Raising elephant snakes for high income

Article and photos: NGUYEN TRINH

Mr. Tran Thanh Long (55 years old, living in My Thanh Nam commune, Cai Lay district, Tien Giang province) once caught 3 baby elephant snakes while setting a trap and brought them home to try raising. Unexpectedly, since then, this reptile has been attached to him until now, bringing him a stable monthly income...

Anh Long sở hữu trên 100 con rắn bố mẹ từ 2-4 kg.

Mr. Long owns over 100 parent snakes weighing from 2-4 kg.

Owning more than 100 parent elephant snakes, Mr. Tran Thanh Long earns nearly 100 million VND/year from selling breeding animals.

Mr. Long said that in the past, he and his wife made a living by raising pigs and selling groceries. However, raising pigs was hard, prices were unstable, and sometimes they lost money, causing a capital deficit. In 2019, while placing a net, they caught 3 baby elephant snakes. Seeing that the snakes were docile, Mr. Long kept them in a jar. After a period of raising them, although he did not take much care of them, the snakes still grew and developed well, even reproducing in large numbers, even though they were kept in a tiny jar.

After researching the market, he found that the elephant snake is a specialty, the market value is always high, while this snake species in the natural environment is not much. From there, he decided to invest in buying breeding stock from a reputable farm to raise, taking advantage of the old pigsty to renovate and raise snakes. However, after a period of successfully raising up to 300 parent snakes, he "tasted bitter fruit" when, during a water change, because he did not know that the water in the canal was salty, he pumped it into the tank, causing a mass death of snakes. After that, the parent snakes were still alive, and he rebuilt the herd until now.

Mr. Long said that it is important that the tank for raising elephant snakes is airy, clean, and the water is changed regularly. Only then will the snakes grow quickly and be less susceptible to disease. Another important secret is that each cement tank for raising snakes needs to have nylon rope to help the snakes have a place to hide. Mr. Long revealed that the snakes' favorite food is catfish. Depending on the size of the snake, fish of appropriate size will be released. Before releasing the catfish into the snake tank, it is necessary to feed it industrial food so that when the snakes eat the fish, they can also absorb the industrial food, helping them gain weight quickly.

Each elephant snake breeding tank is about 2m long and 1m wide, and can raise about 300 parent elephant snakes. The snake ratio is 10 female snakes and 3 males. "In my experience, snakes raised in narrow tanks move less and catch prey easily. They eat enough prey so they grow faster than those raised in large tanks," said Mr. Long. According to Mr. Long, elephant snakes are very easy to raise and require little care. After 2 years, they will start to reproduce. Elephant snakes reproduce from the 4th to the 6th lunar month every year, with an average of 10-30 snakes each time. For mother snakes weighing over 2kg, they can give birth to 40 snakes per litter.

Currently, Mr. Long has about 100 parent snakes, each weighing from 2-4 kg. Every year, he breeds nearly a thousand baby snakes. He sells the breeding snakes for 70,000-200,000 VND/snake (depending on size). Thanks to that, he earns nearly 100 million VND. Mr. Long's model of raising snakes in cement tanks is simple, saves space, takes labor as profit, and brings high economic efficiency, so farmers in the area are learning and following it.

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