Biggest Mistake In Developing Collection/Breeding Project???

[amoeba14]

Hello everyone. I've recently started a small collection of balls and will be pursuing/attempting a few breeding projects in the near future. In your opinion, what is the biggest mistake one can make in the pursuit of these tasks? Growing a collection to fast? Obtaining animals to quickly? Focusing on to many different projects? etc.... I believe I'm being very realistic with my projects however the opinions of other, more seasoned veterans, is greatly appreciated. I know I have the best mentor (you know who you are.......love those tacos) in the ball world but merely want to collect as much diverse information as possible. Thanks for the help, guidance and suggestions.

Tim

[ddbjdealer]

I would guess that most peoples biggest mistakes is getting too many males too quickly. Focus most of your intial capital on females, and at around a year out or so, THEN focus your resources on the males.

IMHO, you can never grow a collection too fast :)

[JTrott]

I have to disagree with ddbjdealer on one point. You can grow a collection too fast. You can become overwelmed with the feeding, cleaning, general daily tasks involved with taking care of 50 or 100 ball pythons.

On another point, I would have to agree with ddbjdealer 150%. Make sure you pick up alot of females for your projects, then pick up the males. The females take 18-36 months to get ready, and some males only take 6 months.

Jason

[boidubrid]

growing too fast, and then your husbandry gets a little weak because of the care for so many animals.

[ddbjdealer]

Of course there is the overwhelming aspect... On the other hand, I'm very excited to have added multiple animals to my collection over a short amount of time. I got my first BP in July, and within the next two to three weeks, my collection will be at 19.

My "problem" which I view as a possitive problem, is that I got two racks that are capable of holding 12 snakes each, and only started the one rack with 4 animals. I got the second rack for a quarantine unit, and have already switched gears and as soon as the animals in the second rack come out of quarantine, they will be put in with the others in the first rack, and more quarantined animals are on order as we speak.

If I were to go to 50 or 100 animals right now, I would have to admit that I would be overwhelmed right now... I'm barely used to handling 5 animals at once, let alone the 19.

But out of the 19, only 3 are males. :)

[Rbraczyk]

Keep as many as you can comfortably handle. For kevin and kara its hundreds. For me, I'd like one or two, which I can't even have. Theres nothing worse than having something you dont' want, or something you wish you reneged on when you first got it.

Keep in mind costs too. Electricity and food will burn you if your not careful.

[JERICO]

I think the biggest mistake people make is not appreciating what they have already and have to many projects on the go!

Iv seen people buy some killer reptiles and the excitment of what they have just bought has gone in like 20 seconds because the brains ticking over 100 thoughts a second of what they can do with it!

So yea, i think the biggest mistake is people making to much work for themselfs and forgetting that keeping reptiles is a hobby (for most of us), and hobbys are supposed to be fun ;)

[CherryFive]

Hmm, I say the smartest thing is to SAVE save save your money! Wait until you have 6-9 grand to spend. Its a risk but damn worth it.

[amoeba14]

What would you spend your 6-9 grand on? I'm confident in the projects I want to pursue but am curious what an experienced breeder would spend 6-9 grand on.

Tim

[PanamaRed]

I'd say don't spend your money on projects that are good but not great.. In otherwords get the animals you really want and not something inbetween.. in the long run you'll spend more money buying into intermediate projects when you could have got into the bigger project you wanted more from the get go.

I definitly agree good females are your #1 place to put your $$ the cutting edge stuff is always made with the high end morphs..

Come up woth your own projects, what sounds like a stupid project turns out sweet 99% of the time..