Greetings from Canada, looking for advice

[Slinkyskinky]

Hey everyone! I'm on the east coast of Canada and wanted to know what kind of market is in Canada for blueys. I love these animals and am looking forward to getting a breeding pair this summer, but wanted to know which species would sell the best! I'm just looking basically to make my money back on these animals, and I'm not in it for the money. I did that with BP's and screwed myself over. I'm starting fresh with blueys, beardies, leopard geckos, and crested geckos!!!! If anyone would help, or would like to tell me where to get them in Canada, it'd be so appriciated!!

[Susann]

Slinkyskinky,
welcome to the forum, and good luck in your new endeavor.

It is always better if you start a new thread, rather than highjack someone else's. I realize you are in Canada and the subject applies to you too, but just to be fair, I am going to split this into a new thread. If you have a problem with this, please feel free to contact me.
But I honestly feel that you will get better responses if this is your own thread.

[Slinkyskinky]

Thanks man! Sorry, I'm really new to forums in general, so don't know much about forum rules/manners. Thanks for the advice! Is this a new thread???

[saisaac]

It is. And Susann isn't a man.

I have no idea if Canada has much of a different market than the US, but here in the states Northerns and the Indo species are more common and also more commonly sought out. Blotchies, shinglebacks, Tanimbar, Kei Islands, etc. are more rare and thus can go for more money if you find the right buyer, but given that you want a pair, you'd probably be better off starting with a species that is easier to get your hands on. Finding a pair of any bluey species is going to be difficult as they are commonly sold as unsexed or as male, but you do not see a lot of confirmed females for sale.

Northerns are supposedly the best pets and are supposed to be the hardiest in captivity and thus should be easy to sell. With the Indo species you would have to compete with the "farmed" animals that are common in pet stores, but if you have particulaly attractive skinks, you should be able to justify a fair price for them and find them homes. All Northerns outside of Australia are captive bred and are regularly available as well, so in my mind, they would be a good species to start off with. That is what I chose to do myself, but I hope to add other species to my group once I have had success with my Northerns.

[Susann]

(Ha! saisaac beat me to it!)
This has now been made a new thread.
Each topic with its own subject heading, and all the comments/posts that are made in it, is called a thread.
Before, you made a post in someone else's thread called "Greetings from Canada". Now that I separated your comment from that thread, the comment you made there is now the beginning of your own thread, and anyone posting here will comment on only your questions.
I added the "looking for advice" in the subject line so people can tell your thread from the other one...

This is how people usually prefer it works, that if you make a comment (post) in a thread, it pertain only to what the original poster (OP) has posted about. Since your comment in the other thread didn't address what the OP had posted about, I felt it better to separate it and make it your own thread. --1, so you didn't "highjack" the other poster's thread. --2, so you will get people to actually give you the advice you were looking for.

In the future, if you are looking for more advice, or just want to show off your skinks (which we love!), you can start a new thread by clicking the small button that says "New Topic" at the top of the list of topics in this forum. Right next to it you will also see a button that says "Search this forum"; that right there is an amazing resource, you just type in a few key words of anything you want to know about and the computer will pop up every post anyone has made that has those words in it. This way you can read through what has already been asked and answered, and hundreds of opinions on anything ever discussed here.

I wish I could give you some good answers to your questions.
There are a few breeders in Canada; Mel (username Fatal_S on this forum) comes highly recommended by anyone who deals with her. viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19635
There is another guy as well, but his name usually slips my mind, just as it does right now... Someone else can maybe fill you in as I'm not entirely sure what all he breeds.
Bluish just had a litter of Meraukes, but I don't think he breeds other species of BTS.

I'm listing these people for you because, if you want to breed what sells the best in Canada, in my opinion your best bet would be to breed a species/subspecies that no one else up there breeds. It might cost you most to get started and be a bigger gamble, but could potentially pay off very well in the future.
Otherwise, Northerns seem to be the captively bred and born (CBB) species that is most prevalent up there, and are also one of the healthiest, hardiest, and easiest species to get to produce. We see quite a few Meraukes up there too, but most are either wild caught (WC) or were gravid when caught and gave birth after arriving.

Hopefully someone with a better grasp on the situation "up there" will fill you in better, otherwise, just keep your eye on whatever classifieds you guys have, and get a feel for what's available and seems to sell well. Baby-time is just starting, so you this is the best time possible for your inquiry.

Good luck! And sorry about the long post ...I'm known here for boring people to death...

[Jeff]

...There are a few breeders in Canada; Mel (username Fatal_S on this forum) comes highly recommended by anyone who deals with her. viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19635
There is another guy as well, but his name usually slips my mind, just as it does right now... Someone else can maybe fill you in as I'm not entirely sure what all he breeds...

His name is John Delahaye, and his email address is: john.delahaye2@sympatico.ca. Great guy, and he produces high quality animals.

[Dood]

I am in Southern Ontario and bought my first skink in October 2013. I wanted an Australian species mainly because they are all captive born but unfortunately even pet stores had their skinks mislabeled and I didn't want to chance getting an import. Once I found a true Northern i wasnt that impressed and so I went with an captive bred and born hybrid (IJ x Northern) instead

I'd say the demand is pretty low even for CBB, as the breeder I bought my skink from had a litter of 7 born in July and still hadn't sold them all 6 months later

If you look on the kijiji classifieds you can easily find adult skinks looking for homes, most of them seem to be Merauke, Irian Jaya, Northerns or hybrids.

I agree that you'd have to have something unique in order to create a demand - maybe get some Easterns or a unique morph.

[Fatal_S]

Honestly, we could probably use a reputable breeder of northerns on the east coast. It's hard to ship out that way, so every year I have a few customers I have to jump through hoops for, and that costs them way more. It would be great to have a person we could recommend (us Canukian breeders have a bit of a network across Canada, so we can send customers to each other if another breeder is closer).

The demand isn't extremely high, but healthy CBB northerns are wanted. You could probably also breed IJs and have them sell okay. I would recommend against getting other species - on the east coast your shipping options are more limited, and the people looking for non-pet skinks in Canada is already low. I'm pretty sure that if I ever breed my tanimbars I'll be holding onto some babies for years. Most canadians looking for a BTS want a fantastic pet skink, nothing fancy. Thankfully they tend to be fantastic customers in my experience

All that said, even with the demand growing, we have no need of breeders like Ray or Jeff in the US who can produce hundreds of babies in a year - there's simply not that much demand (note, those guys rock, we need breeders with that kind of attitude towards skinks, just not those numbers). A litter or two is good. Being able to ship greatly expands the number of people you can reach, but if you've got a somewhat decent local market you don't necessarily need to ship. John & Chris don't usually ship, and they seem to sell out pretty quickly each year. I don't have quite the same market locally (could probably sell 1 litter a year), but I don't have much problem since I can ship. Do be prepared to hold onto your babies for some time - the demand seems to fluctuate.

The other option would be to get a very rare species (blotchie, shingle) and therefore only sell to the serious collectors. Easier sale, way more money per sale, but I can't say whether Canada really has much market for that either.

I can't say much about making your money back, because I just seem to spend all the money that comes in, plus some I'll never break even, because there'll always be more to buy or upgrade or experiment with.