I was on The Reptile Gumbo Podcast the other day and a good topic came up about breeding, specifically about how to start breeding. One of my first thoughts is to say that just because you keep snakes, does not mean you have to breed snakes. But a great point was brought up. With the culture of the hobby nowadays, breeding and producing animals is constantly in our faces every single day. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?

With pictures like this being posted almost daily, you really can’t blame new people for wanting to breed right away.

I acquired my first carpet python in 2006. I did not pair any of my animals until 2016. I took my time for 10 years and learned everything I could about carpets and their husbandry. During that time, I made a lot of mistakes. A keeper has to make mistakes to become better, there is no way around that. You can research a species for a year before you purchase your snake or talk to other keepers and listen to their advice. Mistakes will still be made. And that is perfectly ok. What isn’t ok is when a mistake is made and you don’t use that experience to learn from. This is a hobby of trial and error. You have to figure out what formula works for you in your room, your climate, etc.

This is the 2018 jagpondro clutch before I took the eggs from the female.

With that being said, when should someone get into breeding snakes or reptiles? That is an answer that will be different for every person. It also depends on your personal motive to dive into that part of the hobby. I don’t think someone getting their first snake should be thinking about breeding before they have any hands on experience with that species. Me personally, after ten years of keeping carpets, the natural progression was to attempt to reproduce. My first year I produced two clutches and I decided to go the maternal incubation route with the eggs. To this day, that was one of the most rewarding experiences I have encountered during this hobby. Watching that female’s behavior with those eggs was incredible and I urge everyone that does decide to breed a species that will maternally incubate, to do so at least once.

This is one of the snakes I produced from 2016 that was maternally incubated,

You should really look into the reason you want to breed when you are thinking about diving into that side of keeping snakes. Is this a business venture or an enjoyable hobby? Are you prepared to keep, feed, and clean all of the snakes you produce for years? All snakes don’t sell right away. Are you prepared to have that many cages setup? Are you willing to risk your animals health if something goes wrong?. Lastly, are you working with a species that you enjoy? Or are you trying to follow the trends of what the market is doing right now? These are just a few of the many questions you should have answered prior to making the jump into breeding. This isn’t me saying that people that breed snakes are bad. I breed snakes. But I have all of these questions and many more already answered so I can breed as responsibly as possible.

I guess the main message I’m trying to get across here is this: its ok to work with a species first before you decide its a “project”. So many people, myself included at times, get a new species and the first thought is about breeding. In my opinion the first thought should be, let me learn everything possible about this species. Either through the internet, books, natural history studies, scientific papers, Youtube, talking to breeders, personal experience, etc. So if you do decide to breed that species, you can have a wealth of knowledge behind you when you have people asking questions about the species. If you look at the successful breeders in the hobby, most have been working with their main species for a long time. It takes time to get there. It takes time to be that vendor at the show that people come to the show just to see your table. This hobby is not an instant gratification hobby. Take your time and enjoy this hobby we are fortunate enough to be a part of.