Think twice before thinking your going to make a profit.
Here I am going to give you an exsample of money spent and money earned for a responsible breeder. I am going to use rabbits as an exsample.
You purchase a trio of purebred rabbits, one buck and two does. Each rabbit is $35. We also have the gas that was involved to go get these animals, lets say about $40 for a full tank. Plus lets not forget that we have to buy supplies, three cages at $25 each, three water bottles at $2 each and three feeders at $5, and then your first bag of feed at $12 each. So just to get started you have spent $233. This is just the basic nesseccities to get you started. Now, lets assume you bought these rabbits when they were weaned from their mother. So you have to feed and care for them until they are old enough to breed, at the earliest six months. So for three more months you feed these rabbits. You just spent $36 more in food.
Alright, the rabbits are old enough to breed. And since we are just imagining here, lets just say the does each took the first time. So now you got two pregnant does who eat a little bit more then normal so lets add on a bag and a half for feed at $18. And the does are going to continue to eat a little bit more while nursing those kits, so there goes another bag and a half, $18. Now the kits are four weeks old and starting to eat on their own. So therefore we should probably add two bags of feed, $24. An average litter is about 4-8 kits, so lets just say that your litters have six in each one, and lets also imagine that each one of those kits survived. So therefore you have 12 kits. Now since you are breeding, lets assume that you are going to keep one out of each litter, now you are down to 10 kits to sell.
You place an ad in your local paper, so once again we are spending money, $15. Oh yeah and since you are keeping two, you have two more cages to buy, $50, two more water bottles, $4 and two more feeders $10. Before we sell those kits, lets total up all that we have spent so far.....$408! Okay, lets just presume that you sold all 10 kits the first week, so you didnt have to run the ad again. You sold each of these kits at the $35 each you paid for the parents. You just made $350, not a single penny of profit. Also, I did not add in any showing costs, and traveling to shows, which would cost as well.
Now hoping that you are a responsible breeder, you only breed your rabbits at the most three times a year, your dog once a year (after he/she is two years old). And also hoping that you are a responsible breeder, your animal that you choose to breed is a quality animal, a purebred, with papers and close to the purebred standard.
Please think twice before breeding your animal. Please think twice, if you think your going to make any money. Breeding should only be done to improve the standard for that particular animal, not to educate children on the facts of life, and definately not to make money.
