What do you breed?

[bkhuff1s]

I was just curious :D

[Garter_Gertie]

Germs. Dust bunnies.

[Snake lover 3-25]

eastern garter snakes...... and bernese mountain dogs :D

[Garter_Gertie]

A woman I work with as a BMD! "Bernie." It's their second. They just love them.

[garterchick]

sucsessfully: flames
hopefully: pugets, albino checkereds, red-sideds, anery red-sideds, and eastern blacknecks
oh yeah, and african pygmy goats

[bkhuff1s]

Do you own pugets or are you trying to get into them?

[garterchick]

i have a 1.2 trio and they've re-produced in the past, but not this year, at least not yet. and just in case you're wondering, they are from bob.

[bkhuff1s]

Do you house them all together? I'm wanting a more pairs myself

[stuarttaylor37]

Hi new to this forum, I have bred Natrix natrix and Natrix maura this year.

[infernalis]

Uh ok Bryan here goes, Mice, roaches, slugs, Dekayi brown snakes, Garters, Milk snakes, guppies, Anoles and the occasional human being.

They are not all housed together, yet some are...

Have a look at the web site:cool:

[bkhuff1s]

Dekay is this something you do as a hobby then? Or as a part time job?

[infernalis]

It's a hobby careening out of control:eek:

The "Morphs" well hopefully will make some money, but like my web site says, I use any money made to support our rescue animals.

[Zephyr]

I've bred:
Goldfish, eastern garters snakes, hybrid eastern x checkered garters, leopard geckos, cockroaches, clown loaches, dekay's snakes, and society finches.
Attempting to breed:
Albino checkered garters, regular checkered garters, red sided garters, plains garters, butler's garters, wandering garters, tiger hissing cockroaches, pearlscale goldfish.

:)

[bkhuff1s]

I guess I should have asked this originally is if this is purely hobby or if anyone here does it to pay a few bills?

[Garter_Gertie]

If you do it to make money, it's not a hobby. And any animal you breed will suffer. To make money you need to not consider your females and the time they need to 'regenerate' after have a clutch/litter.

Also, if you do it correctly - at least with kittens - you lose money and not make it. If you put the animals first.

[garterchick]

if you're really, really lucky you break even, but that much luck is hard to come by.

[bkhuff1s]

In my opinion it is possible to provide an environment in which the animal doesn't suffer and to still make money. I'm just going to throw that out there.

[bkhuff1s]

As long as animals are breed responsibly, AKA breeding animals that are desirable I believe there is room for a little profit. Just look at Green Tree Python's. You can't tell me people don't make money off of them.

[bkhuff1s]

Furthermore, I believe in breeding when the snake is ready not when I am.

[infernalis]

I agree with Bryan....

[Garter_Gertie]

I disagree.

[Zephyr]

Well, in my case, I make plenty of money off of breeding roaches. :)
Coincidentally, anything that eats the roaches and breeds basically makes me money, seeing as it costs next to nothing to feed the roaches and the breeders get their fill. :)
You can be a responsible, profitable breeder; but only if you know the tricks of the trade, as they say. :)

[Elliot]

I've bred gulf coast ribbons. And I agree that animals don't have to suffer if you're breeding for money, it all depends on the breeder.

[Zephyr]

I've bred gulf coast ribbons. And I agree that animals don't have to suffer if you're breeding for money, it all depends on the breeder.Now if the situation goes out of hand, like if you have 100 females all gravid of a species and you don't have the time/resources for them all, THEN it's a problem and needs to be solved.
However if you have 10 females, all gravid, and each gets it special considerations and you save money by cutting corners (buying food in bulk, using glad containers for water bowls, heating the room instead of individual heating, as opposed to skimping on medical expenses and etc) I see no problem. :)

[Elliot]

Now if the situation goes out of hand, like if you have 100 females all gravid of a species and you don't have the time/resources for them all, THEN it's a problem and needs to be solved.
However if you have 10 females, all gravid, and each gets it special considerations and you save money by cutting corners (buying food in bulk, using glad containers for water bowls, heating the room instead of individual heating, as opposed to skimping on medical expenses and etc) I see no problem. :)


I agree. :)

[infernalis]

I refrained from responding earlier when Kittens came into the conversation.

