{"id":202612,"date":"2025-10-10T09:31:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T09:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/202612\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T09:31:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T09:31:23","slug":"snake-breeding-season-jake-makes-thousands-selling-something-most-aussies-wont-touch-with-a-10-foot-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/202612\/","title":{"rendered":"Snake breeding season: Jake makes thousands selling something most Aussies won’t touch with a 10 foot pole"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exclusive: It’s snake breeding season and Jake Thomas’ house is about to be full of them.<\/p>\n

The man behind Unreal Reptiles<\/a> got his first pet snake at age six and has been keeping and breeding all sorts of critters for about a decade.<\/p>\n

Now Thomas and plenty of other breeders around the country are preparing for another big season.<\/p>\n

\"JakeJake Thomas from Unreal Reptiles has been breeding snakes for years. (Supplied\/Unreal Reptiles)<\/p>\n

He’s already got a \ufefffew clutches of eggs incubating in his NSW home and is expecting to hatch \ufeffanywhere from 150 to 200 babies in the coming months.<\/p>\n

“In 2021, I had 58 clutches and about 380 babies,” Thomas told 9news.com.au.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Plenty of Australians would baulk at the thought of it but when a single hatchling can sell for hundreds of dollars\ufeff, one clutch can earn an experienced breeder like Thomas thousands.<\/p>\n

And he’s expecting up to 20 clutches this year alone.<\/p>\n

The ins and outs of breeding snakes<\/p>\n

\ufeffMost snake breeders in Australia are hobbyists, Thomas included.<\/p>\n

He mainly breeds non-venomous spotted, children’s and Stimpson’s pythons and learned most of what he knows from books and online forums, though breeding how-tos can be found all over YouTube these days.<\/p>\n

“It’s pretty simple,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"AA mother snake with her clutch, which breeders remove to incubate themselves. (Supplied\/Unreal Reptiles)<\/p>\n

Fatten up the female, put a male in her enclosure, and if they hit it off she’ll lay a clutch of eggs \ufeffa few weeks or months later.<\/p>\n

That’s usually when breeders like Thomas take over.<\/p>\n

He moves the \ufeffeggs from the enclosure into home-made incubators constructed from damp kitchen sponges and plastic grating in Sistema containers.<\/p>\n

He checks the eggs daily to make sure they’re developing and the incubator conditions are ideal.<\/p>\n

\ufeff”We use old wine fridges with double glass doors so we can see inside without opening it and letting the heat out,” he told 9news.<\/p>\n

\"OneOne of the wine fridges Mat cleverly converted into an incubator. (Supplied\/Killer’s Pythons)<\/p>\n

The fridges are gutted, then fitted with heating cords and thermostats to control the temperature while the eggs incubate.<\/p>\n

Once they’re ready to hatch, the baby snakes use their egg tooth to cut a hole in the egg and wriggle free, though Mat usually cuts the hole wider to help them out.<\/p>\n

Then it’s a case of waiting for each hatchling’s first shed, putting them into individual tubs, and teaching them to eat.<\/p>\n

Feeding baby snakes can cost a small fortune.<\/p>\n

They eat thawed frozen mice, which can cost from $0.70 to almost $4 per mouse, and each snake needs one mouse every seven to 10 days.<\/p>\n

Mat buys in bulk from private rodent suppliers to save money, as pet shops often charge “more than double” what they do.<\/p>\n

\"APeek inside freezer full of rodents that will be fed to Mat’s hatchlings and their parents. (Supplied\/Killer’s Pythons)<\/p>\n

Thomas does the same but if he has just 100 hatchlings, a single round of feeding will set him back a minimum of $70.<\/p>\n

Most breeders won’t sell hatchlings until they’ve taken 10 \ufeffunassisted feeds, so that quickly becomes $700.<\/p>\n

More, if some refuse to eat.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had babies that haven’t eaten for eight months before,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s quite frustrating.”\ufeff<\/p>\n

Breeders have to be budget-savvy in other areas to offset feeding costs, so DIY-ing incubators and hatchling enclosures out of household staples is common.<\/p>\n

\"AThese freshly hatched pythons are perfectly happy in a cheap plastic container with a layer of paper towel. (Supplied\/Unreal Reptiles)<\/p>\n

Thomas swears by cheap Sistema containers, while Mat hunts Facebook Marketplace for broken \ufeffwine fridges and gets other supplies from Coles and Bunnings.<\/p>\n

“One incubator probably cost me about $150 to $200 to build, including the broken cooler, some heat cord, a thermostat and screws and fittings,” he said.\ufeff<\/p>\n

By the time a hatchling is ready for sale, breeders will have poured hundreds into raising it \u2013 and they don’t always make that money back.<\/p>\n

In it for the love \ufeffof the game<\/p>\n

The average \ufeffspotted, children’s or Stimson’s python hatchling can sell for $200-$300, but some colour morphs (patterns) go for much more.<\/p>\n

\ufeff”I\ufefff we get lucky with genetics we can have snakes worth thousands,” Mat said<\/p>\n

\"AThis super zebra morph carpet python was an exciting addition to Mat’s collection. (Supplied\/Killer’s Pythons)<\/p>\n

But he doesn’t breed snakes to make money.<\/p>\n

“For us, it’s purely a hobby, I don’t think we even break even to be fully honest.”<\/p>\n

Few breeders make enough profit to do it full-time and even Thomas barely breaks even at the end of a big breeding season.<\/p>\n

They just do it for the love of the animals and the chance to create exciting new morphs\ufeff.<\/p>\n

“It’s hatching out things that no one’s ever hatched before\ufeff, that’s what’s really rewarding for me,” Thomas said.<\/p>\n

More Aussies are starting to see the appeal, too.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"AA stunning young snake bred by Unreal Reptiles. (Supplied\/Unreal Reptiles)<\/p>\n

More snakes entering Aussie homes\ufeff<\/p>\n

Snakes have become more popular pets since Thomas and Mat started breeding years ago.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Reptile ownership in Australia jumped from 2 per cent of households in 2019 to 3 per cent in 2025 according to Animal Medicines Australia’s Pets in Australia study, and social media has helped shine a spotlight on snakes.<\/p>\n

“There’s definitely a big interest there and more people are definitely getting into it,” Thomas said.<\/p>\n

Reptile expos are also popping up all over the country, giving breeders the chance to connect with customers face-to-face and educate the next generation on the hobby.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"JakeReptile ownership in Australia jumped from 2 per cent of households in 2019 to 3 per cent in 2025. (Supplied\/Unreal Reptiles)<\/p>\n

With about 200 known species of snake in the country, Aussies can never know too much.\ufeff<\/p>\n

“The more we can educate people about snakes, the less we’ll see the ‘a good snake is a dead snake’ mentality,” Mat said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“And the less we will see people getting bitten.”<\/p>\n