A Detailed Guide to Snake Farming Techniques and Processing Methods

Snakes are a precious biological resource. Snakes can be eaten, used for medicine, used to make musical instruments, and so on; the whole body is a treasure, and they are praised as a "mountain delicacy." Snakes sell well and fetch high prices. In China, the purchase price per kilogram of live snakes and snake meat is 40-60 yuan; for the five-paced snake (Deinagkistrodon acutus), it is 250-400 yuan per kilogram; 1 gram of banded krait (Bungarus multicinctus) toxin is priced at 1000 yuan; raw snake gallbladder reaches as much as 2000-3000 yuan per kilogram. On the international market, 5 grams of snake venom is priced at as much as 1000 US dollars, 20 times more expensive than gold. Farming snakes artificially has a short cycle and high returns; it is a good way for farmers to escape poverty and become prosperous, and is also a "golden undertaking" for revitalizing the rural economy.

1. Living Habits of Snakes

1.1 Activity Patterns of Snakes. Snakes are ectothermic animals, and their body temperature changes with the ambient temperature, so snakes hibernate in winter, emerge in spring, and are active in summer and autumn. The activity temperature of snakes is 10°C-35°C. The activity patterns of snakes also differ depending on the species. For example, cobras and king cobras like to be active during the day and are called diurnal snakes; banded kraits (Bungarus fasciatus), many-banded kraits (Bungarus multicinctus), and pointed-scaled pit vipers (Trimeresurus mucrosquamatus) like to be active at night and are called nocturnal snakes; and five-paced snakes (Deinagkistrodon acutus) and pit vipers (Agkistrodon) prefer to be active under weak light (at night and on overcast or rainy days), and are called crepuscular snakes.

1.2 Habitat Environment of Snakes. Different species of snakes have different habitats. The banded krait (Bungarus fasciatus) often lives in moist areas and by the water; in mountainous regions, banded kraits are mostly seen in plains and hilly areas, in paddy fields and low-lying wet areas by pond edges. Cobras live on hillsides, hills, and plains, in wall foundations, stone crevices, grave mounds, and thickets. King cobras live in plains and mountainous areas, active by mountain streams or on climbing trees and in rock crevices. Five-paced snakes (Deinagkistrodon acutus) live in mountain forest land and beside forests, and habitually coil on rocks in mountain caves, in damp stone crevices, on rocks beside streams, and among clumps of weeds. Pit vipers (Agkistrodon) live in plains and hilly areas, in ruined walls, abandoned marketplaces, and vegetable plots in front of and behind villages. Vipers (Viperidae) live in hilly areas in summer, migrate to the plains in winter, and in autumn are mostly seen in rice fields or dark, cool, well-ventilated places.

1.3 Feeding Habits of Snakes. Snakes have a very broad diet. @#@254@#@, slugs, spiders, insects and their larvae, fish, frogs, rats, @#@260@#@, birds, and rabbits are all good bait for snakes, but different species of snakes eat different prey. For example, the banded krait (Bungarus fasciatus) mainly feeds on other snakes, as well as fish, frogs, lizards, rats, or other small mammals. The many-banded krait (Bungarus multicinctus) feeds on fish, frogs, lizards, rats, or other small mammals. In addition to the same prey as the many-banded krait, cobras also feed on lizards and bird eggs. The sharp-nosed pit viper (Deinagkistrodon acutus) mainly feeds on rats or other small mammals and frogs, and also feeds on lizards and birds. Pit vipers (Agkistrodon) feed on fish, frogs, lizards, rats, and other mammals.

2. Feeding and Management of Snakes

Feeding @#@246@#@ means providing food according to different snake species and in combination with local specific conditions. Generally, feed once every two weeks, and each feeding amount is 45% of body weight, but the food should be varied and fresh. The feeding location should be fixed, and generally should be chosen where snakes frequently appear. If there is insufficient food for the snakes, you can use crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, phosphorus, calcium, and a small amount of inorganic salts plus vitamin A and B2, mix with water, and stuff the mixture into sausage casing to make sausages and induce the snakes to eat. For snakes with poor appetite, vitamin B can also be administered to promote appetite and enhance metabolism; when necessary, manual force-feeding can be carried out.

Drinking water for snakes must be clean and hygienic, and the water in the pool must flow frequently and must not be polluted. In snake management, the key is to grasp six points: (1) The snake yard and snake house must be cleaned frequently to keep the ground clean and dry; (2) The sand and dry grass spread in the snake nest must be replaced regularly; (3) Rotten and spoiled food must be removed in a timely manner; (4) The temperature and humidity in the snake nest must be checked frequently. Attention should be paid to keeping warm in winter and cooling down in summer. A humidity regulator should be placed in the burrow, and generally the humidity in the burrow should be kept at around 20%. At the same time, the health of the snakes should also be checked frequently. If sick or injured snakes are found with abnormal activity, difficulty crawling, or obvious symptoms, they should be moved out immediately for isolated rearing, and given treatment or other handling; (5) The walls of the snake yard and snake house must be checked frequently, and holes or cracks must be repaired in a timely manner to prevent venomous snakes from escaping, and to prevent harm from the natural enemies of venomous snakes; (6) When snake yard management personnel enter the snake yard and snake house, they should wear protective clothing and carry snake-catching tools, and two people should enter at the same time so that they can look after each other and prevent bites by venomous snakes. The snake yard should also be stocked year-round with first-aid medicines or instruments for snake bites.

