Above are two older pictures of hybrid breeding. To the left is a green patternless rock male breeding a hybrid Cateater het albino. The offspring of this breeding will be 75/25 rock/burm Cateaters 100% het for: green patternless/broad banded/twin striped and 50% het for albino. To the right is also a green patternless rock male  breeding a female albino green burmese. This breeding results in 50/50 rock/burm Cateaters 100% het for: Green/Albino/Green Patternless/Broad Banded/ Twin Striped. These babies have UNBELIEVABLE potential.

Becoming a Breeder:

There is not any single, right method or special, short cut route to becoming a professional reptile breeder by trade. I would say that there are literally hundreds of "right ways" as well as many more "wrong ways" to do it. And of course amongst the right ways there are "better ways" to go about it than other "not so great ways". In this section of our website I intend to try to convey what we feel are the very BEST ways to go about becoming a professional, successful breeder.

To the left here is a male hybrid Cateater het albino breeding a female albino het granite burmese. This breeding results in: 75/25 burm/rock albino Cateaters 50% het granite and Cateaters 100% het albino and 50% het granite. To the right is a male green patternless rock male breeding a female albino granite burmese. This breeding results in 50/50 rock/burm Cateaters 100% het for: Granite/Albino/Green Patternless/Broad Banded/ Twin Striped. These babies pack  LOT of morph qualities and have truly INCREDIBLE potential to produce literally hundreds of all-new hybrid morphs never before produced.

First I shall address a few basic business principles:

1. Keep your overhead down as low as possible. Your overhead is all your costs involved in keeping your reptiles: The cost of your breeding stock, feed animal costs, caging costs, supplies costs, heating costs, veterinary costs, etc. All these things can be obtained, manufactured and maintained for much less than most people ever imagine. And the lower you keep your daily overhead the easier it will be to begin to show a net profit much sooner.

Above to the left is a female hybrid, het albino Cateater during her egg development, or "ovulation". That clutch resulted in 24 incredible 75% rock 25% burm Cateaters 100% het for rock green patternless/broad banded/ twin striped and 50% het for albino. And while 24 may not sound like a great clutch, these babies have stupendous potential in so many different ways. Not the least of which, when these are bred to 75% burm 25% rock Cateaters with the same morph het traits, they will crate 50/50 hybrid Cateater morphs, never-before-seen or created. To the right is an entirely different female hybrid Cateater being bred by a different male rock green patternless to create unrelated hybrids with the same morph traits. A female tiger retic head can also be seen in this shot. We were also trying for tiger retic/rock hybrids het for the rock morph traits and 50% het for retic albino. That breeding did not take place unfortunately. But there are other breeding seasons and we will get it eventually.

FEEDING:

The least expensive way to feed your snakes is to breed your own rats or rabbits and thus produce your own food. The cost to produce large rats is usually less than .40 cents per rat for large when you breed your own. The cost per rabbit is usually less than $1.50 on average for 5 to 7 pound young adult rabbits when you produce your own. Privately bred rodents tend to be a lot healthier and of course fresher than the feed animals from secondary sources and they average about 1/10^th the cost. And although breeding them yourself can and  will take a bit of effort in terms of daily maintenance most people find that it is still a LOT more convenient than having to drive to get food or ordering expensive frozen feeder animals.

To the left here is a rock green patternless breeding an albino labyrinth burmese. This breeding results in 50/50 rock/burm Cateaters 100% het for: labyrinth/Albino/Green Patternless/Broad Banded/ Twin Striped. These babies pack  LOT of morph qualities and have truly INCREDIBLE potential to produce literally hundreds of all-new hybrid morphs never before produced. To the right is an even more amazing and more valuable breeding. A male albino granite burmese is breeding a female albino, purple-phase retic. This breeding would yield 50/50 Bateaters 100% het for retic albino, burmese albino and granite. This female did develop fertile eggs. We incubated them and many made it to hatching age but none survived as we did not cut the eggs open in time. Hybrids frequently do not develop proper egg tooth's and are thus unable to cut out of their eggs. You must pay close attention to the number of days and candle them frequently to look for movement. In this picture you may also see a male albino het green and a shed. The shed is a female burmese shed. The smell of the shed plus the presence of another male burmese will usually stimulate a male burmese to breed with any available female from virtually any species. Both are rarely needed simultaneously.

