Is anyone into the local breeder's buisness?

[iloveoveralls]

This question came up to me today and I thought I might put it up on this forum. Is anyone in the 'buisness' of breeding and selling reptiles locally? I was just intrested and wondering how you get into it, and if it's even worth trying. Comments would be appreciated. thanks

 

[Syn]

It is hard getting from in the red to profit in reptile breeding. Normally it requires having a big/good name in the business. I can say you probably won't be making a profit the first few years.

 

[sandrachameleon]

You might find the information linked to from this blog entry useful:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/63-links-regarding-breeding.html

 

[tdotcham]

It is hard getting from in the red to profit in reptile breeding. Normally it requires having a big/good name in the business. I can say you probably won't be making a profit the first few years.

thats true for almost any business as you need to recover from your initial sunken costs.. i am sure that the larger breeders you see on this site all started small and expanded into large projects.

you can make money selling anything that there is demand for and is marketed right.

 

[Julirs]

In order to make any kind of money you have to do this on a larger scale, which means buying lots and lots of females. Unless you spend alot of money to buy breeding age females, you need to buy babies and grow them up to a year old, then wait 6-10+ months for eggs to hatch. You need to find an extremely cheap way to feed all of your animals, and a very cheap way to ship them, which usually means doing lots of shipping. SO, if you keep lots and lots of animals in appropriately sized cages you need lots and lots of room and you will spend some money on electricity. You will also spend money at your local exotics Vet. You won't make money on Veileds, so you will have to breed Panthers.
Here is my cost breakdown for a clutch of Veileds:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/cost-raising-69-baby-veileds-18467/

 

[Cuda]

I grow and sell corals. It is not easy . Takes couple years to build up inventory and just when your there the market can go in another direction.
Seen plenty loose there butts and quit. I am in the process of breeding Panthers now in your area so you will already have compitition.

JS

 

[summoner12]

I grow and sell corals. It is not easy . Takes couple years to build up inventory and just when your there the market can go in another direction.
Seen plenty loose there butts and quit. I am in the process of breeding Panthers now in your area so you will already have compitition.

JS

There is always competition, and it's healthy for the market.

I suggest people watch for locals who do a breeding project of their own and then ask 'may I buy one of them?' This is usually a good cheap way to buy a new cham. You help the local keeper out by taking an animal off their hands and you get an animal that didn't cost an arm and a leg at a show.

 

[HecticZ]

I grow and sell corals. It is not easy . Takes couple years to build up inventory and just when your there the market can go in another direction.
Seen plenty loose there butts and quit. I am in the process of breeding Panthers now in your area so you will already have compitition.

JS

And with Corals you always run the risk of loosing everything, if the lights go out. Damn Com-Ed.

 

[Cuda]

Fact A storm can kill you. That why I had to buy a Generator! I lost plenty.

And with Corals you always run the risk of loosing everything, if the lights go out. Damn Com-Ed.

 

[iloveoveralls]

I grow and sell corals. It is not easy . Takes couple years to build up inventory and just when your there the market can go in another direction.
Seen plenty loose there butts and quit. I am in the process of breeding Panthers now in your area so you will already have compitition.

JS

do you have a website or anything? if I ever happened to sell chams I'd be intrested in selling Jacks. and p.s. the chicago reptile house will buy/ or give you trade for your chams if buisness is ever running slow

 

[Psi]

The best way to start out is to watch your local online buying/selling websites (kijiji etc).
Reason I say that is you can usually snatch up some good deals on caging/lighting(though without a UVB meter, you would want new lights but cheap fixtures help)/etc.
I bought my first 2 cages at retail prices, but since then they've all been used.
I will warn you that buying chams from people selling locally like that more often then not they will have some sort of health issue.

I would guess my current cost so far on chams/caging/lighting is somewhere in the 1750 range. I have probably spent 500 so far on feeding them(and some geckos) in the year since I got my first cham. My electrical costs haven't increased much since owning them, so I'd guess 100$ in a year.

After you total everything up (including baby costs close to what Julirs posted) I'm looking to recover from a 3500-4000$ loss to break even.

Is it worth it though?
I'd definitely say so

 

[Keiness]

A word of advice,

I jumped into the world of reptile breeding and buisness way too fast a couple years ago. It's much easier said then done, and a lot of people don't tell you the hard side of things. I invested thousands of dollars and 20+ crested geckos in the beginning. I have since branched out into various snakes and chameleons. However there is no guarantee that things are going to work out well. I've had up to 40 eggs laid, and haven't hatched a single gecko, i'm still learning the tricks of incubation. Not only that, but i've had females accidentally killed by males, or have a hard time laying and pass away. Sometimes you luck in, and sometimes you luck out. I've lost unimaginable amounts of money and if I wasn't totally passionate about reptiles I would have abandoned ship. Caging and food costs are a whole different story. To make up for the food bills i've taken to selling feeders as well to pay for my own cost.

