What do you think makes a species popular?

[MedusasOwl]

I'm always amazed by the fantastic herp species I'd never heard of! And often, these underrated reptiles end up being some of my faves. Like the beauty snakes, and the jeweled lacerta... and it mystifies me when I discover them why they're not more popular or more well known!

So it got me wondering... what do you think makes one species more popular than another? Especially when they're equally as beautiful, easy to care for, and docile?

[BigCeC43]

I would have to say Availability is the key factor. I'm new to the herp scene, but in the last 2 months or so I've stumbled upon hundreds of sites/people selling various pythons and boas. I few sites selling aborneals, yet I've never even heard of the ones you've named.

What makes them available?
I have no idea, maybe how easily they're found in the wild or how difficult it is to breed. Maybe some don't do as well in captivity.

[Sunny1]

I would also have to agree with BigCeC43. I think that availability is one of the biggest things. Unfortunately, many people's (myself included) first/possibly only exposure to "pet" snakes is going to be through a petstore and what they have available, which if course would be your more commonly kept snakes. So, IMO, unless someone knows someone that is familiar with snakes of all different types, or has done alot of research on snakes and has some knowledge on them and the different types that thrive as pets and where to get them, then you get people that buy into what is common in the nearby petstores. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, I love my snakes but it wasn't until I found this site that I was more aware of what people out there keep as pet snakes. And it wasn't until I came here that I even heard about some of the other snakes out there, like your Blue Beauties (I absolutely love yours BTW, might have to get a beauty for myself someday....)

[jjspirko]

1. Marketing - Corn snakes are marketed by breaders like crazy and many consider them the perfect first snake. There is no rational arguement for why a corn is better then many common rats, kings or milks. The care is the same and they are about the same size and all are easy to care for and many milks are simply beautiful beyound words. Corns are most popular because they are marketed like crazy and ball pythons are a very close second. Ask what is the perfect first snake in most forums and 80-95% will say a corn snake or ball the sad part is 70% or more of the people saying that won't really have a modest clue as to why, the marketing simply created the preception to the point that it is now simply that "everyone says so".

2. Ease of Breeding - Viper boas will probally never be very popular unless the secret sauce to breed them is discovered. They are docile once tamed, small and pretty but they will never make a big splash unless a breeding formula is unlocked. Marketing is always first and the top breeders are not about to market a snake unless they can consistantly produce it for a PROFIT.

3. Tempement - Black Racers and Coachwhips are beautiful but both bite a lot. People do not like pets that bite them, so neither is likely to make a big splash anytime soon.

4. Size - While a 10 foot taiwan beauty is nothing like a 8 foot boa it is still one big snake. I love mine and I know you love your blues but many are (rightfully so) intimided by them. They move fast and take some experience to handle safely if nothing else to handle safely for the snake itself. Albino Burms are now like 200 but Albino Balls are four figures because it is easy to keep a ball python. The future of Retic and Burm morphs will be in dwarfs, trust me this will go right back to item one, marketing.

5. Information - To create a market you need awareness and acceptance. Google Rufus Beak Snake you won't find much info yet. I predict they are the next big colubrid boom to occur but not yet because there is no awareness on them. The good news here is this one factor can CREATE a market for the entreprenuer. If you want Blue Beauties to become envouge, the be an apostle for them. Create tons of web pages about them, get info from many keepers and create discussion groups around them. People often fear keeping a snake they can't get a lot of info on even when the truth is their care is just the same as a corn or king with a slightly larger viv.

Probably more then you wanted to know but as a business person this is the way I see the issue. Hope that helps,

[Blue Apple Herps]

1. Marketing - Corn snakes are marketed by breaders like crazy and many consider them the perfect first snake. There is no rational arguement for why a corn is better then many common rats, kings or milks. The care is the same and they are about the same size and all are easy to care for and many milks are simply beautiful beyound words. Corns are most popular because they are marketed like crazy and ball pythons are a very close second. Ask what is the perfect first snake in most forums and 80-95% will say a corn snake or ball the sad part is 70% or more of the people saying that won't really have a modest clue as to why, the marketing simply created the preception to the point that it is now simply that "everyone says so".

2. Ease of Breeding - Viper boas will probally never be very popular unless the secret sauce to breed them is discovered. They are docile once tamed, small and pretty but they will never make a big splash unless a breeding formula is unlocked. Marketing is always first and the top breeders are not about to market a snake unless they can consistantly produce it for a PROFIT.

3. Tempement - Black Racers and Coachwhips are beautiful but both bite a lot. People do not like pets that bite them, so neither is likely to make a big splash anytime soon.