It is more than possible to breed for profit with healthy happy animals.

A true animal lover will be more than happy to pay a premium price for animals that have been bred to a higher standard.

I would like to think my $200 snows were not swimming in poo before I bought them:eek:

Sure, there are cretins out there breeding animals, but let's not hold them in the same light as the ones who do a great job.

[reptile3]

I only breed children!! oh wait, I only have 2 & I am done!

I don't breed any of my reptiles... don't have the time

[ssssnakeluvr]

garters, occasionally shih tzus, a few lobster roaches, my wife...:rolleyes:

[infernalis]

Hey Don, your animals suffer cuz you breed them???

[ssssnakeluvr]

no......the only one suffering here is me....when the puppies get bigger, I get to clean up lots of puppy pee and poo....:cool:

[GartersRock]

But Gertie. You are basing this on your experience with cats. With mammals it is near impossible to make money and I hate the idea of someone trying. But with reptiles.. It can certainly be done.
Now having said that. If your ONLY goal is to make money. Yes. Animals will suffer.
But if you put your animals first and do it right. I know people who make money and their snakes are NOT suffering. We are not talking about dogs and cats here.
It was a pretty broad statement to say that if you are making a profit your animals are suffering. Simply not true.

[GartersRock]

Oh. And I breed or have the stock to breed soon or will be getting stock in less then a month lol!:
Checkered Garters
Wandering Garters
Flame Eastern Garters
Puget Sound Garters
Oregon Red Spotted Garters
Eastern Garters
Poss Het for Piebald or Calico Eastern Garters
Gulf Coast Ribbons
Western Ribbons
Redstripe Ribbons
Brazilian Rainbow Boas
Amazon Tree Boas
High Red TX Rat Snakes
Okeetee Corn Snakes
Diamondback Water Snakes
Very High Red Eastern Hognose's
Crested Geckos
Hairless Dumbo Rats
Reg Rats
HEY!! No wonder I am always broke for personal stuff!! I just now realized how long that list is!!! Darn snakes!! ;) But being an artist I have plenty of time with them. Gosh... INSANE! Whew.... I think I beat everyone so far. But again... I counted the soon to breed (have babies or will get them within the month).

[garterchick]

i'm pretty sure feltzer makes money off his snakes and i'm also sure that all of those animals are well taken care of. having said that, live animals are always a "risky business", given that they can just die for no apparent reason even if you do take very good care of them (as we all know). so i certainly wouldn't go into it assuming i'd make some money, but if you're doing it right and if you're lucky, your earnings could outweigh your investment.

[bkhuff1s]

I disagree.

I just wanted to let you know that I don't hold grudges just because you don't see eye to eye w/ me on things. So no hard feelings. :)

[GartersRock]

Good post Tina!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

here's a pretty generic list of animals that I have bred and /or will be breeding in the near future:

Betta fish
Guppies
Cornsnakes
Cali kings
Designer (hybrid) Kings
Eastern garters
Puget sound garters
oregon red-spotted garters
different flavors of BP's
bearded dragons
Black Rat x Corns

and a few other things I probably forgot!