However it is all a learning experience, and I wouldn't expect to make much for the first 5 years if you start with a young animal that needs to reach a certain age to breed. Its crazy, stressful, but amazing and fun if you do have the passion for it. My advice, the only way to make money is to have a large number of animals, but you run a greater risk of problems with a bigger amount. Start with a few key individuals, learn you way from those couple, then once you have learned more, grow more with it.

 

[Cuda]

That place has left a bad taste in my mouth.

do you have a website or anything? if I ever happened to sell chams I'd be intrested in selling Jacks. and p.s. the chicago reptile house will buy/ or give you trade for your chams if buisness is ever running slow

 

[chams1]

and p.s. the chicago reptile house will buy/ or give you trade for your chams if buisness is ever running slow

I wouldn't bank on that. Many times I have gone to them to take some of my babies off my hands dirt cheap and they turned me down every time. BTW, the Chicago Reptile House is not the place to go if you want quality and healthy. There is only one person I know there that knows anything about chameleons and that actually cares (and only because he has bred them before.) I got one of my female panther breeders from him (directly) when I first started breeding.

IMO, the best way to make a name for yourself is by teaching. It is by going to many shows and teaching the public how to properly care for the chams as well as opening myself up to constant contact and future questions from those customers that I have had good success (although I have had my share of losses, too) and have not had one dis-satisfied customer. I have even acquired friends from this as well (you know who you are ). Word of mouth spreads very quickly and it is from that that I continue to get many calls not only with questions but also with cham requests.

 

[athena9995]

I always thought that the Chicago Reptile House was a good place to go. I've only gotten feeders and anoles there, but all of the people I've talked to there seemed knowledgeable. More than I can say for the "big box" pet stores. Is there some place good other than the AAE?

 

[chams1]

I always thought that the Chicago Reptile House was a good place to go. I've only gotten feeders and anoles there, but all of the people I've talked to there seemed knowledgeable. More than I can say for the "big box" pet stores. Is there some place good other than the AAE?

They are knowledgable about some things but not chams. They are in the business of making money and don't really care about the animals. If you go through a private breeder (i.e. not related to any storefront) you will find that they will generally give you more correct information and will care a whole lot more not only about the cham, but about you as the customer and doing it right to make a smooth transition for the health and longevity of the cham. Tell me how many times CRH would be willing to answer your questions after the sale....nada. At the AAE, as with all expos, you have your good vendors and your bad ones. The good ones will give you more information than you need or even asked, and the bad ones will not.

 

[iloveoveralls]

They are knowledgable about some things but not chams. They are in the business of making money and don't really care about the animals. If you go through a private breeder (i.e. not related to any storefront) you will find that they will generally give you more correct information and will care a whole lot more not only about the cham, but about you as the customer and doing it right to make a smooth transition for the health and longevity of the cham. Tell me how many times CRH would be willing to answer your questions after the sale....nada. At the AAE, as with all expos, you have your good vendors and your bad ones. The good ones will give you more information than you need or even asked, and the bad ones will not.

i wouldn't say that the CHR doesn't care about their animals. They have a wide variety of animals and aren't as keen on one specific reptile as a breeder would(my 2 cents). chams1, I don't know if I have PMed you before but are you a vendor or breeder in the chicagoland area?

 

[chams1]

i wouldn't say that the CHR doesn't care about their animals. They have a wide variety of animals and aren't as keen on one specific reptile as a breeder would(my 2 cents). chams1, I don't know if I have PMed you before but are you a vendor or breeder in the chicagoland area?

Don't assume that because someone has "a wide variety of animals" that they know what they are doing. IMO (and in my experience) - it is the person that "deals" with a lot of different types of things is not as adept to what they are selling and the proper care and up-to-date information, etc. I will admit, there are people I know that know a lot about many different types of reptiles, but that is not true to everyone. You have to remember that storefronts are in the business of making money so they do what they have to do to make money to pay their overhead. They also have to hire people to help out and just because they work there doesn't mean they know anything either.

No you have never PM'd me and yes, I am a Chicago-land area chameleon (and certain species of geckos) breeder.