Key Technical Management Points for Artificial Snake Breeding
Snakes are animals with high medicinal value. Catching wild snakes is prohibited by national law, yet the market demand for meat snakes is astonishingly large. In the Guangdong market alone, the annual demand is conservatively estimated to have reached 7,500 tons. With wild snake resources severely insufficient and capture prohibited by law, a huge market vacuum for snakes has formed. To meet market demand and accelerate the promotion of factory farming, there is undoubtedly far-reaching socioeconomic significance. According to the experience of Dadongyang Snake Research Center, a cobra raised by factory farming methods reaches market weight in 14 months, with a body weight of up to 2.5 jin. Sold at a market price of 80 yuan/jin, it can fetch 200 yuan, while the cost is less than 50 yuan. The net profit per snake can reach 150 yuan. Taking this as an example, self-breeding and self-raising 100,000 cobras can yield a profit of more than 10 million yuan. Therefore, the return on investment for artificial snake farming is extremely high.
I. Artificial Incubation
Artificial incubation of snake eggs is the prerequisite for achieving factory farming. Traditional snake farms that imitate the wild ecological environment for rearing cannot achieve self-breeding and self-raising of snakes, so they can only rely on breeding snakes captured from the wild for mating and reproduction. Wild snakes basically reproduce in a "let nature take its course" manner, with absolutely no "awareness of eugenics." The only way to achieve "eugenics" is through artificial incubation of snake eggs. After years of experimentation, Dadongyang Snake Research Center independently designed an incubator, using temperature and humidity control technology to control temperature and humidity within specified ranges. The success rate of artificial incubation of snake eggs is as high as 95.7%, the highest level in the country.
II. Complete Nutritional Feed
Solving the feed problem for snakes is the key to achieving factory farming. There has been little research both domestically and internationally on the nutrition and feed for artificially farmed snakes. No feeding standards for snakes have been established, nor have mixed feeds for snakes been developed. Under traditional farming methods, using live animals such as frogs and eels to feed snakes results in costs that are too high. Dadongyang Snake Research Center, targeting the keen sense of smell of snakes, conducted repeated screenings and finally succeeded in developing a complete nutritional feed suitable for snake tastes, using a material with a special odor combined with other animal and plant protein feeds, minerals, vitamins, etc. Based on different developmental stages of snakes, they formulated 4 types of synthetic snake feed: juvenile snake type, growing type, adult snake type, and breeding snake type, completely changing the feeding habit of snakes eating live small animals. This series of feeds has strong palatability and low raw material costs, fundamentally solving the difficult problem of factory farming of snakes and reducing farming costs by 60%-65%.
III. Breaking Hibernation
Breaking the hibernation pattern of snakes is a major breakthrough in the snake farming industry. The success of artificial snake farming depends on the degree of difference between the rearing environmental conditions and the natural ecosystem conditions in which snakes live. Snakes are poikilothermic animals, and their activity, predation, reproduction, etc. are all affected by temperature. Too high or too low temperatures are detrimental to their activity and growth. Snakes hibernate for as long as 4 months each year. Without breaking snake hibernation, the market-ready period for snakes is as long as 18 months. The extended farming cycle invisibly reduces profits. In response to this situation, Dadongyang Snake Research Center, through painstaking research, designed a patented heating system that maintains a constant temperature in the snake house, breaks the hibernation pattern of snakes, and achieves no hibernation year-round, greatly shortening the farming cycle and advancing the market-ready period for adult snakes by 4 months, from 18 months to only 14 months.
IV. Disease Prevention and Treatment
Solving the problem of snake disease prevention and treatment is the guarantee for achieving factory farming. Factory farming of snakes, like other farming projects, "emphasizes prevention rather than treatment." Based on the physiological characteristics of snakes and the features of their seasonal diseases, Dadongyang Snake Research Center developed various drugs and preventive injections from Chinese herbal medicine for the prevention and treatment of snake molting disease, stomatitis, parasites, skin disease, gastroenteritis, mildew spot disease, cholecystitis, and other diseases. The developed Chinese herbal medicines are highly effective in treating parasitic diseases. The farmed snakes rarely carry parasitic diseases, completely eliminating the genetic transmission of disease genes hidden in the bodies of wild snakes from feeding on live animals, achieving a survival rate of over 92% for domesticated snakes.
V. Factory Farming
Solving the problem of snake farming sites is the top priority in achieving factory farming. Dadongyang Snake Research Center adopts a factory workshop approach, using patented (patent applied for) three-dimensional high-density snake boxes for snake farming. These snake boxes have high density and large capacity, and can house 50 snakes per cubic meter. Placing these three-dimensional high-density snake boxes indoors, supplemented with complete nutritional feed, and targeted Chinese herbal medicines for preventing seasonal and parasitic diseases, overcomes various acute infectious diseases and special parasitic diseases, greatly improving the survival rate of domesticated snakes and truly achieving "factory farming" of snakes.