04-27-2010, 02:44 PM
I have been witness to numerous posts over the years and quite a few more in the past few months that mention that you cannot make money or should I even suggest a living breeding/ selling dartfrogs. While I understand the aspects of this debate I see it used against mostly new people to this hobby with intentions of warning them not only is experience needed but there are costs to keeping the frogs in a respectful manner.
I am not asking anyone to bring up any personal financial info on this subject but I do know for a fact it is possible to make a decent profit in this hobby breeding frogs without slacking on the care of the frogs or flipping the work of other breeders for a profit. I have heard of people selling plants and supplies to help in that area but I know of three people that make a profit selling their froglets and only their froglets without venturing into selling plants and supplies but I'd guess due to a very large collection other factors may weigh in that do not with me as I can tell you as of right now I have roughly 37 pairs or probable pairs with about twenty holdbacks and another 26 frogs I have recently purchased to raise in hopes of breeding and another 35-40 of my own breed frogglets getting established and growing to be sold at a later date. I even know for a fact that two of the breeders making a profit include the power bill and all other frog care expenses into their records before they claim a profit. I wont name any names but I will tell you it has and is being done with everything from auratus to thumbnails and although I think that most species of dendrobates are being overbreed in this hobby I can also name a couple that have never sat in my frog room waiting to sell.
So my question is, Are the people saying this to detour future competition from entering this hobby or do you really think there is no chance of making a profit? I also understand that there are many different views on how well off your frogs are but I have never really seen a thousand dollar difference in one persons viv to another unless it was created for the reasons of being shown off and still there is usually only one of those setup in each persons collection.
Take for example my reticulatus collection. Even as difficult as they are to raise eggs to tads to froglets and so on my average number of healthy juvies each year is 16-28 depending on what pair or if I switch the males out to create new blood lines. That means that with obviously more than thirty healthy froglets a year sold at lets say $100 a piece that more than covers all of my expenses for my collection each year as my tanks are well established. So where does the money from my other species go? Where ever I want it to go as It is all profit.
I know as well most will say that I haven't covered the cost of the 30 55 gallons or the 100 vert 5 gallons or horizontal 5 gallons that I used to house single froglets but being that I purchased most of them almost eleven years ago when I began collecting the frogs I can pretty much guarantee you that they are all well payed for by now.
Now I can tell you it is getting harder these last two years but I am cleaning out a nice chunk of my collection to focus on a few important species to me and I would be willing to bet that my profits will increase due to having to put out less money on supplies and thanks to some new info I have recently acquired on feeding practices it will only get better.
I however do not see this as a business but a hobby as I often ask for advice or even help from people that are far more advanced in knowledge than I am about this hobby and I even tend to give away frogs when I think I'm being over run with them so maybe my kindness or willingness to deal with the beginners in this hobby help my situation and the situations of my two friends in Florida are different from everyone else's so from what I read all the time maybe we are the only ones but I seriously doubt it.
Now this wont work with all species of darts as they are being wholesaled out all over the place but for the frogs that the average beginner or even a reptile shop or even some others in this business cant or don't have the experience or time or even the know how or skills there is potential to make a profit I guarantee it.
If you disagree Id be more than willing to hear it but it wont change the fact that there is profit being made in this hobby>
I am not asking anyone to bring up any personal financial info on this subject but I do know for a fact it is possible to make a decent profit in this hobby breeding frogs without slacking on the care of the frogs or flipping the work of other breeders for a profit. I have heard of people selling plants and supplies to help in that area but I know of three people that make a profit selling their froglets and only their froglets without venturing into selling plants and supplies but I'd guess due to a very large collection other factors may weigh in that do not with me as I can tell you as of right now I have roughly 37 pairs or probable pairs with about twenty holdbacks and another 26 frogs I have recently purchased to raise in hopes of breeding and another 35-40 of my own breed frogglets getting established and growing to be sold at a later date. I even know for a fact that two of the breeders making a profit include the power bill and all other frog care expenses into their records before they claim a profit. I wont name any names but I will tell you it has and is being done with everything from auratus to thumbnails and although I think that most species of dendrobates are being overbreed in this hobby I can also name a couple that have never sat in my frog room waiting to sell.
So my question is, Are the people saying this to detour future competition from entering this hobby or do you really think there is no chance of making a profit? I also understand that there are many different views on how well off your frogs are but I have never really seen a thousand dollar difference in one persons viv to another unless it was created for the reasons of being shown off and still there is usually only one of those setup in each persons collection.
Take for example my reticulatus collection. Even as difficult as they are to raise eggs to tads to froglets and so on my average number of healthy juvies each year is 16-28 depending on what pair or if I switch the males out to create new blood lines. That means that with obviously more than thirty healthy froglets a year sold at lets say $100 a piece that more than covers all of my expenses for my collection each year as my tanks are well established. So where does the money from my other species go? Where ever I want it to go as It is all profit.
I know as well most will say that I haven't covered the cost of the 30 55 gallons or the 100 vert 5 gallons or horizontal 5 gallons that I used to house single froglets but being that I purchased most of them almost eleven years ago when I began collecting the frogs I can pretty much guarantee you that they are all well payed for by now.
Now I can tell you it is getting harder these last two years but I am cleaning out a nice chunk of my collection to focus on a few important species to me and I would be willing to bet that my profits will increase due to having to put out less money on supplies and thanks to some new info I have recently acquired on feeding practices it will only get better.
I however do not see this as a business but a hobby as I often ask for advice or even help from people that are far more advanced in knowledge than I am about this hobby and I even tend to give away frogs when I think I'm being over run with them so maybe my kindness or willingness to deal with the beginners in this hobby help my situation and the situations of my two friends in Florida are different from everyone else's so from what I read all the time maybe we are the only ones but I seriously doubt it.
Now this wont work with all species of darts as they are being wholesaled out all over the place but for the frogs that the average beginner or even a reptile shop or even some others in this business cant or don't have the experience or time or even the know how or skills there is potential to make a profit I guarantee it.
If you disagree Id be more than willing to hear it but it wont change the fact that there is profit being made in this hobby>