We breed for us. Yes we will sale some, but everything we breed we want a combo out of it. I only hope that they will eventually breed enough to pay for their own food. We feel that there isn’t any money to be made and making money should never be a primary reason to breed. Most combos we want, we can’t afford. The ingredients though, we can. So it takes longer but we will eventually have it.
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I breed because I enjoy the snakes and seeing new life hatch out makes me extremely happy. I legitimately squealed when I saw the first little hognose head poking out of the egg last year.
I’m also wanting to make this my full time job and a business that supports my fiancé and I so I have to find a good balance in-between everything.
My breeding projects are a mix of things I want to produce, staple morphs/combos that tend to sell well in the hobby, and pairings that could potentially produce higher-end snakes that would sell for more.
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This is definitely the reason why I want to do it!
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Aside from just having a bunch of rad pets, I breed for the experiences you learn along the way; breeding vs normal behavior, genetics, etc; as well as just seeing those eggs and the babies grow. I don’t have many of those moments yet, I’m still just starting out. But I like the idea of eventually doing this full time as well if I can manage it (a long, looong term goal for sure lol).
What started me on ball pythons specifically, however, was my ultramel spider clown project. I love spider clowns, especially when they have ringlet/crown looking head stamps, but honestly their colors are a little bland and I wanted to see what ultramel would do to them. So I found the two nicest (to me) looking visuals I could afford at the time and now I’m waiting on their eggs to hatch!
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I do what i do because i have a passion for “bettering the breed”. I strive to produce quality, correct, beautiful animals whether it be rabbits or isopods or anything in between(isopod breeding has been my latest obsession, although they do most of the work themselves)
All of my animals are very well loved and taken care of, and i take pride in the animals i produce and the people that enter the hobby because of a life i created, loved, and cared for.
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I breed reptiles just for the enjoyment aspect of it. I have always excelled in everything science so animals have always been a part of my life. The sales of my animals used to pay for themselves but up until about a year ago when my collection was stolen I have been putting money back into the hobby I love, not because I expect to make a insane amount of money or any at all but because I love the hobby and reptile industry as a whole. There has never been a time when I am doing feedings, cleanings, or general maintenance and thought to myself “this is a total drag.” So to reiterate my answer, I breed reptiles for the pure enjoyment it brings me as a whole…and to make combos I cannot afford 
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I breed because I love creating beautiful snakes. No matter how many eggs I hatch it still feels the same for me as my first clutch. The newness never wore off! I don’t want to buy combos I want to make them myself. Seeing the end result after you have hand picked the best examples of each gene in the combo is extremely satisfying. I breed because I have a list(an actual list) of combos that I want in my collection. I don’t want to buy these combos I want to create them. And I love seeing all the other hatchlings on the way to the end game. I honestly don’t know anything else I’m more passionate about than snakes.
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Me either!!! Hopefully one day I will get to breed snakes of my own.
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I started breeding ball pythons because I wanted combos that no one else was making. I keep breeding them in part for the same reason but also because I am a geneticist and I like playing Frankenstein 
The other species, I breed them because they are odd balls that are not terribly common in the hobby and I want to do my best to establish them a bit more firmly in the hobby so there is less dependence on imports
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This! I have not bred any of my own yet. I love the massive variations, how the genes work together. Ball Pythons are the best snakes! My opinion of course 
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I got into breeding as a hobby. Something I could share and enjoy with my son. No expectations going into it beside making healthy animals. The more time I put into it the more I enjoy it. It would be nice for the breeding to eventually pay for the hobby but for now I am enjoying the ride.
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Cuz its a lot more satisfying in producing something yourself than going out and buying it. Granted, it may take longer. Cuz, to me, just going and buying it is cheating and taking short cuts. If you don’t produce it right off, maybe you wasn’t meant to have it right off.
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I’m all about this. I don’t think I have ever bought more than a two visual gene animal unless its been het for something. Seeing the specific genes isolated is very important to me. Even the two ugliest Yellowbellies can produce an Ivory. But what will the Ivory produce? I pick the very best example (in my minds eye) that I can find, even if I have to overpay, and then I add it in very thoughtfully to my plans for the best outcomes.
