Indoor Artificial Snake Farming Techniques and Facility Construction Plan
Many people are very afraid when they hear about snakes, yet quite a few people happen to enjoy raising them. Snake farming has been a relatively popular entrepreneurial model in recent years; as long as the snakes are raised well, the prospects are quite good. Indoor farming is generally the most common approach, and before farming, building the facility is the key first step.
Indoor Artificial Snake Farming Techniques
1. Select good snake breeds. Breeding snakes are chosen each spring, with robust, plump female snakes selected as breeding snakes. Regardless of whether they are venomous or non-venomous, they generally lay eggs from late June to July. Before and after laying, the female snakes should be fed more nutrient-rich food containing plenty of calcium, and they should be allowed to eat and drink their fill as much as possible. Whether the female snake has mated need not be considered, because once a female snake mates, she can produce fertilized eggs for five years.
2. Incubation. The laid snake eggs should be promptly placed into an incubation jar for artificial incubation, and the temperature must be maintained, with regular checks and turning. This is to prevent the snake eggs from drying out and becoming sunken. Dead eggs must be removed promptly, and mice must be prevented from stealing and eating the snake eggs. Snake eggs generally hatch into baby snakes in 40 to 60 days.
3. Feeding. Baby snakes begin eating about 10 days after hatching. Food must be provided according to the snakes' feeding habits, and they can be allowed to feed freely or be force-fed. At this stage, they must be fed well so they grow up as strong as possible, otherwise they will have difficulty surviving the winter. At the same time, attention should be paid to site hygiene, with regular disinfection.
4. Hibernation. The non-hibernation period mainly involves controlling temperature and humidity; as long as the temperature and humidity in the snake box are within the range the snakes can adapt to, that is sufficient. An electric light bulb or burning firewood can be used to raise the temperature to 15-18 degrees Celsius. Maintain humidity at 60%-80% and feed as usual. Special attention must be paid during this period to not letting the temperature drop below 10 degrees.
Snake Farming Facility Construction Plan
1. The snake farming site should be chosen far from human and livestock villages, in a sunny spot with a certain slope. For outdoor farming, an open-air snake yard should be built, with the area determined by the farming scale; generally 100 sq m is suitable. The snake yard should be enclosed by walls all around to form a snake garden, and the wall height must not be less than 2.5 m. The structure must be sturdy, with the surface smoothed with white lime. The wall foundation should be about 1 m to prevent snakes from climbing out.
2. Hanging ladders should be set on the walls, 0.6-0.7 m from the ground. Steps can be built on the outside of the walls to make it easier to observe the snakes' activity inside the garden. Inside the garden, there should be snake nests, snake burrows, grass, trees, stones and so on, for the snakes to play, rest, digest, shed their skin, move about and overwinter. There should be a small water ditch with a steady flow of clean water for the snakes to use. Both ends of the water ditch should be firmly sealed with wire mesh.
3. The roof should be ventilated on all four sides, with wire mesh covering the roof to prevent escape. The wall height must not be less than 2.5 m. The walls and floor should all be coated with white lime and cement, and must be smooth with no seams. No windows should be opened in the walls.
4. Inside the building there should also be snake nests, as well as water supply facilities such as pools, water ditches and water basins. Both ends of the water ditch should be sealed and secured with wire mesh. The snake house should have two intersecting doors to protect the safety of workers when entering the house and to prevent snakes from escaping.
Temperature Control for Indoor Snake Farming
The temperature snakes like most is 28-30 degrees. At our snake farm, we need to control the temperature within 20-30 degrees C, which is most suitable for the growth and reproduction of snakes. If it is below 10-13 degrees C, the snakes curl up and are unwilling to move; if in an environment above 40 degrees C or below 0 degrees C, weak and thin snakes will die in large numbers. Therefore, in the process of artificially raising snakes, special attention must be paid to changes in outside temperature, striving to be prepared and to keep losses to a minimum.
The Most Common Snake Diseases and Their Prevention and Treatment
1. Mold spot disease. During the plum rain season, because of low terrain or poor drainage, water accumulates in the snake nests or they remain damp for a long time. Sick snakes commonly have dotted black spots on their belly scales, and if not treated in time, local ulceration occurs and they die. The treatment method is: apply 2% iodine tincture to the mold spot areas, twice a day, and recovery occurs within a week.
2. Stomatitis. After snakes wake from hibernation, because their bodies are thin and weak, some harmful bacteria invade the snakes' necks, causing swollen stomatitis. Sick snakes hold their mouths open and cannot close them, cannot swallow food, and ultimately starve to death because they do not eat or drink. The treatment method is: rinse the sick snake's mouth with physiological saline, then wipe both jaws with gentian violet solution, rinsing and applying once each day, until the inflammation and swelling subside before stopping.
When building a facility for indoor farming, the area must be planned well, and ventilation is also very important. When farming, good snake hatchlings must be selected, and then fed and managed reasonably. In winter, temperature control needs to be strengthened, as excessively low temperatures are not conducive to their growth.