# Britain and Breeding Reptiles



## Wecameasramen (Oct 27, 2011)

I live in the USA. I would love to one day move to Britian. I would also love to open my own business breeding reptiles such as snakes, geckos, and bearded dragons. Does anyone have any advice or information on how I am to achieve this?


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## RMDHopps (Oct 25, 2011)

Hey!:welcome:

Glad your considering the UK, well firstly there is a lot of legislation if you want to set up an offical business. But I'm sure in terms of breeding snakes/other reps, you can just start buying up critters and putting them together. A lot of people sell via sites like Preloved | UK free ads - buy and sell with local classifieds and gumtree. however, to legally make sales of live animals (and generate either a taxable income or a regular income) you will require a pet shop lisence. In the UK you get these from your local government body or 'council' as we call them. However to get anything from them you need to be a resident in that area... You then need to take a City and guilds in pet shop management or such like course in order to get one. I think the lisence itself cost a couple of hundred pounds.

Appart from that I think its just the general business paperwork riff raff i.e. setting up as a limited/soletrader etc etc... 

One thing I would say is that, if you dont have about £10,000 to buy a good few animals to breed, and the equipment, and the space etc in order to start making some money then i wouldnt bother registering as a company and just do it as a hobby: victory:

Take a look at this it might be helpful, though you probably have already seen it as its from your home turf!

SnakeBytesTV's Channel - YouTube
and 
SnakeBytesTV's Channel - YouTube

Take care!


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## RMDHopps (Oct 25, 2011)

Don't forget, it takes a whole year to produce any offspring so to make a business work those offspring need to be some damn sexy specimens... did i say sexy :s i mean high value...

My advice to you (quite patronisingly, I'm sorry) would be to start your collection as you always would, and then if you find yourself in a few years having a really good few animals and your producing some great clutches, then consider it as a business. I wouldn't go right on with the intention to make money because it takes a whole damn lot of money at the start to end up with a little profit (which might not come for a few years!)

I'm rambling on now, forgotten what I'm even talking about...

I Love Snakes!

...long day:whistling2:


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## Wecameasramen (Oct 27, 2011)

I intended to start breeding as a hobby while in college, then saving up before moving to the UK. So far I have one gecko. A sad start but a start nonetheless. I have to wait until I graduate and move out to get more =\ Only a year left  The snakes are next. I've just always been fascinated by reptiles and it would be great to work with something I love. Thank you for your advice and I'll have to make sure I breed some sexy-I mean high value reptiles so I can start my shop.


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## pigglywiggly (Jul 19, 2008)

you dont require a petshop licence if you`re selling babies that are bred from your own pets.

buying in to sell on to make profit will require a licence, as will opening a shop.

for a small number you wont be making any profit anyway, but if you`re breeding large numbers you may be liable for income tax etc.

if you do a search on here theres lots of threads asking about this.


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## RMDHopps (Oct 25, 2011)

pigglywiggly said:


> you dont require a petshop licence if you`re selling babies that are bred from your own pets.
> 
> buying in to sell on to make profit will require a licence, as will opening a shop.


Sweet, I didn't know this! nice one


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## G.R/Trooper (Feb 20, 2011)

pigglywiggly said:


> you dont require a petshop licence if you`re selling babies that are bred from your own pets.
> 
> buying in to sell on to make profit will require a licence, as will opening a shop.
> 
> ...


This.

When i investigated this through my local council the kind woman let slip some handy information that would save me a whole lot of money. The rules basically state that:

If you are keeping reptiles and breeding them to sell offspring, then it is considered a hobby and therefore no license, approval or paperwork is needed. This also goes for any livestock you have purchased and breed, but only sell the offspring.

However, if you buy livestock, and then sell the same livestock on, then that is considered a business and you must go through the appropriate bodies in order to get your license. You must also have mandatory vet visits at least once per year to ensure the animals are being kept in the correct conditions and the property is of adequate condition to house said animals.

As you are hopefully aware, this license does not cover you for DWA and you must first get your DWA (for keeping), and then pay an additional cost on top of that for the keeping, breeding, and selling of a DWA. Hope this helps.

Some of this info may be incorrect as it may only fall to my local council. The best thing for you to do is to wait until you move over here, and then start investigating. As somebody has already stated you very rarely see any profit in the common animals you have mentioned. 

Beardies are possibly THE most common reptile in the UK and therefore hugely overbred, so unless you are breeding high grade phases/morphs you wont see a profit. Most Gecko's and corns are also overbred here, so if you was going to set up shop i would advise you start getting some contacts for major bloodlines and species that WILL grant you a profit, but you will still need some financial backing to begin or you will see yourself in the red for the first 3 years.


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## lukeors (May 5, 2011)

sweet knowing about the keeping and breeding side lol


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## Wecameasramen (Oct 27, 2011)

Are ball pythons and king snakes overbred in the UK?


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## G.R/Trooper (Feb 20, 2011)

Wecameasramen said:


> Are ball pythons and king snakes overbred in the UK?


Not sure, i concentrate on lizards only mate so have very little knowledge of spider, snakes, amphibs etc. Normally the easiest way to find out would be scanning the classifieds here as most reptile keepers / breeders have this as the no1 communal site.


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## ant- (Apr 19, 2009)

Wecameasramen said:


> Are ball pythons and king snakes overbred in the UK?


ball pythons (there called royal pythons in the uk) are one of the most popular snakes in the uk and in the next few years there prices will drop alot and its unlikely you will be able to make money on them unless you have the money to buy the highest quality morphs available
kings aint over bred atm some kings are highly sort after others are easy to get so it depends on what species your planning on breeding


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## fishboy (Aug 7, 2007)

Wecameasramen said:


> Are ball pythons and king snakes overbred in the UK?



In all honesty if I were you and wanted to start a snake breeding business, I would stay in the US.

It's a bigger country, bigger market, more buyers, cheaper utilities, fuel, start up costs and rent, and it's easy to cheaply courier animals over there too.

We are but a tiny island with a limited market in my view and while it's not too dificult to make a few quid to help offset the cost of your hobby at the lower level if you invest wisely, it's a lot harder and a hell of a lot more expensive to start a successful business that will support you.


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## RMDHopps (Oct 25, 2011)

fishboy said:


> In all honesty if I were you and wanted to start a snake breeding business, I would stay in the US.
> 
> It's a bigger country, bigger market, more buyers, cheaper utilities, fuel, start up costs and rent, and it's easy to cheaply courier animals over there too.
> 
> We are but a tiny island with a limited market in my view and while it's not too dificult to make a few quid to help offset the cost of your hobby at the lower level if you invest wisely, it's a lot harder and a hell of a lot more expensive to start a successful business that will support you.


 I'd maybe disagree with the UK market, its estimated at £200 mil per year with an increase of 15-20% each year thereafter according to euromonitor. However, that does pale in insignificance when compared to the giantess of the US. 

I'd suggest that setting out to make money from the off by breeding reptiles would be extraordinarily difficult. However, if you had another business, or some other employment; maybe breeding reptiles may turn over a tiny profit that will help sustain your living. If you were to open a pet shop, breeding your own stock would help in some sense but then it would almost double your projected overheads.

So I'd yes, stay in the US if you want to breed for money, but come on over if you dont have BHB dreams : victory:


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