# Interested in breeding reptiles



## Ebag_reborn (May 6, 2021)

How old should I be to responsibly breed reptiles for profit.


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## Shellsfeathers&fur (Jan 18, 2009)

In your twilight years! However, you are unlikely to make a profit given the running costs etc unless you are breeding rare and desirable ones.

How old are you? We have age limits on purchasing animals in the UK - which presumably the USA does varying state to state?


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## LiasisUK (Sep 30, 2019)

Never as this is basically impossible


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## elishacoombes9 (Sep 5, 2017)

Depending on what you’re looking at breeding, You need lineage nowadays depending on what reptiles, as people want to know where they’re from, lineage/lines etc. 
For instance I breed Crested Geckos, i have 22 Adults breeding age, and 10 younger, and all but 6 have well known lineage, so when pairing up, I make sure one with unknown lineage is paired to one with known lineage. If I were to only breed cresties without lineage they wouldn’t sell as well or at all. 
Now making a profit depends on what you’re breeding etc, as a lot of the money goes back into the reptiles for food, enclosures, more reptiles etc. Any money I made from mine recently went straight back into the Cresties, I purchased another Crestie for future breeding plans, and more vivs, everything then I needed for the vivs, food etc. So really I didn’t make a profit. 
Hopefully with all pairings/trio this year, this will actually be first year I make a profit’. But I do know I need more vivs etc, so although most will still be spent on them, I’ll have money to put back also this time. 

Assuming you have reptiles in mind to breed? And not just doing it to make money? As I’ve seen multiple people do this and keep them in tub set ups with nothing and aren’t treated well at all. Infact I had a guy last year wanting some cresties off me for breeding, he already breeds beardies and Leo’s for money as he said, and he wanted me to practically give them away and wanted them ‘cheap’ as all he wanted to do was make more money from them, so he said he wanted Nicer cresties than what he had so they sell as his won’t sell and still aren’t. The set ups were awful! And he sells all babies far too young and underweight. So obviously was a giant no from me. 


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## Malc (Oct 27, 2009)

I wasn't going to post my opinion as this is likely to be another one of those single first time posts that seems to be the norm these days.... But in the unlikely event we will hear back form the OP, you need to define "profit". If you have a small collection, and breed one or two animals and can find a buyer for all the babies at a price that exceeds the cost of all the food, electric, substrate and any other costs, then you've made a profit, even if that works out at just a few $$. However there are lots of people doing this as keeping reptiles isn't cheap. If you can sell half a dozen snakes or lizards and get back $100 - $300 that's something towards the upkeep. In terms of running it as a business in order to provide you with a living wage then that is a totally different game, and something that IMO needs to be handled by an adult to ensure you get the respect from suppliers etc.

Maybe if you posted up details of your own experience, time keeping reptiles, size of collection and what it is you are looking at breeding then maybe you will receive a more targeted response. If you were hoping to be in the realms of BHB / NERD / JK etc then sorry to burst your bubble, but those days have long since gone.


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## Ebag_reborn (May 6, 2021)

Thanks everyone for the replies, but I was just asking out of curiosity and my collection is pretty small. I worded my question poorly and I just wanted to make enough money to help with my costs of my collection. Also I would like to use this as a good experience to eventually open a pet store in the far future.


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## M1chelle (May 20, 2020)

I agree with all of the above replies but also you need to speak with the bill payers.

Are they willing to house the many reptiles, esp as you won't know if you can sell them till you try, that includes the cost, maintenance and space required.

I'm not sure if there is a legal selling age where you are, or what your age is (I'm not asking)... But you need to be prepared for anything such as questions, returns, refunds and rules of selling etc. Remember you won't know who your dealing with unless you only sell to friends and family which will limit his many you can sell

And more importantly before you breed, do you have what people will want!

Some reptiles hold sperm for many years so even if you decide to slow down or stop, it could take some time to actually do so.


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## Ebag_reborn (May 6, 2021)

Ok, thank you this helps a lot.


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## Malc (Oct 27, 2009)

In addition to the above, what are your education plans. If you spend two or three years at university or college that's not local, who will look after your collection? If you are are still at school, your parents may be OK looking after the odd snake or lizard when you are away on summer camp, but may not want the responsibility to look after a moderate collection whilst you are away at uni.

Again, if you actually gave us an indication of what you keep, how large your small collection is then maybe people could actually advise you better. I mean if you have two royals with four or five genes that are very much sought after then you could make a fair bit of cash to recover your investment, and cover all your running costs. But if your Royals are single or two basic gene combos that don't make anything special then it may not be a viable possibility, and it might take longer to sell the hatchlings. Which then brings in another issue. Are you prepared to look after any bog standard normal wild gene snake, that people seldom want.. If not then you need to breed snakes that will always produce a morph with no normals...


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## Ebag_reborn (May 6, 2021)

Yeah you're probably right about the education thing. It was just an idea and I now see that it is probably not worth it for me. I thought it would be a fun project. I now see the amount of work that goes into it.


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## Malc (Oct 27, 2009)

Ebag_reborn said:


> Yeah you're probably right about the education thing. It was just an idea and I now see that it is probably not worth it for me. I thought it would be a fun project. I now see the amount of work that goes into it.


When you have completed your education you will be in a better place to consider your own destiny (that sounds like a line from Star Wars !).... You could start work in a pet store, or for a dog or cat kennels, or even at an animal rescue centre and if that is an exotic rescue centre then that would give you good grounding. If you later want to start your own business breeding and selling reptiles then it's always an option....don't give up on your dreams


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## elishacoombes9 (Sep 5, 2017)

Agree with all of this. 
I was like you, I wanted a pet shop and to own a lot of animals etc, but I went to college and studied Animal Management, though I will say I learnt a lot more on my own! I also did Production Art and Design, and Multi media makeup etc. 
I’m now 27 (Ugh feel old..) with what we like to call a mini Zoo, lots of reptiles and amphibians, and we breed Cresties, dart frogs are now on it, and soon to be fat tails. And I’m very happy with where I’m at now, even though plans changed a bit when we had our daughter (6 next month) Though will need a bigger reptile room eventually  
I realise now I wasn’t in the position back then to do all of that and college,
Even though I thought in my mind I could do it all and more. So I had some fire belly newts which were easy to look after whilst doing college. So I still had something I was passionate about, we had dogs too.
But definitely wait. I’m assuming you’re young, so you’ve got loads of time! X


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## M1chelle (May 20, 2020)

There a very good point, not just education, but life as well.

You have plenty of time to get into breeding, I'd suggest spending your current time learning and saving so that when you are ready, you have the funds and knowledge.

I have always wanted lots of pets, but I settled with a dog until I got my own life where I wanted it to be. I now have 2 children and the time and funds (ISH as children cost LOTS and take up time) 🤪 

So best thing I can suggest, is to work out what you want in life?


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