Sterilization and or castration

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Originally Posted by Simplex

In terms of accidental pairings I understand that.. Its not an issue.. However escapes do...

In terms of the non snake community, invasiveness of our pets is a fairly large media created worry.. Ie: python hunters...

I live in canada, where they cant survive, and i still get asked about my snakes getting out and them mating and snakes being everywhere..

Seems it may be a calming notion to the public to know that majority of snakes are sterile...

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IMO, this is about the only really compelling argument in favor of this (sorry). I agree 100% that this would be "good" (if you can call it that -- "placating" might be a better term) PR for snake-owners, in light of the media attention that FL has given us.

Of course, I could easily see it backfiring in that, once those in authority knew it was possible to sterilize the snake, they might decide to pass a great new law to protect the people from invasive snakes by requiring that all snake owners surgically alter their pets. :mad:

Back to your original point, IMO one of the problems is that population control is not the only reason that dog and cat owners are (successfully) encouraged to spay and neuter their pets.

Male dogs may become calmer, may have less aggression towards humans and are far less likely to attack OR to be attacked by another dog.

Female dogs may become calmer, won't undergo messy heat cycles, and are at significantly decreased risk for mammary carcinoma and pyometra, just to name two.

Male cats ... Well, anyone who's ever smelled an intact male cat knows the reason to neuter them. :rofl:

Female cats' heat cycles are arguably even more obnoxious than female dogs', and they, too, are at a higher risk for certain cancers while intact.

So, even if you have a contract stating that the owner has to get the animal neutered (BTW, "neuter" is technically a gender-neuteral term -- the word for altering a male is "castrate"), they have no incentive to do so. If the contract is primarily to prevent "unauthorized" reproduction, all the owner really has to do is abstain from putting the snakes together. You could accomplish the same thing with a contract that didn't require surgical or chemical alteration.

Or, better yet (IMO), just encourage people to enjoy these animals as pets. I've pretty much made the decision to only breed Ball Pythons, no other snake species, so that means that I've got probably over a dozen "pet only" snakes right now. So what? I still enjoy them.

Snake spays are tough. If done improperly, it can result in leftover ovarian tissue that can easily become massively cancerous.

Hormone implants may be possible (I've seen one implanted, but I don't yet know how well it worked out), but would need to be replaced every so often.

I don't know of anyone who's tried to castrate a snake ... I don't think that would be all too difficult, actually, but again, I just don't quite see the point. I can poke around and find out though.

Oh yeah, don't forget that any surgical procedure puts the animal's life at risk, however slight (and the more "exotic" the pet, the less "slight" the risk) -- I would have to question the ethics just a bit if we're talking about doing this primarily for financial reasons.

Now, when I first saw this thread, I figured you had started it as an offshoot of the "eyeless Piebald" thread ... I could potentially see that (potential genetic deformity) as a reason to pursue sexually altering a snake. Don't forget, though, that this isn't going to cost whatever your local spay/neuter clinic would charge for a routine dog/cat procedure. This is a major surgical procedure, and would need to be performed by an exotics specialist, who would treat it as such as far as its gravity and cost. That eyeless $700 snake is going to become an eyeless $1700 snake very very quickly. I also don't know how feasible it's going to be to alter it at its 70-100 gram baby weight ... You might need to wait until it's a subadult.

... And that may be more than two cents worth, but I've got a bit of perspective on it so figured I'd share. :rolleye2: