I'm one of the old timers on here. I'll soon be celebrating a quarter century(25yrs) of breeding reptiles(with no years off)

It started as a hobby, and became a business. It's still basically a hobby . I have a full time career in electronics. There's alot to be said for a regular paycheque.
People that start from scratch trying to make a business out of herp breeding always fail.
Keep the animals because you like them. If you do well with them, you will start to breed them. Take it a step at a time but plan to do something else to keep food on the table and a roof over your head.
There are very few full time breeders in Canada ,making their livelihood exclusively from Herp breeding . Most of us still have jobs, or other sources of revenue. The market here is still small, and running a big busines in herps means international shipping and marketing and that requires alot of work and expense and paperwork. International competition is also getting stiffer all the time, as more and more breeders take a piece of the pie.
It's not impossible to aspire to be a full time breeder, but it won't be easy and there are easier ways to make a living.
Start small, and think BIG, but have something to fall back on!!

The easiest herps to start breeding are colubrids(ratsnakes and kingsnakes) and geckos( leopards, fat tails, etc.)
Some Boids are also fairly easy.. Balls, Spotteds pythons, various boas etc.
Get yourself some cornsnakes as a first breeding project.
Don't expect to make much on them though. That market is pretty flooded these days.

[Nicky]

oh thats great because i have a 2 year old female corn right now the only thing is aren;t they cannablistic i don't wanna put her in danger just to make a little extra cash. Or do they not eat each other durning the breeding months. I have her in 30 gal tank right now but could i keep two togther or only during breeding and then take him out and keep him ina a seperat tank or rubbermaid container? how old until they reach sexual matureity Shes about 4 feet long but only about a inch and about at her thickest part i think she still has a bit of growing to do and I don;t have a scale so i'm not sure how heavy she is.

[Gary D.]

Most professional or semi-pro breeders will also tell you that they spend copious amounts of time doing nothing more than cleaning cages. Vacations and weekend trips are out because of chores, an animal's worth becomes measured by how much you spend in aquisition of said animal, feeding and heating costs and offspring produced. Majority of your sales are to pet shops, who may already have a working relationship with another breeder, and not wish to deal with you. All in all, I'm way happier as electrician with a reptile hobby, producing a couple of litters of boas a year than trying to scrape out a living as a breeder.

GD

[Nicky]

thx everyone. Boaddict, for the vet school thing what kind of courses are the expecting you to take i'm only in grade nine but i'm taking all acedemic next year since acdemic this year and I plan to kepp doing science through grade 11 and 12 because you can stop and grade 10 or 11. Like is chemestry and biology and math the major things they'll be looking for? Do you think 80s are good enough my average is about 82 i guess theres still room to improve though.

[Chair]

Hey Nicky

To become a herpitologist you do not need to got to med shool. You would need to take biology in University, at Guelph you could take Wildlife Boilogy, it's focused on nature. You would have to study mammals, birds, insects and plants as well as herps. There are no Universities in Canada that have a herpitology program.

Josh

[Nicky]

thanks Josh, a while back I read about a good one in Denver i think but i'm probably gonna stick to becoming a vet but thats deffently an alternative as long as its something to do with helping animals i'm fine.

[marisa]

If you are considering breeding even corns, two enclosures just won't cut it! lol.

For one both parents should be housed seperatly. During breeding you place them together and copulation usually takes place right away, but housing together year round is NOT the best idea.

Anyways, aside from the parents enclosures you'll need small (deli cups or rubbermaids) to house each hatchling in until you can sell them. Let me tell you, it could take months and I have only breed corns once. I ended up selling most off to pet stores and definitly was no where NEAR making a dime. hahaha that's a joke. But anyways you have to plan for babies that you cannot get rid of, corns grow fast and each will need an enclosure plus heat.

The biggest factor I think if you want to breed your corns is get pinkies. TONS of pinkies. Your female may lay 8 eggs, then again she may be like mine and give you 33 eggs, almost all fertile! lol. that is like a pinky garbage disposial. They eat tons.

Anyways like everyone mentioned try and just enjoy the hobby, if you want to breed stick with what you like. I am a HUGE colubrid/mainly kingsnake fan and any snakes I breed the money goes right back into kingsnakes, they may not be worth much but they are my favs and you will enjoy the hard work more if its for something you love.

Marisa

[Gary D.]

Here's a link on schools offering studies in herpetology. A brief summary is Calgary and Guelph.

http://www.anapsid.org/resources/univ.html

TARAS also offers a small schollarship to one herpetology student yearly. No regional stipulation has yet been placed on this award.

GD

[Nicky]

wow thanks ya lol i have a pretty big collection of rubbermaid continers of all sizes pinkies are no problem for me to get and heating all have to save up for, I'm flat broke for christams i'll probabkly start next year no room right now moving soon gonna get nice big room for all my pets then i can start. Oh ya so what age do corns mature at?

[marisa]

Males can breed earlier than females.

With females (and males really) its not about age its about size. A female corn should be at LEAST 36 inches with really good girth. My female was about 45 inches long, and thick before I breed her.

Another thing is the more time you give your female to mature, the larger your first clutch will be. Smaller females= smaller clutches generally. So its even better to wait an extra year.

Pick up: The Cornsnake Manual by Kathy Love.....its a great book on corn genetics, breeding, care, everything.

Marisa

[Nicky]

my corn is about 4 feet maybe a little less but she defently needs more girth so i'll probably wait till 2005 beofr i start any breeding projects. Ya i got the cornsnake maual befor i bough my corn its an awsome book I just never read the breeding part befor because when i was 12 when i got the book i never consedered it. thx for the info. Gary D thx for the excellent site i looked over and read some of the articals and will continue later. I never thought of taking other languages incase i dp field studies in another country (if i ever make it that far.) I'll probably take french throughtout all of highschool and take spanish too thx for everyone who helped it really opened up my options and gave me a more realistic sense of what I have to do to accomplish my dreams thx:D

[BoAddict]

Nicky its been way too long since i graduated and course outlines im sure have changed
but im guessing to get into guelph vet school you should take biology right up to grade 12 , and probably chemistry as well
your best bet would be to go to your counsellor and talk to them tell them that your goal is to become a vet and ask them how to go about achieving success

82 is a good mark well back in my day that was i dont know if that would cut it now adays thats another question your counsellor could answer for you

good luck and dont let anyone tell you its not possible

[Lisa]

Tou might need your maths as well, even if you don't end up using them in RL. I think the people that decide what you need don't actually work in the field or if they do, make you take those subjects because they had to.