Much Profit In Breeding?

[Julirs]

When you are 15 years old, in the 6-9 months it takes eggs to incubate, your interests can change alot! (If I remember correctly the opposite sex started looking alot more interesting at that time! )
My other thought! Show your Mom a picture of my dining room! Even if you only have a clutch of Veileds and only raise them to 2 months, it still takes an incredible amount of room!

 

[Eric Adrignola]

and that is a neat chameleon setup. Wait till you're watching Lost at night, and a tense moment come sup, and you have to stop it and get a flashlight cause that ONE frikking cricket is chirping behind the TV. Kill him,and there's another... and another....

Seriously, I've been there, done that. I got veileds when I was 14 or 15. I didnt' have the right info, and drowned all my eggs. Now, I might have been able to raise the babies at that point, had they hatched. For me, at THAT time, I would have made a killing. Calyptratus were $125 a piece at 2 weeks old. Now, not so much.

I spent lots of time with my animals. Time I shold have spent doing other things, I admit. I was antisocial, and the hobby gave me something to do that didnt' involve those terrifying, intimidating catholic high-school girls...oh if I only knew.... what the heck was I doing with lizards... sorry, nevermind, off topic....

Well, I continued to be intraverted and anti social throughout high school and college (one year, anyway). When I was pretty much forcibly distracted from chameleons by women. I was JUSSSSSST about to plunk down $200 on a 2 week old CB melleri (melleri being my "goal" species to own) when I really started dating (yeah... I was like 19. So sue me, I was a chameleon-owning nerd, what would one expect?).

I sold the last clutch I had at the Raleigh show, and kinda ignored my animals for a year. Went almost one year chameleon-free. When I settled down, IWanted them again. I eventually crept back into the hobby, and managed to keep them for fun, with minimal costs, and, in the last few years, making enough back to have some profit. Yeah for me.

Took 12 years or so before I started to see a yearly profit. And that's year by year - not including the costs sunk in the beginning - which MUST consider in an investment.


Moral of the story is DO NOT get into it thinking you're going to make money.

Listen to the others - bus or wait tables. I paid for much of my college education by working at Applebees in Garner, NC. Made good money - $100 a night on weekends, after taxes. Teaches you people skills that will shrivel up and atrophy if you're in a room caring for lizards all day.

Your age, you DO NOT NEED something like that to tie you down. Reptile breeding is a responsibility. I had clutch hatch around christmas break years ago - I had to cart the suckers along to my in-laws house. And, these turds had to be separated. Wasn't expecting that - had two big cages set up for them. An unexpected surprise was that these animals, for SOME reason, woudln't live together - they'd curl up into a black ball at the sight of one another. 25 separate plastic containers. Feedign 25 separated babies fruit flies and tiny crickets.

Never happened before or since. This stuff is not a sure thing, it's unpredictable, weird, hard. You may have invested thousands into your animals - you'll have hundreds incubating, and they all die in the eggs. It happens. All the time. When it comes to your income, it's bad to have it dependant on something you cannot depend on.

 

[Scaley]

Hi New,
Glad you found this rewarding HOBBY. I can't speak from a breeders standpoint, though as I type I have about 60 veiled eggs hatching. I can see their little heads. I've kept veilds for about 9 yrs now and finally have a home with space enough for a small scale - 2.2 veilds with enough extra room for babies, feeders and some feeder breeding (so this is finally my first clutch). I can though speak from a business owners experience. 10 yrs owning a hair salon. costs mount quickly! I dare not look at what I've spent to get to this point in the cham hobby but I can assure you that it will be faaaaaaaaar more than what I'll get back in baby sales at least for quite some time. The best advice: you said you were looking to raise money for college. Your transportation & income tax cost to work for someone else will be far less than your overhead costs to be self employed). Trust the older and wiser sage's in this thread on this. You won't save money for college, you'll spend it in operating costs. Start for a hobby (for the luv of it). Learn good husbandry, read tons of info that you will then have to prove out for yourself as being accurate - because it won't all be, spend money on it - because you will. learn, learn, learn. Then take your chances and raise a clutch when you have aquired enough skill to keep an adult alive and healthy. At least you have this forum and so many other places with a wealth of info to be able to. When I was 15 and had my first reptile the only advice anyone would give you was feed them iceberg lettuce and call them spike. Times have changed but business has not last time I checked if you own a business you want profit and I dont think you can apply for non profit status to raise chams. I could go on and on but I won't. PS if your pursuing massage therapy make your goal to work in the medical field so that you can work on patients with insurance. Massage business takes it hard when people are trying to save money in low economic times. luxury items are always the first to go.

 

[dodolah]

actually, become a massage therapist, THEN be a chameleon breeder on the side.
not the other way around.

It's an expensive hobby.
Turning it into a business in hope of paying for college fund is a bit too far fetched imho.

 

[ttshibby]

Chameleon breeding takes alot of work and dedication. Almost as much as school. What do your parents think of your idea? If thier ok with it then please, please, start small. Only breed a pair once to see how it goes. Once you raise those babies, get more if you enjoy it.

Good luck!

 

[NewOwner]

Old thread.

I decided not to breed chams anyways... expensive.. really rewarding, but for a 15 year old... too expensive


Thanks to everyone and, like i said this is an old thred.