I'm looking for a US pet snake population number

[Dragoon]

I am trying to collect information given the current pet legislation climate and I can't come across a reliable #. I've hears numbers estimated from 300k to 2 million. Does anyone have a reliable number?

[Vasiliki]

I don't imagine there would ever be a reliable number of snakes housed as pets. Even if there was a snake registry, not everyone would sign up, so the numbers would still be off.

Not sure who would even be tracking that information?

[mechnut450]

I know that there will never be a true count cause of al lthe crap some people have ot go though to just have a ball python , but they can go get a " fighting dog" breed with less hassle or crap to get a pet, nd ther more of them killing people than there are of snakes.

I know several people that keeping snakes in delaware alone with out permits cause some of the requirements are stupid,
( example) need 1 acre of land ( but on a 1/4 arce I cn havea cow or goat , aswell as dogs. (which all go outside and make messes buyt snake will nolby be out if the owner taking pictures or taking to a vet) so tell me which more dangerous. ( i seen several guys runnnig around with the so called dangerous breed dogs and the cop just rides by but I bet if i had my snakes up here and walked outside with it to go home or to a vet I get my snake taken, fined and everything else.

[Dragoon]

I figured that would be the case, the estimate i came across was just under 600k by AVMA market research. but with BHB producing 10s of thousands a year alone it is hard to believe. Thanks for your responses.

[1nstinct]

i think it would be very hard to get an accurate number. i personally have 6 balls, 1 JCP, 1 GTP, and 1 Corn, and they are all "pets". just an example-the guy next door to me might have 80 balls, 8 carpets, 6 GTP, and 40 colubrids, but to him that is his business and he breeds them, so he would not classify them as "pets" to him therefore not registering them, since they are a business to him.
look at just some of the big snake breeders they have 1000s of snakes so i would guess the number is well over 1,000,000 if the breeders would consider them "pets".
and i put "pets" like that because, i consider anything in my house that has a name, if its my dog, snakes, fish, turtle, or anything part of my family so there is no pets in my house.

[Dragoon]

I suppose I could ask a fear monger group like bornfreeusa to get the highest possible pop estimate to make the lowest possible # of deaths per animal per year that they would be statistically half as dangerous as any given dog. Maybe the AR donkeys can be of some use.

[wilomn]

I suppose I could ask a fear monger group like bornfreeusa to get the highest possible pop estimate to make the lowest possible # of deaths per animal per year that they would be statistically half as dangerous as any given dog. Maybe the AR donkeys can be of some use.

The best you'll be able to do is guess. Remember also that numbers vary by season. A good year for a corn breeder can be thousands of babies out of a few hundred adults.

Estimate low and stay vague. Several hundred thousand. Don't say millions. Something like, "according to best estimates there are between five hundred thousand and nine hundred thousand in the USA." Don't mention the yearly flux that comes with breeding unless they directly address it.

As far as deaths per year, I can see no reason to give even an estimate of total numbers. The facts are out there for horses, dogs and other animals. Use those. Then pull out the fact that less than, I think, a half dozen deaths a year can be attributed to snakes kept and most of those involve alcohol and/or improperly kept reptiles. Less is more in this kind of battle. Let them scramble, but know your stuff. Have the figures and the sources you got them from for the warm blooded killer records.