CAGING:

Although there are many great caging companies that offer very affordable, attractive caging for pythons, the least costly method of housing numerous pythons is to construct your own. The average cost of pre-fab caging for large pythons is roughly $400.00 to $600.00 dollars per cage when the cages are fully loaded. If one has these cages shipped the price will be considerably much more per cage, perhaps as much as $800.00 per cage or even much more. If one intends to be a serious breeder and thus will very likely be keeping 20 or 40 or more large pythons then this considerable cost of  upwards of $800.00 to $1,000.00 per cage will be simply staggering and tremendous. Few people have an extra 20 or 30 thousand dollars laying around to invest in caging. And therein lies one of the main reasons why there are so few big breeders of large pythons in the world today. The cost of undertaking anything this large makes this endeavor simply prohibitive from the very start. Now play out the scenario with you building your own cages. The average cost per cage for a fully loaded large python cage is roughly $150.00 to $200.00 dollars. And this only if each cage has its own individual thermostat. Of course if whole rooms are temperature controlled then the need for numerous thermostats is eliminated. Even so, home-built cages are basically less than 1/5^th the cost of pre-fab caging. So to house 20 or 40 large snakes it could cost as little as three to five thousand. And most people CAN afford this. In this section we have provided pictures and specific instructions for a cage design that we feel is not only very superior in terms of overall strength as well as from a practical standpoint but also is incredibly cost effective. And SAFE!

Giant Divider-Safety Cage Pictures:

The following pictures show in stages how to construct my latest cage design, my "Giant Divider-Safety Cages". These are surprisingly cheap and very easy to make. Each cage only costs about 50 to 60 dollars for all the materials. You can make them to any dimensions that fit your specific needs but the pictures below reflect 8'X3'X1' and 8'X4'X16" cages that when assembled and stacked create Giant Dividing Cage Towers for safe giant python keeping. These dimensions are not only based on the needs of the snake but also are of such dimensions that use all of your materials. When following these dimensions you are not left with a bunch of odd shaped, useless wood scraps. We believe it is best to utilize all of one's material if at all possible. Use only Gold Screws to construct these cages. Nails eventually pull out. You will need 1.5", 2", 2.5" and 3" screws for these cages. Walmart sells a great assorted box of these exact sizes for only 10 dollars. You'll need a power drill screwdriver too. And of course a skilsaw.

These giant cages only require 2 sheets of plywood (5/8" thick for 8'X3'X1' cages and 3/4" thick for 8'X4'X16" cages) and three 2X4 boards to construct. The pictures above show how to construct your frontal infrastructure where your doors will be mounted as well as the divider panel slots and ceiling supports. You don't need full 2"X4" boards for these cages. I cut all of my 2"X4" boards into two, 8' long 1 1/2" X 1 1 3/4" (1.5X1.75) thick boards. This is more strength than you you need for this revolutionary design. (Patent Pending) 

Separate your divider slots by 3/8" evenly. We use 3/16" Press Board to make our divider panels. These are 8'x4' sheets of thin but very strong board material. One side is very smooth, or "Slick" and the other side is not very smooth but still not rough. Cut your divider panels to fit loosely but with at least 3/4" up inside the ceiling supports/divider panel slots. Cut all your divider panel boards at a 45 degree angle (above left) and you get the lower divider panel slot boards for free, and it looks good and is more comfortable for the snakes than square divider slots.

The end result is that your divider panels should rest directly on the cage floor and between the divider panel slot boards. To acheive this you will need to measure and cut three separate lower door-support boards. The divider panels will slide between these and the upright support boards in the front. Once the cage is finished paint it with a child-safe interior paint. Ask your paint retailer for this. After primering you will seal ALL joints and jams with Mainstays standard caulk. It is all you need and it's cheap. 

