VietNamNet Bridge – Breeding ornamental snakes is now in vogue, because 2013 is the year of snake. However, scientists say the breeding is not encouraged, because this is a kind of alien species.

“Lam fish”, a well-known fish player in Thanh Xuan district in Hanoi, said breeding dogs, cats and ornamental fishes has become no more in fashion. The youth now tend to breed strange animals, especially snakes.

“I am going to buy a snake for breeding. I heard that snakes would bring good luck in the year of snake,” he said.

Lam, who has learnt well about the snake market, said there are three main species of snakes, namely corn snake, milk snake and king snake. The snakes all have been imported from Thailand. They don’t have venom, while they are small and colorful; therefore, they have quickly become favored by the youth.

An ornamental snake with the size of 25-30 cm is priced at VND1 million. Snakes have been available at online pet shops which also give advices on how to feed and take care for snakes.

Breeding snakes is now a hot topic on many forums for the youth. A young girl wrote that Vietnamese youth did not think of breeding snakes in the past, because they thought all species of snakes have venom. In Vietnam, snakes were considered a kind of food rather than ornamental pets. Meanwhile, in European countries, it is a popular pet.

The girl now has a red head snake (elaphe taeniura ssp) which she described as “gentle, colorful and lovely.”

“If you want to have a snake and if you want a Vietnamese one, you should think of red head snake. The snakes are very beautiful and they don’t require special care,” she wrote.

Analysts said breeding snakes has become a hobby of the youth, because snakes can move flexibly and easily worm their way through narrow slots. Milk snakes are believed to be inoffensive to humans.

Snake breeders may have heard about immopets.com, a website where one can find updated information about breeding snakes. The administrator of the website said there is a group of translators in charge of translating stories about snakes from science journals and sharing with the community.

About 40 amateur snake breeders who are the members of immopets.com meet each other once every three weeks to exchange experiences about snake breeding.

Nguyen Hong Quang, a feng shui expert, denied the opinion that snake is a fengh shui animal and that breeding snakes can help relieve someone’s run of bad luck. “It’s untruthful story. If you raise snakes in the year of snakes, then what you will raise in the year of dragon?” he said.

When asked about the milk snake, Dr Nguyen Quang Truong from the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology said the snakes are named “scarlet king snake” in English. There are 25 species of the snakes, which mostly live in the north and central of America.

Also according to Dr. Truong, this is an alien species; therefore, breeding and keeping the snakes have not been encouraged. The existence of the snakes may affect the natural disposition in Vietnam.

He warned that the snakes look like a toxic snake species – Sinomicrurus, living mostly in the mountainous areas of Vietnam.

Kien Thuc