3. Disease Prevention and Treatment of Venomous Snakes

Diseases of venomous snakes mostly occur in late spring after hibernation. Sick snakes often lie crosswise outside the nest, with dull color and sluggish expression, rarely eat, respond slowly, have the mouth half open or hold their breath, do not flick their tongues or flick them very little, and when they barely crawl, their trails are mostly winding and slow. The generally common disease prevention and treatment methods are as follows:

3.1 Mold Spot Disease. Mostly in the plum rain season, some black mold spots often appear on the ventral scales of snakes, and further development of the mold spots can cause ulceration and death. When mold spots are found, 1%-2% iodine tincture can be applied to the affected area of the snake, 1-2 times daily, and it can heal in about 7 days. For prevention, quicklime and charcoal can be used in the snake nest to absorb moisture, and snake yard sanitation should be carefully maintained.

3.2 Stomatitis. The sick snake's two jaws swell, there is purulent secretion in the oral cavity, and swallowing is difficult. If not treated in time, the snake can easily die. The oral cavity can be rinsed with Rivanol solution or boric acid solution, and then the affected area can be coated with gentian violet medicinal liquid, once a day until there is no purulent secretion.

3.3 Acute Pneumonia. The sick snake has difficulty breathing with its mouth open, and lesions occur in the lungs, often leading to death. When sick snakes are found, they should be isolated immediately, care should be strengthened, cold should be avoided and warmth maintained, nutrition should be increased, and 100,000 units of streptomycin should be administered orally, twice a day for 3-4 days, and recovery can be expected; or 100,000 units of penicillin can be injected intramuscularly into the sick snake, twice a day, with relatively good results.

3.4 Parasitic Disease. When snakes ingest animal feed, they are very easily infected with parasitic diseases. In mild cases, it weakens the snake's constitution and leads to complications from other diseases; in severe cases, it causes rapid death. Generally, oral administration of trichlorfon or levamisole tablets and the like is enough to expel parasites and achieve therapeutic effect.

4. Processing of Venomous Snake Products

4.1 Snake Skin. Tie a rope around the snake's neck and hang it on a wall or support, make a circular cut around the neck skin with a knife, and strip the snake from top to bottom into a long tube. Put fine sand into the tube to make it expand evenly, and after drying in the air, pour out the fine sand; then cut it open from the exact middle of the ventral side. For larger snake skins, after stripping, cut open from the exact middle of the ventral side, nail it onto a long wooden board or wall, and remove it after air-drying. In addition to making traditional musical instruments, snake skin has already been widely used in craft mounting @#@217@#@ and daily-life commodities, and is very popular on the international market.

4.2 Snake Slough. Also called dragon clothing, after the snake sheds the stratum corneum of its body surface, it should be picked up in time, with mud and sand removed, and after air-drying it can be used as medicine.

4.3 Dried Snake. Dried snake mainly includes coiled dried snake and strip dried snake, with the difference of whether the skin is retained or peeled. The processing methods are also different.

① Coiled dried snake: After killing the snake, cut open the abdominal cavity, remove the internal organs and the fat on the abdominal wall, put it into a vat or bucket filled with clean water, and rinse away the blood. Then, place the snake with its back facing up and belly facing down on a wooden board, fix the snake's head in the middle of the wooden board with a one-inch iron nail, then spread open the snake's belly and gradually coil it clockwise, fixing it with iron nails. After drying in the sun for 3 hours, move it indoors and dry it over a low fire. If processing peeled dried snake, the snake skin on the head must be retained so that the variety of dried snake can be identified.

② Strip dried snake: Kill the snake, rinse the snake body clean, straighten it, nail it on a wooden board, dry it in the sun for 1 hour, then move it indoors and dry it over a low fire. Dried snake is a precious traditional Chinese medicinal material in China and is also one of China's important export medicinal materials, and it is very popular on the international market.

4.4 Snake Gallbladder. In the past, the method of killing the snake to obtain the gallbladder was used, which was to slaughter the live snake and directly take out the snake gallbladder. Now the "live snake gallbladder extraction method" can be used. This is to grasp the corresponding position of the snake's body with the hand (the position where the gallbladder is located) and feel it, and according to its hardness and elasticity (somewhat like the tip of a person's nose), after finding the exact position of the gallbladder, make a small opening there, squeeze out the gallbladder body, then insert a syringe into the snake gallbladder and draw out half of the bile, then restore it to its original state. Draw once every month, and the drawn bile must be dried immediately and tightly sealed in a bottle for storage, or absorbed with corresponding Chinese medicinal herb powder and air-dried to make Chinese herbal medicine.

4.5 Snake Oil. After killing the snake, cut open the belly and strip off the fat, wash it clean, and simmer it in an iron pot over a low fire, remove the oil residue, and snake oil is obtained. It can then be mixed with Chinese medicinal herb powder to make a coating material and used. Snake oil can also be eaten and made into skin cream.

4.6 Snake Internal Organs. When killing a snake, take the testes and preserve them in white liquor above 50°C. When needed, swallow them, and they can treat male impotence; take the snake liver and grind it into powder, and it can treat icteric hepatitis.

4.7 Snake Powder. Use dried snake that has been dried by fire, grind it into powder, then put it into capsules or divide it into small packets of 1-2 grams and seal them in plastic bags.

4.8 Snake Venom. Generally, venom can be extracted one month after a snake is born. The upper jaw of a venomous snake has a pair of large, backward-slanting fangs. The center of the fang is a hollow tube, the tip of the fang has a fine hole, and the root of the fang is connected to a venom sac containing venom. As long as you grasp the head of the venomous snake, press the two jaws of the venomous snake with two fingers to open the snake's mouth, and touch the snake's two fangs with a venom-extracting glass tube, the venom will spray out. Venom can be extracted once every two weeks, and each snake can yield about 0.5-1 gram of venom per year. After obtaining the venom, it should immediately be put into a refrigerator to freeze or vacuum-dried as quickly as possible, making it into transparent solid snake venom.