If you only have a single snake or only a single pair of breeders then this one cage will be sufficient for you. You can even divide off as many as three snakes to feed each separately with these cages. If you have MANY giant pythons to house, or are intending on obtaining many pythons in the near future then you will need many cages to house them in. This cage design is also specifically designed to make up multi-cage towers. If you are using the 8'X3'X1' design then you can go 7 to 8 cages high in a standard room. With the 8'X4'X16" design you may go 5 to 6 cages high. To the right is a picture of half a dozen of these cages being constructed and painted simultaniously. Note: Only paint the entire inside and the outer parts of the cage that will be visible when the cages are in place. This will save you a lot on extra paint. 

When the primer and paint is dry then they get stacked atop one another to form a perfect giant python cage tower. Only the top-most cage needs a lid, or "ceiling" board. Each cage sitting above the next cage below acts as a perfect lid. This saves a tremendous amount of money on extra material. Make sure to paint the bottoms of each cage that acts as a lid, not only to protect the wood but also to serve as a nice reflective quality for your lights.

Here the cage towers have been set in place. The cages should stack very evenly and without any flexing or bending or overhanging. If you have stubborn, warped wood that causes any cages to lift slightly here or there simply run a sufficient screw through it and into a straight cage to pull the cages tightly together.

You may note that there are little shelves in the upper right hand corner of my cages. This is optional but I like to place little 1 foot square water bowl shelves about 8 inches off the floor. These have a 3 inch lip of wood and they keep the bowl from being tipped over, crapped in or crushed. The water remains clean, the bowl remains clean and it saves a lot of time on weekly water bowl cleaning. I use 10 inch non-tippable dog water bowls. These are plastic and hold a lot of water and are only a buck each at any discount store. You may also note that I have light domes mounted sideways on the right of each cage in the cage towers. After a LOT of careful thought and intensive planning I came upon this idea to greatly simplify how to provide light and heat without too much trouble, time, cost or construction. This idea is the best thus far. But more on that below. There's a LOT more to this concept.

To the left is a picture of a finished cage tower. You may set your hinges and barrel bolt latches any way that suits you but this pattern worked best for me. To acheive a "flush cage surface" like I have above you must attach 1' thick (vertical outer strips) and 1/2" thick (horizontal and by divider panel slots) plywood strips between, over and under all of the doors. Otherwise the doors would hit and rub one another and there would be gaps or would eventually sag. Plus there would be nowhere to attach your latches and hinges.

The picture to the right is of the "Electric Wall" as I call it. I have created an all-new concept in caging that I am very proud of. The light domes on each tower are housed within this 10"X 8' space. As are all of the connecting rheostats, thermostat, power strips and wires. Each level from both cage towers is wired into only one rheostat. Since both sides of each cage level are exactly identical to the other side their stats and needs are also exactly identical. So only 6 thermostats are needed for 12 cages (nice savings here). 

The door to the Electric Wall has weather striping all around it. All the cracks and joints inside the Electric Wall are also sealed AIR TIGHT with caulk. The only escape for the heat given off from the domes is back through the cages. That's where my little fan comes in. Now on to the next, related stage:

After making sure that the Electric Wall chamber is air-tight (except for around the light dome holes!) I install a small but powerful computer fan in the ceiling of the Electric Wall. This blows forced air into the Electric Wall space. I decided on the ceiling for this since heat inherently rises so it blows down any built up heat. This fan is hooked up to a thermostat. The remote probe on the thermostat is run through one of the lower cages and down to the middle front of the cage, near the divider panel slot. I set the thermostat for what I want the ambient temps of all the cages to be. The fan turns on and blows, forcing the heated air as well as fresh air!, through the cages and out the divider panel slots any time the temps drop below the set ambient temps, which is usually every 30 to 45 seconds. The end result.... the snakes constantly get forced, FRESH air, ALL of the heat from the domes is utilized, 12 cages in the two cage tower combo only require one thermostat (major savings here!) and it's a LOT less work in terms of construction, time and labor.

