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What happens to all the hatchlings?

restes

restes

New member
I see many breeders here pumping out multiple clutches per season. I realize the great majority of snake owners aren't breeders but is the market really big enough that they all get bought up?
I am just curious what happens to the less in-demand babies. Thanks in advance for any input and info!
 
The market is very low, many clutches go to whole salers or are sold for way low prices. Some breeders felt even forced to feed remaining hatchlings to king snakes, or accept that as a last resort to dispose of them any way.
 
:(

I did expect that but did not want to make accusations. Just a sad reality of breeding such quantities of snakes to achieve desired traits and such. I guess it is not too terribly inhumane to feed them to another snake, sort of like a feeder mouse. Just another link in an artificially created food chain.

Now I'm also curious, do they kill the hatchlings before feeding them to a king or is that a needs to be live sort of feeding?
 
I'm sorry I haven't had time to respond to your PM yet. I can really only speak for myself. I only produced two clutches last season. One clutch, the smaller, had two snakes that were so nice I chose to keep them. The others were sold nearly immediately. These were Miamis.

The second clutch, bloodreds and granites, was of extremely nice quality. I had them priced fairly high. About half the clutch sold very quickly, and then I had a little Thanksgiving Sale which offered discounted shipping, and all the rest sold except one, who I wanted to keep for an additional couple months for observation. That snake is now also sold.

Since I don't want to wholesale any snakes, and since culling for no reason is out of the question, I have to pick and choose which projects I really want to do each season, keeping in mind that I might have to keep some babies for many months. Since I am working with multi-gene animals, they are generally in demand. I _chose_ to only start projects in which the "by-products" are as attractive and desireable as the target morph.

Actually, the market for lower-end corns, the basics, is probably much more reliable and easy to sell to than for the higher-end morphs. At shows, people want to buy a snake for $20 or less. So the normals and aneries and amels are in demand.
 
Thank you so much for the detailed answer. I did not mean to express impatience here. I just figured you get so many PMs that one could get over looked.

I am glad to hear that you do not have to end any snakes. I find the mating and genetic threads on this site fascinating. And although I am nowhere near experienced enough with snakes yet, someday I may be interested in trying to produce a pretty clutch. Keep up your good work, I am truly rooting for you knowing you take the precautions so you won't have to put any down.
 
Nanci said:
I'm sorry I haven't had time to respond to your PM yet. I can really only speak for myself. I only produced two clutches last season. One clutch, the smaller, had two snakes that were so nice I chose to keep them. The others were sold nearly immediately. These were Miamis.

The second clutch, bloodreds and granites, was of extremely nice quality. I had them priced fairly high. About half the clutch sold very quickly, and then I had a little Thanksgiving Sale which offered discounted shipping, and all the rest sold except one, who I wanted to keep for an additional couple months for observation. That snake is now also sold.

Since I don't want to wholesale any snakes, and since culling for no reason is out of the question, I have to pick and choose which projects I really want to do each season, keeping in mind that I might have to keep some babies for many months. Since I am working with multi-gene animals, they are generally in demand. I _chose_ to only start projects in which the "by-products" are as attractive and desireable as the target morph.

Actually, the market for lower-end corns, the basics, is probably much more reliable and easy to sell to than for the higher-end morphs. At shows, people want to buy a snake for $20 or less. So the normals and aneries and amels are in demand.
Click to expand...

:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: Exactly my moral standard :)
 
restes said:
I did expect that but did not want to make accusations. Just a sad reality of breeding such quantities of snakes to achieve desired traits and such. I guess it is not too terribly inhumane to feed them to another snake, sort of like a feeder mouse. Just another link in an artificially created food chain.

Now I'm also curious, do they kill the hatchlings before feeding them to a king or is that a needs to be live sort of feeding?
Click to expand...

I only feed disabled baby's, like with horrible kinks, to my king. I can't get myself to kill them first, though I hate to see them being eaten alive, since my king usually manages to grab it tail first, it's a horrible site because they do 'fight' :sobstory:
 
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