Professional Breeding of Giant Snakes

[bcr229]

A fair number of the commercial retic breeders humanely euth and freeze most of the non-morph/lower-value youngsters to be sold as cobra food, they don't have the time to raise, market, and sell all 60+ babies from one female.

[Homebody]

A fair number of the commercial retic breeders humanely euth and freeze most of the non-morph/lower-value youngsters to be sold as cobra food, they don't have the time to raise, market, and sell all 60+ babies from one female.

Whoa! Way to keep it real.

[Spicey]

A fair number of the commercial retic breeders humanely euth and freeze most of the non-morph/lower-value youngsters to be sold as cobra food, they don't have the time to raise, market, and sell all 60+ babies from one female.

I somehow never considered that ophiophagic snakes would take frozen-thawed. TIL.

[Gio]

A fair number of the commercial retic breeders humanely euth and freeze most of the non-morph/lower-value youngsters to be sold as cobra food, they don't have the time to raise, market, and sell all 60+ babies from one female.

Good point, and also another reason not to breed "commercially".

It is an over saturated market. Probably at minimum, 50% of people who buy a dwarf or mainland will get out of the species when they actually figure out the work involved. Where do those snakes end up?

If you are genuinely interested and love the species, hobby breeding would be the best option. Keep it small and work with dedicated keepers that you know will care for the animals long term.

Like it or not, the big breeders that are out there already have the market, and there really isn't a demand or that much room for another.

The most respected breeders are the ones that are 100% dedicated to the animals. The love for the animals comes first and being lucky enough to turn a business profit is second. Some have become very successful but that is not the norm.

[YungRasputin]

i thank you for the replies and things to consider - i do have a specific breed in mind and would be starting small, i guess that would be called “hobby breeding” and working my way up - i have plenty of space for this as i own my house and have the entire downstairs to convert into a serpentarium for this - i was just wanting to know what i need and based upon those needs, what are the highest quality of options because i do not wish to cut any corners - from there i could begin to map out in my head where i would place the adult enclosures, where i would place the hatchling, juvie, etc housing, incubators, etc

[YungRasputin]

A fair number of the commercial retic breeders humanely euth and freeze most of the non-morph/lower-value youngsters to be sold as cobra food, they don't have the time to raise, market, and sell all 60+ babies from one female.

i’m genuinely not trying to knock what other people do but i would never do that and i am not interested at all in morphs - i prefer the wild/normal colorations - if any albino or something pops up, cool but i am wishing to preserve their amazing natural colorations as much as possible

[Bogertophis]

i’m genuinely not trying to knock what other people do but i would never do that and i am not interested at all in morphs - i prefer the wild/normal colorations - if any albino or something pops up, cool but i am wishing to preserve their amazing natural colorations as much as possible

In that case, do some really good market research first to make sure you can sell them. Nothing worse than getting stuck with creatures that eat a lot, need lots of space & get big quickly. Oh, and that you like & CARE about.

[Gio]

"I am not interested at all in morphs - i prefer the wild/normal colorations - if any albino or something pops up, cool but i am wishing to preserve their amazing natural colorations as much as possible"

This is something I'm completely on board with. Stay small, stay pure and you'll be respected.

I typically don't encourage breeding, however for what it is worth, I do support breeding to continue a locale or something "natural".

Take your time. Take a lot of time and don't overload yourself with animals. Make everything you produce something you want to keep and find hard to part with.

The Bredli python I bought from Nick Mutton was something he didn't want to part with. He sold it to me for a steal but he also knew I was not interested in breeding. I'm genuinely into the 4 animals I have here and am only about the animals. The hobby for me is owning what I have and giving them the best environments I can. I actively look for field studies on each species I own.

I'm rewarded by watching them and learning from them.

Your statement I quoted above is encouraging IMO.

[Kryptic]

A fair number of the commercial retic breeders humanely euth and freeze most of the non-morph/lower-value youngsters to be sold as cobra food, they don't have the time to raise, market, and sell all 60+ babies from one female.

I guessed that some kind of euthanizing of some of the large clutches those giants lay must go on. If they're used as feeders for ophiophages, that's actually a much better use than I imagined. I guessed that most breeders just discarded the majority of a clutch, since I figured that most people don't have close to the facility to house one large group of juvenile Burms or Retics, nevermind multiple.

[YungRasputin]

this brings up something i’ve felt strongly about and have experimented with in arachnid keeping that i would also like to bring into my snake keeping - my dream is to be able to keep/produce specimens so pure, so true to nature that i could actually work with conservationists to combat the extinction of endangered species - i originally got the idea through keeping pokies/Poecilotheria genus tarantulas that are endemic to India and of whom, most species in the genus are critically endangered due to pollution, industrialization, climate change, etc - i truly believe that the divide between hobbyists and scientists could be mended thru such mutually beneficial arrangements

this is what I would prefer to do rather than euthanize and all of this - i would much rather donate my surplus to conservationists to study or release back into the wild rather trying to make a buck by killing them and selling them for cobra food