(Note: If you keep your snake room between 75 and 80 degrees then the 30 watt 10,000 hour energy efficient flourescent light bulbs are best for this design. They give off very sufficient heat and save you LOTS of money over time on your energy bills)

I mount my rheostats on the inside of the Electric Wall but I place the dial controls on the outside of the Electric Wall door. This way I can easily control and correct each cage level as any need arises. Please ignore the fact that the door is yet to be painted in the picture. I don't always have time to go taking lots of extra pictures. But if you want to see any end-result pics of anything specific just email me and I'll get them for you. The pic to the right is another angle of the inside of the sealed Electric Wall space.

Door Construction: You may make your doors the best way you see fit, naturally. But if you are looking to save money, lots of money, this is the best way to do it. I call this the "Drop Down Method". You cut your doors out of solid plywood and then you "Drop" your saw down through the center of the doors to cut out your window view ports. Always make sure your measurements are accurate and always think SAFETY first and foremost! Wear plastic eye protectors and always have a firm grip on your saw. It can jump back easily if you are not careful. This is an easy technique for experienced builders but it takes a little learning for anyone remotely new to the skilsaw.

Once you have made all your cuts (I suggest making many doors at one time!) you primer and paint your doors (again with child-safe paint) and then you attach the Plexiglas. Caulk any flaws or holes in the wood between primering and painting. DON'T SKIP THE PRIMERING STAGE! IT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO PRIMER! 

Above, pictured to the right is all the tools you will need for this stage of door construction: At least one drill for a 1/8th drill bit and a Philips head screwdriver bit. A razor knife with a Stanley Heavy Duty blade in it. These last forever and never break or chip. A measuring level. A caulking gun and a tube of cheap standard white caulk. (The expensive stuff does not adhere to paint and vice versa;)) A pen for marks and lines. #6, 3/8" Pan head screws, and several sheets of 1/8" acrylic Plexiglas.

Cutting and Breaking your plexiglas is relatively simple and easy. Make your marks on the sheet with your pen and level. With the level still on the plexiglas slice your mark with the razor knife at least 3 times, making sure not to leave the single first groove you made with your first cut. Then, place your cut right along the edge of a firm board or level table. Place another board over the main sheet and also along your cut. Then firmly grip each end of your window port piece while another person applies weight and pressure to the upper board covering the main piece of plexi and slowly snap the piece down, and off. Occasionally you will get pieces that don't break perfectly.  This is normal and happens to even those of us that have snapped plex a thousand times. If you need pics of me snapping plexi just email and ask and I'll get them for you. I am never not building more cages as we are ever expanding.

Next you will lay your plexiglas over your window view port hole. You should have a nice 1/2 inch overlap on all edges. After positioning it you will drill an 1/8th inch hole in each corner. Then remove the plexiglas and dust off all wood and plastic debris and set aside. Run a thin bead of caulk around the lip of the window port where the plexiglas will be seated.

Set your plexiglas back on top of the caulking bead and directly over your original screw holes and put in your #6, 3/8" screws. Do not overtighten! Press your fingertips down along the glass to flatten the caulking bead and thus create a really good seal. Flatten any globs of caulk that might puddle out. And that's it. You have your cheap but effective and quite beautiful doors.

If anyone has any questions about the cage construction please feel free to email me at David_Beauchemin@HighEndHerps.com and I will answer your questions and get pics to you promptly.

In the picture to the left the purple phase female retic is beginning her follicle development. The swelling can be detected in the forward curve of her body. The breeding in the picture to the right is of a male tiger het albino retic breeding an albino granite burmese female. This would produce tiger Bateaters 100% double het for burmese albino and granite pattern and 50% het for retic albino. Unfortunately this breeding did not produce fertile eggs. This undoubtedly due to the female being too young at only 22 months of age. We expect to achieve this breeding this coming (2007-2008) season.

