Keeping Conundrum - Breeding pair vs. Little Personal Interest

[Ssthisto]

I have another of those "What would you do" questions. And yes, it's something to do with something in my life.

If you have a breeding pair of something - which you bought because it seemed like a good idea at the time, you were interested in keeping it at the time - but you're finding they don't fit into your breeding plans any more... do you keep them and trade/sell their babies, or would you try to sell them or trade them for something that does fit into your breeding plans?

Basically, Nienna, my partner and I bought a pair of Kenyan Sand Boas. These guys are proven (and produced neonates for us last year) and they're nice enough little snakes. But all things considered, they don't fit into Nienna's revised KSB breeding plans (they're not morph or het for morph animals) and she's focussing more on geckos; my partner has no interest in KSBs at all and prefers royals; I like the KSBs well enough, though I prefer Rough-Scaleds, but I'd rather keep and breed colubrids and royals.

All the signs (to me) appear to point to "Sell on the adult pair" ... except that my partner thinks we should keep the adult pair and breed them, trade on their babies for things we want... never mind that he has no personal interest in keeping or breeding or propogating Kenyan Sand Boas nor was he the one who got the difficult neonates feeding last year.

So, we're stuck with a conundrum. Do we sell or trade this proven pair for something we DO have an interest in keeping, that DOES fit in our breeding plans... or do we keep them just on the basis of getting a batch of neonates every other year?

[Akua_Ko_Nalu]

I'd say sell or trade the pair as they are now, otherwise they'll simply be viewed as something to breed from later.

Go for what you really want, give these guys a good home somewhere else (not saying you don't offer them that).

[Young_Gun]

PM me a price, that way you sell them but then can have some babies if you want em

If they are no longer in your breeding plans they if they are going to go to someone who will care for them then I don't see any reason not to sell?

You would get more money over a longer period of time though from keeping them and selling the neonates on.

[captaincaveman]

yeah, i'd say sell them and concentrate on what you really want

thats what i did with my corns, i sold the ones that were different to my breeing "wants" and concentrated on what really appeals to ME

[skimsa]

sell the adult pair im in the same situation with my corns at the moment i'm going to have one clutch then sell them

[Diablo]

Sell them to me

[Zak]

Sell them on. Give someone else the chance to purchase something they will love and get yourself some money. If you kept them, i can see a few months down the line begrudging the time devoted to their care, when its obvious they dont fit into the plans.

[Johelian]

I once spoke to a guy who bred African Greys purely because the money he could make from selling the handreared babies paid his feed bill for the rest of the year; he had little other personal interest in them, as his passion was in breeding rarer species. They werent neglected in any way or anything; its was just something that was relatively easy to do with a high turnover.

So, I guess this is how I would look at it; would the cost and effort of raising neonates, while at the same time maintaining the adults, be worthwhile? Would it make up for a relative lack of interest? If it doesnt, its going to be a frustrating endeavour.

Not knowing how much you could sell the babies, I would personally sell the adult pair on if I had no interest in them; if you buy more animals that fit your breeding plans, the KSB will just be another pair of mouths to feed and another cage to clean.

[Paul Chase]

All depends on what you want. I have project corns and i have pet snakes. The corns i have for projects i breed to get the offspring that i need and sell adults, if not i would end up with absolutly 100s.
But i have some that i dont breed or some that i just love too much to sell on, these i keep

[Robbie]

I don't think there is really enough interest in Sand Boas that would justify keeping the Adults to finance other projects.

Originally Posted by butter morph

But i have some that i dont breed or some that i just love too much to sell on, these i keep

Thankfully my favourites fit into possible breeding