So what drives you to breed?

[Boacephus]

Reason I ask this because once upon a time I thought it to be a perfect idea. I could breed normals and sell, since I was in Cali with 4 or 5 reptile stores close by. I figured that would pay for husbandry needs of my collection.
Even now I was thinking wow that would be cool to get some hets for various traits and breed and sure would be fun to watch what comes out. However that would simply put alot more snakes into the trade. Also I already seen someone post not to drop the current "market" value. I'm not greedy I would have a hard time not dropping the price if I had difficulty getting the market value. I have no inclination to become a professional breeder and support my family by doing so. So what drives some of you hobby breeders to do so. Do you simply do it to support your collections? How do you go about selling them, do you send out a questionaire with all inquires from prospective buyers? I see alot of "designer" morphs available on the net, where is the "demand" for these breeds, sports, movie stars????? What kind of occupation would a guy need that he can simply drop 2-10K on a snake.
I'm not trying to start any arguments but if pythons become outlawed wouldn't boas be next. Is there any resources on the "supply vs demand" numbers out there. Suppose I'm just sitting here bored and reading alot of breeding posts.

	Heterozygous Heterozygous - the animal carries the gene for a genetic trait but does not outwardly demonstrate the trait. Example: A boa that is het for albino looks normal but carries the albino gene. When it is bred to another het for albino boa or an albino boa, a percentage of the offspring will be albino.

	Morph A morph is a color or pattern variation that is proven to be genetic. Common morphs include albino, anerythristic, gentically striped, Hypomelanistic, and many others. Morphs also include combinations of simple traits such as "Sunglow" which is Albino and Hypomelanistic. These traits may be recessive traits, co-dominant traits, dominant traits, or created through selective breeding (ie Pastel).

[Xeikeness]

I'm sure the reason differs for all of us. Especially since the price of morphs is going down, and normals are a dime a dozen.

But... These snakes are precious to us. They're like our children. Not to mention, the more "available" these snakes are to the general public, the more it gives us the opportunity to share the joy of reptiles with our fellow human, and be a source of correct knowledge on their ideal care.

We're teachers, and our snakes are our textbooks. We love the snakes, we love the hobby, and we don't want to see the hobby die.

	Morph A morph is a color or pattern variation that is proven to be genetic. Common morphs include albino, anerythristic, gentically striped, Hypomelanistic, and many others. Morphs also include combinations of simple traits such as "Sunglow" which is Albino and Hypomelanistic. These traits may be recessive traits, co-dominant traits, dominant traits, or created through selective breeding (ie Pastel).

[morti]

The decision to become a breeder was a quite natural one for me. I started breeding because I had a male and a female and I wanted to experience it.

As time went on, I became more and more interested in morphs, and we chose to focus primarily on them. We now have several completely disjointed species of snakes breeding right now... some morph and some wild type.

In some species (Like ball pythons) there is actually a shortage of quality, captive bred normals compared to captive hatched imports. In others (like burms) the market is flooded and adequate homes can be hard to find.

As far as how we sell them, most of our sales come from the internet. We also attend several reptile shows frequently. We do not currently wholesale to petstores as there are very few petstores that I even remotely find acceptable. There is one store here in Louisville that I might consider wholesaling to.

I am not aware of any published supply vs demand numbers. I can tell you that for obscure species, the demand almost always outpaces the supply.

As far as the extravagantly priced designer morphs, more get sold than you would think, but most are not sold. If they change hands at all, it is usually in the form of trades with other breeders in exchange for their high end snakes. After they have been out a while and more are produced, prices begin to fall and cash actually starts changing hands for them.

	Morph A morph is a color or pattern variation that is proven to be genetic. Common morphs include albino, anerythristic, gentically striped, Hypomelanistic, and many others. Morphs also include combinations of simple traits such as "Sunglow" which is Albino and Hypomelanistic. These traits may be recessive traits, co-dominant traits, dominant traits, or created through selective breeding (ie Pastel).

[Ranger]

Deep-rooted primitive instincts drive me to breed.

My interest in breeding reptiles, however, is simply another facet of my long-standing fascination with snakes and everything about them.

[Brandon28]

Originally Posted by Ranger

Deep-rooted primitive instincts drive me to breed.

You beat me to it.

[Boacephus]

I knew someone was going to go there, LOL.

[Xeikeness]

Well, at least I didn't have to go there.... LOL

Last thing I need is another "There goes Xeike on another one of her vaguely phallic references again...."