2. Always overestimate costs and underestimate potential profits.

In this business, JUST like any other business, unforeseen costs and additional expenditures frequently do and certainly WILL surface with unwanted regularity. So never assume the best case scenario in anything. Never make the mistake of sitting down and figuring, "Okay, if I buy these albino tigers for two thousand and their cages for five hundred, then they will breed in 2 years and give me 60 eggs, all of which will hatch and I will sell 60 babies for a grand each and will make a $57,500.00 dollar profit!".  It will NEVER work that way and anyone that expects anything like this is setting themselves up for a HUGE disappointment. When you invest in reptile morphs you MUST be prepared for the worst and even almost expect it to some extent. At the very least one should insert as much potential, likely reality into their figuring as is possible to conceive of. The realities of snake breeding is that rarely do best case scenarios occur. When they do, feel fortunate and don't make the mistake of thinking it is the normal standard. It is the exception.

There is no feeling more magical and more happy than seeing your babies coming out of the eggs that were laid due to your breeding efforts. It doesn't matter how much the babies are worth. It doesn't matter how many there are. It doesn't matter how many times you have done it or for how long. It could be your 500th clutch on your 30th year with baby spotted pythons and it's still just as magical as the first time you saw little heads popping out. For those true reptile lovers the magic never dies and the excitement never wanes.

Here are the "Normal Realities" of snake breeding:

Rarely do snakes breed the first possible year of maturity. Rarely are first or second clutches anywhere near the maximum average quantity/clutch size of that of a comparably-sized, fully developed, mature female. Rarely will 100% of the eggs in any given clutch hatch perfectly with a 100% hatch and survival rate. Rarely will ALL the offspring take to the food source they are offered and rarely will every baby survive past their first few weeks of life. Some can just tend to have issues or problems. It may be something obvious, such as a non-working tongue or it may be impossible to detect, such as a defective heart or other defective internal organ. One must take all of this into account when attempting to assess or to pre-guess the outcome of any breeding in the near future and try their best to outsmart the odds. If you are aiming to make breeding reptiles as a career you must have back ups on back ups on back ups that allow your operation to weather the unfavorable odds that are virtually unavoidable. So, if you want to get 10 clutches of eggs on any given year, you'd be wise to breed 40 females, or four times the number you wish to produce, to ensure that you achieve the goal you wish to achieve. Simply because the worst it can ordinarily get is roughly only 1 out of every 4 females will breed and successfully reproduce for you. worst case scenario. This being the case if your husbandry and cycling methods are within adequate, required perimeters. If more females produce for you then you're even that much more better off. But at the very least you will have the minimum number of females producing to counter the worst case odds that often do come your way. Some species more readily reproduce than other species and you can improve your odds by choosing your species more carefully. For example, burmese pythons and hybrid rock/burms are incredibly prolific. We have had years where we got 100% of our hybrid females to breed and reproduce for us and 90% of our burmese girls. And even so, the 10% of the burmese that didn't reproduce still bred but then went on to lay "slugs", or "duds", meaning infertile eggs. So the breeding and egg laying was still 100%. Years like this are the exception to the rule however and one should only expect a best case scenario of about 70% (7 out of 10).

In your years of breeding you will have clutches that have eggs go bad and you will have clutches where no eggs go bad. Though more often than not you will lose a few in most clutches. There are many reasons for this. The most common reasons are: Infertile eggs, Poor incubation design, Improper humidity level, Improper temperatures. Whatever the case may be, there is never a need to remove the bad eggs if they are attached to adjacent good eggs. If you try to remove a bad egg the protective skin of the good egg may be ripped or torn and thus bacterial infection becomes possible. The picture on the left of a clutch of albino retic eggs demonstrates how bad eggs do not negatively affect adjacent good eggs. Late stage dimpling too is quite normal. In the picture on the left you can see bad eggs  and hatching good eggs and dimpling. The picture on the right is of a clutch of tiger het albinos that were all good and how to cut open the tops of the eggs to allow for easy escape for the babies. Do not ever force them out of the eggs. Many babies need to remain in the eggs for up to several days in order to fully absorb their yolk sac nutrients. They will emerge when they are ready.