But now I have to firmly disagree with the idea that you always lose money and that the animals suffer when you breed. This is not at all true, maybe with cats it is, but not necesarily with snakes. Feeding snakes is cheap when you buy your food in bulk, or breed your own food...it costs almost nothing! (especially our garters) It even helps because during the time that you are cycling your snakes for breeding, they aren't eating anything. And if you keep certain snakes in a rack system (i keep my bp's this way because they seem to prefer the security of it and they eat better for me), heating is done for every snake at the same time. My entire snake room stay warm enough for all of my snakes. If you are smart about how you keep your animals then you can make some money from it or at the very least it will pay for itself. As long as you keep your animals healthy, you should not need to spend much time or money at the vet. I have bred many species of snake already, none of my animals are suffering or in any pain and I do make a bit of extra spending money, which I of course turn around and use that to buy more snakes, or stuff for the snakes! And to ease paying the phone bill and what not. So saying that you can't make money with your hobby is false because it can be done without any negative effect on your snakes. That's not my opinion, that is a fact. Disagreeing with a fact is like, I disagree with the sky being blue. :confused: I don't know what it's like with cats, I don't really agree with buying cats when I can help one out by adopting him before he is euthanized. I know that every kitten sold at a pet store or from a breederis another cat in a shelter being put to sleep. If it ever reaches the level with snakes that it has for cats, I will no longer breed/sell snakes, and instead help them to find homes before it is too late.

And now I need to say that that was not a personal attack on anyone, but rather a leave-nothing-out-about-where-I-stand response to reading this thread.

[Tori]

By next year I hope to be breeding:

Albino checkered garters
Puget sound garters
Oregon red-spotted garters
California red-sided garters
Valley garters
Australian Water Dragons

And hopefully Flame eastern garters if I can find a male in time

[GartersRock]

Agreeing with Shannons post.

[infernalis]

Bravo Shannon Bravo!!!!! (Clap clap, clap):D

[ssssnakeluvr]

Bravo Shannon Bravo!!!!! (Clap clap, clap):D
what he said!!!!!! :D

[snakeman]

Right now I have:
(easterns)
flames het albino
albinos
snows
silver(axantic or anerythristic)not sure
2009 flame albinos or amelanstic which ever you prefer

[GartersRock]

Thats a fancy list! ;)

[Hornets23]

Amanda, what would a calico easter garter look like? I've never heard of that one.

[infernalis]

Right now I have:
2009 flame albinos or amelanstic which ever you prefer


Wow that is a lot of mouths to feed, how do you keep up??

[Snaky]

I breed:
-marcianus
-concinnus
-cyrtopsis

I will be adding these to the list in the near future:
-atratus
-hammondii
-terrestris(, or vagrans if you prefer)

I don't really make money. If it just helps me providing for their care, than that's sufficient for me :)

[Gijs & Sabine]

We breed:
-T.atratus atratus
-T.cyrtopsis cyrtopsis
-T.cyrtopsis ocellatus
-T.elegans terrestris
-T.elegans vagrans
-T.marcianus marcianus
-T.proximus proximus
-T.proximus rubrilineatus
-T.radix
-T.sirtalis infernalis
-T.sirtalis sirtalis 'melanistic'
-T.sirtalis tetrataenia

And within 1 or 2 years also:
-T.radix 'Iowa albino and snow', anerythristic and red albino
-T.sirtalis concinnus, parietalis, similis, florida blue, flame and pickeringii.

Sometimes it looks like we make some nice money out of the garters, but then we'll get the next electra bill (power) :(. We keep all our garters in nice looking enclosures (at least I think so) and that's a very expensive way to keep them, but I personaly don't like a racksystem.
And with the little money we can safe we like to visit other members, like James recently and last year a member in Germany and Alan Francis as well :)

[infernalis]

That is one very impressive list:D

If you ever save enough to fly to the USA, we would be honored to have you stop in for a visit:D

[GartersRock]

Wow that is a lot of mouths to feed, how do you keep up??

:p:D Funny!! And I think you need to share some with me. ;)

[infernalis]

Amanda, what would a calico easter garter look like? I've never heard of that one.

Well I'm not Amanda, but have a look at Bretts find.


http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/general-talk/3723-any-idea-what-might.html

[Garter_Gertie]

But isn't calico white, red(ish) and black? More like a tricolor?

[GartersRock]

No... As far as I know, in the "snake world" (whatever you define that to be) Calico is a random splattering of white or splatters of white on the sides etc. Piebald is a cleaner white. But there is no solid definition. :D

[GartersRock]

Oh and thanks for posting that Wayne. ;)