I’m new (2020) and small (22 pets/breeders). The market was saturated when, after hoping and dreaming for 7-8yrs, I finally was able to get into the hobby. There was 35k+/- ball pythons on MM in 2020. Too many, yeah, but prices were good and people were buying. The market saturation was mentioned back then, too.
The current economic state we are in isn’t helping, but no one has mentioned the political side of the hobby. The fact that the Lacey Act was slid into the Competes Act and almost made it through is scary (andnof course, Flordia). I watched so many people liquidate and get out of the hobby on FB during that period. Im sure that will help the market and population a little.
I was checking the USARK website every 15 minutes for an update… You don’t see people trying to ban cats and dogs, even though they are much more dangerous to people and worse for the environment by an order of magnitude. Free range cats kill tens of billions of birds. small mammals, and reptiles every year, and yet as soon as a snake gets loose in one small area of one state and starts eating possums, we’re on the verge of a national ban.
Every couple of weeks now there’s a story about how about a dozen BPs were found dumped somewhere. Every single time, it’s adult normals, pastels, spiders, and bananas. Sometimes there are some two-gene snakes, but very rarely. It’s the result of irresponsible and impulsive breeders getting out of the hobby because their stacks of cash had failed to materialize. It’s also highly illegal. You don’t see this happen very often with boas and corn snakes, let me tell you that.
I wouldn’t say this is entirely accurate, there are constant attempts and successes with breed bans in dogs due to perceived dangers. The difference with cats is that there are so many feral animals (worldwide, not just the US) already that it wouldn’t matter if you started banning them or requiring they be kept indoors. There would have to be mass culls and that just doesn’t happen except in very specific cases. That’s why so many advocate for TNR programs.
We can’t really be sure in regards to corn snakes, even if it did start happening on a large scale. The major difference between BPs being dumped and corns being dumped is that there are native rat snake species nationwide, and unless it’s a fancy morph, they likely wouldn’t even be noticed by the average person. That’s what makes it even more important for corn snake breeders and keepers to be responsible with their animals.
I agree, cats are a very destructive animal out in the wild and IMO people like to villify reptiles when in reality that cute cat face thats feral will do way more harm to wildlife.
I feel like this is really similar to big pollution/energy conservation/climate issues.
There are like 70 companies pumping out plastic waste, smog, spilling oil, etc, but the average consumer (at least in the US) is targeted, telling us to make huge lifestyle changes which ultimately might help in the tiniest amount possible large scale.
There are huge breeding programs pumping out hundreds of babies a season, many low quality or for prove out reasons as previously stated, but the smaller hobby breeders are the ones who are being asked to reduce their programs, etc.
Nothing revolutionary here, just what I feel is an apt comparison
Yes @cmills You are so on point with this post Even if the smaller breeders scale down their breeding projects it won’t amount to “a bill of beans” if the mass producing breeders keep at it…….
That’s very true, and unfortunately there’s not much we can do to stop it. An extremely well-known and well-respected breeder estimated on IG sometime last year he had 1900 clutches. Not 1900 hatchlings - 1900 clutches. Even if we estimate only 4 eggs per clutch on the low end, that still comes out to nearly 8,000 hatchlings - for one year.
There is simply no way for us small breeders to make the hobby sustainable while the industry supports production like that, no matter how much advocacy and change we do.
Thta is the most insane number, I can hardly believe it!
I can’t imagine producing likely more than 8,000 animals without wondering if I’m doing something in excess or contributing to a problem. Honestly, I can’t imagine producing 100 animals in a season without wondering that!