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I’ll be pairing this summer. 
I started breeding because I love balls and strategy games, and because I saw an opportunity for a self-sustaining passion that is manageable for me. I’ve always had health issues that kneecapped my ability to work adequately. I’ve started seeing specialists, and it looks like I have lupus. There’s no way I could’ve justified spending more than a couple hundred on a snake with my income, but breeding turns these fun impulses into investment opportunities that may help me support myself financially, so I’ve invested into bigger & better animals. The kind that make you grin as every time you open their bin. I love learning about morphs and I’ve put tons of hours into every decision and I’ve literally chosen snake payment plans over food and other basic needs like haircuts, fixing my car, etc. because I believe in this so much. Now that the lupus is attacking my wrists, I don’t see a substantial future as an artist anymore, and my progress as a guitarist has been drastically impacted, but I still have my ball pythons. There’s something cathartic about scrolling MM and making plans.
These are really the perfect animals for me because if I’m feeling very sick, they don’t need constant attention and I can work them around my schedule. Even before I got bad, they brought me so much happiness and I love sharing that joy with others.
TLDR; snakes are cool
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Only way I’m going to see some combos is if I make them myself. There also things you only notice when you got the whole clutch sitting in front of you. Pics are nice, but it doesn’t replace holding them in your hand.
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Exactly when you first start working with a gene seeing the variances in clutches first hand helps me visualize what direction I want to go.
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I hope to one day try breeding stuff for some of the reasons listed above of course but also to try and get certain interesting critters in the hobby a more stable footing within it so they dont get snatched from the wild as often. I want the wild ones to live in peace in the wild as nature intended and not stolen from nature to be put in someone’s enclosure somewhere.
Maybe one day I will manage to breed some stuff.
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Snake good. World need more snake.
I’m quite entrepreneurial. I know a lot of people look down on the business and money aspect of the hobby, but I think it’s a very noble thing to try to achieve some form of financial success by monetizing something you love. It might not work out, but I’d like to at least say that I’ve tried. At the very least I’ll have some kickass animals in the end, and have propagated some underrated species in the hobby in Canada for others to enjoy.
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This is an emotional question for me and thus warrants an emotional answer, so bear with me.
Several years ago, before I had my animals, I was in a very dark place that I never thought I would crawl out of. I’d been there several times before, but this particular phase had seemed darker than the rest. Simply existing was excruciating; life was something I endured rather than embraced.
Yet in this shroud of darkness and pain, I had a sudden, overwhelming desire to seek companionship in snakes. I had always found them fascinating, beautiful creatures, but it wasn’t until I was at my lowest point that I decided to pursue my interest.
Upon welcoming home my first snake, my entire perspective on life changed. The passion that had been burnt out for so long began to spark within me again. The light began to peek through the darkness I was far too acquainted with. That little Mexican Black Kingsnake was all it took for me to stop enduring life and begin embracing it. Apophis is the reason I am still alive today. His sweet face is pictured below.
I breed these amazing animals because I spent so long tethered to the grief and isolation that blinded me from seeing the gift and beauty of life. When I broke out of this self-destructive prison I built for myself, I began to appreciate everything our extraordinary planet has to offer; both the good and the bad. Life is a beautiful gift that comes in many forms, and I love contributing to the life that mother nature has given us by reproducing the animals that blessed me with another chance at life. I devote every fiber of my being to them because they have done the same for me in their own way.
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I had a long drawn out response then I remembered this is a reptile forum
Jk
When I was a kid I saw my friends turtle laying eggs and I was amazed. I can hardly think of an age where I didn’t want to breed reptiles after that, I wanted to replicate the process, found out turtles take a long time to mature 
But man did little pre 11 year old me go on that TurtleSale.comforum and annoy everyone with my horrible spelling and grammar and AOl/AIM chat breeders haha
Eventually that turned into lizards and that turned into snakes and here I am at 30 still loving every second of it
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