Thinking of Breeding ?????

[TheWolfmanTom]

Hi There,
I just wanted to share some info for anyone thinking of breeding. I have been breeding now for several years , I did my research and spent a small fortune getting ready for almost a year before I started my site. Now breeding your dragons and getting the eggs incubated is the fairly easy part since your dragon does most of the work. Ahhhhhhh, but now the poopers start hatching, and it seems a little hard to find homes, and guess what you have more eggs being laid even tho you only bred you girl 1 time she has laid 4 clutches of about 20 to 25 eggs. Now your scrambling for tank space or building racks, and OMG you know have to buy 12 to 20 thousand crickets a week just to feed them right. Not to mention the bags and bags of greens and lighting. Any idea how much you can spend on 20 thousand crickets a week? So to those that are thinking of breeding because it seems like its fun or cute or even if you think you will make a fast buck(you wont by the way) its a huge responsibilty to do it properly. So take the time to do the research talk to breeders, find out the cost of finding homes for the babys , or the cost of NOT finding homes. Breeding dragons isnt something that anyone should try on a whim.


I just want to stress that this thread is in no way meant to be a discouragement. My intent with this thread is to get people to think before they leap. I am asking anyone that posts to this thread to keep it informational, clean and as non judgemental as possible. Myself included here. I know I have flamed a few people in the past as well, and I really dont want this thread to be a flameing station. There is alot of good info in here but there isnt all the info in here. There are many ways to do the same thing. I have said this many times to many people ( As long as the BASIC needs of your dragon are met the rest is simply fluff and eye candy.) Does that make what your doing compared to Me wrong?? No it just makes it different.

 

[Bill]

Great post Tom and you are on the money on this when we started we thought we had every thing oh how wrong we where we started with 6 and they filled a full size fridge with eggs we had to scramble to build another one. My wife works full time with ours it takes her all day to clean and feed and soak.Not to mention take care of the bugs that can be an all day job in it's self.

And I am still a wreck when we ship I get so worried something bad is going to happen.

 

[Brett]

Great post Tom and you are so right on this one. They haven taken over my life kinda compare it to raising cattle. You are married to these guys, no vacation unless you have a friend crazy enough to come take care of them for you.

 

[Eric sachranienkow]

i dont want to have babies , but... rose is getting bred- the store owner jason is breeding her ( if its a her ) but they get ALL the eggs, i want nothing to do with it! once i heard- 15 eggs least, i said noooooo way!

 

[tdrost]

A good friend pointed out one other huge thing to consider....
the amount of dragons already for sale or to give away on kijiji. I typed bearded dragon into search (just for Alberta) and over 200 popped up.
It's alot harder to get a leather or silk around here, but still....there are already alot of dragons needing good homes.
Too many households have bred in ignorance, and too many people tried to make a quick buck.

 

[TheWolfmanTom]

Its no different here in the States td. The market is saturated with babies and people are dumping them for whatever they can get I actually scaled down my breeding this year to ride out this wave of dragons. People are breeding with no concious thought to bloodlines, genetics, or even after care.

 

[tdrost]

Its no different here in the States td. The market is saturated with babies and people are dumping them for whatever they can get I actually scaled down my breeding this year to ride out this wave of dragons. People are breeding with no concious thought to bloodlines, genetics, or even after care.

I am not surprised! same thing happens with puppies and other pets too. they seem to hit a "high" in selling so everyone starts breeding to make a quick buck. That's when the problems really start (for the animals).
I got a second puppy --from the same breeder we had gotten our first dog from---a few months later when she was still not maturing, i started to do some research. She has all the signs of being pulled from her momma too soon. (she is now 4 yrs. old and has the mentality and manners of a 6 mth. old).
but those dogs were selling very well at the time, so he made another few hundred dollars from me.(and probably alot of others)

I know its not quite the same with dragons, but I am seeing the same principles....as my grampa would say---"same $hit, different pile"

 

[Eric sachranienkow]

about pups- we make good money when breeding dogs- sometimes they sell good and sometimes not but each one will sell for $900+ and most of the time we get 5+ pups each litter!