From 350 snakes raised by their parents in a cement tank, in the first crop, Mr. Dang Van Phuong sold 1,400 seeds, earning a profit of hundreds of millions of dong.

Previously only used to planting fruit trees, and never raised snakes, but saw that his grandchildren raised snakes effectively, 2 years ago Mr. Dang Van Phuong (51 years old, in Thoi Hoa C area, Long Hung ward, O Mon district, Can Tho) decided to spend 120 million VND to invest in a barn and buy breeding snakes.

With the start-up capital at that time, Mr. Phuong bought 1,400 breeding snakes, costing 80 million VND, the rest he built 12 cement tanks divided into zones including nursery, breeding and snake breeding area. male butcher. 

“I don’t know how to raise snakes, so I asked my nephew to guide me on how to make a barn, food and water source. After a few months of raising, snakes lost but not much.

After 10 months of rearing, the snakes divided themselves into male and female snakes, and I divided them into cells to reproduce,” Phuong said. 

Mr. Phuong said that elephant snakes are easy to raise, with “horizontal hands” like him, they also find this animal easier to take care of than cattle and poultry.

The snakes he stocked in a tank of more than 3m2, for breeding snakes, he stocked a density of 35 female snakes and 10-15 male snakes/tank. In the tank, there is a drainage pipe, a “smeared” plastic rope for snakes to burrow in. 

“If I want snakes to have less disease and grow faster, I use river water to filter through lime and then pump it directly into the tank. On average, I change the water once every two weeks,” Mr. Phuong shared. 

River water is available, in addition, the old farmer Tay Do also uses the empty pond of the orchard to raise catfish as a food source for snakes. Accordingly, each year he stocked 400,000 fry. Every 2 weeks, pick up baby catfish to feed the snakes once. 

“The catfish is large and reproduces quickly, so I have more natural seed sources. In the first few months of raising snakes, I still spent money on food, now I have control over the input, the profit has increased significantly.” Mr. Phuong revealed how to raise snakes very economically. 

Currently, Mr. Phuong owns 600 parent snakes and 400 gilts (snakes about to give birth). Female snakes raised for about 2 years can mate and reproduce. Female snakes give birth once a year, with an average number of 10 to 30 babies. Mother snakes weighing more than 2kg can give birth to 40 babies / batch. 

In April 2022, he harvested the first batch of snakes with 1,400 children, priced at 80,000 VND/head. Snake meat is sold by him for 500,000 VND/kg. Deducting all expenses, the farmer earns over 100 million VND/year.