3. Make 100% sure that this is what you really want to do! All too often well-meaning, dedicated herpers decide to get into snake breeding because they love what they are doing and it looks like it will be easy. For the most part it is relatively "easy". But at some point in time breeding snakes and running a resale business WILL become real work. Real work with real stress, real pressure and sometimes really demanding hours. Anyone that thinks it will be a cakewalk from beginning to end is setting themselves up for a very big headache down the road. If you are going to get into serious snake breeding as a full-time occupation understand going in that it WILL become a real "job" in short time and just roll with the fact that it will take a lot out of you at some point. Often on a daily basis. When you have eggs due to hatch or customers to email back and a hundred other common daily responsibilities in snake breeding you cant just put them off for later. If you do your business will sink and sink fast. But just understand this unavoidable reality and be ready for the demanding times. To be mentally prepared for the worst is your best defense against otherwise potentially overwhelming situations.

The pictures above are of hybrid Cateater multi-morphs hatching. The eggs on the left were NOT incubated on newspaper but the eggs once cut open were then set in separate containers with newspaper substrate. We always incubate on Perlite garden soil additive substrate.

4 Always put your business first! When you are building your business up you will often reach periods when your finances are stretched very thin and there isn't enough money to continue having personal luxuries and properly care for your snakes. Our suggestion to every upstart breeder is to ALWAYS put the snakes and the business first and foremost on your list of priorities. If you have to do without the finer things for a while so that they can thrive and be healthy so be it. If your breeders lack in any way in their health, nutrition and well being then your business will suffer in the short and long run. Their well-being is not only very important because they are living things that depend on you for their very survival but also because they are your future in terms of your survival and your well being. It is a very symbiotic relationship and if you cause them to lack in the present, you and your business will lack in the future. If it comes down to not eating steak so they can get their regular rabbit, so be it. Eat beans and top ramen but make damn sure they get what they need to be 100% healthy and content. Anything less and you don't deserve to have them and be in the business.

Above are pictures of various hybrid Cateaters from the same clutch. The amazing variability of the hybrid Cateater offspring makes them the most exciting and downright unpredictable (in terms of what they will look like) morph that we have ever had the privilege of working with. It's most especially cool that we in fact created them and nobody else on the planet has them except for our special customers.

5. The customer is always right. This tried and true adage is very applicable to this business just like it is to any other business. Bend over backwards for your customers. Always. Do everything in your power to make them more than happy and to ensure that they get JUST what they want and need, and then some. Your customers are not only your very lifeblood, they are also real people just like you or me. Treat each and every one as you would like to be treated. Never lose patience. Always go the extra mile. Even when the occasional customer is rude to you. Don't respond in kind. Take the high road and still treat him or her with full respect and professional courtesy. Maybe they're just having a bad day. Not everyone believes in "Karma", not even us in terms of actual "beliefs", but we do know that what goes out is what eventually comes back. If you are rude or inconsiderate to your customers it will come back and kick you right in the teeth sooner rather than later. If you are kind and considerate, patient and giving of yourself and of your time, it won't go unnoticed. Word gets around quickly how you are and if you are less than courteous you will be avoided.

More amazing hybrid Cateater multi-morphs in their eggs.

6. Make sure you breed what is best for you. All too often I see upstart breeders get into giant python species because maybe they see and hold smaller specimens and mentally assume that a retic three times as long will be roughly three times as hard to handle. Nothing could be further from the truth. While handling giant retics and burms is not necessarily "hard" by definition (when experienced) it certainly is a lot more difficult than most imagine it is when they are holding a 6 foot juvenile. The reality is that a retic 3x as long (18 feet) is not simply 3x the difficulty factor but closer to 50x the difficulty factor. Not just in terms of the required effort just to control the snake but in also in terms of coping with its sheer weight. Difficulty factors and weight/mass gain in pythons go hand in hand and can only be multiplied exponentially. A 6 foot retic may weigh 5 pounds. An 18 foot retic may easily weigh 30x more at 150 pounds. Right off the top it is automatically a minimum of 30 times harder to pick up or move. This is basic math. But then add to this the added difficulty factor that large retics are very willful and they quickly learn that they are stronger than you and most will have moments of downright obstinacy. They can truly be a handful and this should be clearly understood before even considering having a breeding colony of them in your home.