4. Size - While a 10 foot taiwan beauty is nothing like a 8 foot boa it is still one big snake. I love mine and I know you love your blues but many are (rightfully so) intimided by them. They move fast and take some experience to handle safely if nothing else to handle safely for the snake itself. Albino Burms are now like 200 but Albino Balls are four figures because it is easy to keep a ball python. The future of Retic and Burm morphs will be in dwarfs, trust me this will go right back to item one, marketing.

5. Information - To create a market you need awareness and acceptance. Google Rufus Beak Snake you won't find much info yet. I predict they are the next big colubrid boom to occur but not yet because there is no awareness on them. The good news here is this one factor can CREATE a market for the entreprenuer. If you want Blue Beauties to become envouge, the be an apostle for them. Create tons of web pages about them, get info from many keepers and create discussion groups around them. People often fear keeping a snake they can't get a lot of info on even when the truth is their care is just the same as a corn or king with a slightly larger viv.

Probably more then you wanted to know but as a business person this is the way I see the issue. Hope that helps,

Excellent points. Just one thing, IMHO, corns are recommended over milks/kings/other rats because I think they tend to be better behaved. The few other colubrids I've had experience with weren't mean or anything, but they were more "feisty" not to mention I've never been musked by a corn, but I have by a king (disgusting!). That being said, if someone had access to a well-mannered other colubrid then I would have no qualms about recommending it over a corn if they really wanted it.

[daniel1983]

In addition to Jack's points(shich were very good), I would also like to add a few:

1. Ease of care. A new keeper killing a pet within a few months is a big turnoff to some. Also, if a breeder sells a reptile to a person and that reptile dies because the care was too difficult, the chances that the person will be a repeat customer decreases. People like easy....Why do you think Crested Geckos have become so popular? Easy, Easy, Easy

2. Specialist. Most keepers avoid specialist. Some snakes are strictly lizard eaters, frog eaters, and egg eaters. People like animals that are easy to feed. You will never see Eastern Hognoses or vine snakes as a top pet snake. With lizards, horned lizards are a good example because they eat only harvester ants; yet the are some of the neatest creatures out there.

3. Cost. For both the consumer and the producer. This includes the cost of the initial animal purchase as well as vet care, housing, food, and husbandry equipment.

4. Incubation time. or 'quick turnover' if you look at it in business terms. Some species of lizards take almost a year to incubate the eggs. Not a couple of months like most snakes. Other eggs go through diapause and must be incubated at various tempeatures. If you had to wait a year for your ball python eggs to hatch how would that change your business?

That is just a few other factors that I think are part of the equation....and I am sure there are several more

[WingedWolfPsion]

If you had to wait a year for the BPs to hatch, the market would probably stay high for longer. <G>

[juddb]

This is a great thread.

[jwarriner]

Two things, and two things alone makes a species popular:

Cost and availability.

Want to know how to find a popular species? Look on craigslist for people who are giving away pets. Bearded dragons, ball pythons, green iguanas and savannah monitors is virtually all you'll see. Why? Because they're cheap and they are at Petco/Petsmart. And yet people who impulsively buy them for their kids or themselves have no idea what it's really like to take care of them. On one hand I applaud them for trying to give them up to someone who can care for them but you know that nine times out of ten one ignorant pet owner is just going to give their pet away to another ignorant pet owner. They're destined to be on craigslist every three months until someone can rescue them.

There are breeders of monitors who refuse to breed savannahs. Because they are bad monitors? Nope. But because they don't want to be a part of this cycle of disposable pets. Most people are good people but when it comes to pets they don't take anything but cats and dogs seriously. They have this mentality that if it's small and lives in an aquarium it's disposable. It's disgusting.

Most people who buy reptiles, amphibians and other exotic pets have no business doing so.

[daniel1983]

Two things, and two things alone makes a species popular:

Cost and availability.

Yet so many things influence cost and availability that it can't be that simple. While cost and availability maybe be the two main factors, there are so many facets that effect the costs and availablity.

Comparing ball pythons to bearded dragons is a good example.

Ball pythons are massively imported causing their availability to increase. It is illegal to import bearded dragon so what you see in the US is 100% CBB. Yet they are both in the same situation.

If bearded dragons were not so easy to breed, did not produce large clutches, and were complicated to keep, they wouldn't be as available; therefore, less popular. Get my point?

If importation of ball pythons was stopped, how much would availability drop? How would that drop effect popularity?

Legal issues is another factor that plays into how popular an reptile is in captivity.

How many kingsnake keepers are there in Georgia since legislation prohibits them? Kingsnakes are one of the most available snakes out there....yet they can not own them.

How will nile monitor ownership be effected by the new Florida laws? Sure they may still be available and cheap, but there are now legal issues involved with keeping them.