Just Wandering

[phalangus]

Can you make money by keeping and milking venomous snakes?

[stephanbakir]

With a large enough collection, the potential is there. gona copy/paste something from another persons question.
http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/general-venomous-forum/89316-new-guy.html

[stephanbakir]

Don't take this the wrong way, because its only meant to inform you.

There are only 3 or 4 companies in the USA that are LEGALLY allowed to create antivenin, and only about a dozen people who are legally allowed to milk their snakes for the purpose of selling the venom.

I'm not sure if it requires a permit or a certificate but for the purpose of my explanation I'm going to call it a permit.
Getting the permit is a pain, and its costly, and staying certified is also not an easy task. The reason its so difficult is because you not only need to keep your animals in top shape, but your facilities need to be up to date on anything the companies you sell the venom to require. The less costly way of doing it is simply to house the animals, and take them to a venom lab which accepts drop-offs and people willing to milk their animals at a facility other then their own, but those are few and far between, and they really don't just let anyone do it because their reputations are also at risk.

The keeping of these venomous reptiles is also a risky venture, even if you do everything right, you could still get bitten. Getting bitten is a huge risk, and its costly as hell.

Lets say you jump through all the hoops, you invest the money and your facility resembles the latest batman lab, you've got your animals and your contacts and all the protocols involved with keeping venomous animals correctly (I'll get into that later) you need to understand that when you freezedry ( I think thats the process but don't quote me on it) the venom and extract what you need from the venom, the amount you get is ridiculously small. You need a large collection of animals to turn a significant profit, and by large I really do mean large. (breeding the venomous animals you own could help offset the costs and increase your profit margin)

The best way to get into hots (venomous snakes) is to get a mentor, it takes about 10 years for the average person to get trained to the point where they can train others, and I say that snickering on the inside, because trust me the average person should not be a hots mentor, or work with hots for that matter. Once you are trained your entire mindset will change and the way you not only look and think about the animals, but work with them.

Anyone preparing to own a venomous snake, or more then one should take a few precautionary measures first, the main one is THINK HARD IF THIS IS RIGHT FOR YOU, once you have chosen your path and decided to go along with it, spend as long as you can deciding which venomous snake you want to work with (if you get a hots mentor and work with him for a few years (AS YOU SHOULD) prior to getting hots, you will know what you want and why. Build yourself a "hot room" (an escape proof room, free of anywhere an escaped animal can hide), multiple hangers in strategic locations with spare hooks (I had 2 hooks on each hanger, in 5 locations) another incredibly important item is the hanger closest to the exits, this will have your "hot book" (some people call it something else but at this time I can't remember the name) this book will contain the list of hots you own, their venom type and the antivenin that works to fight against it, which hospitals have it, whoever can speak on your behalf medically in an event which you can't and pictures of each of the individual snakes next to their name, any important phone numbers etc...


Long story short, its a huge choice and you should think long and hard before walking down this path.

[phalangus]

ty very informative i wasnt goin to keep any anytime soon im still learning how to handle hot snakes i have a long way to go. But i love snakes and it would be awesome if i could make them my career.

[stephanbakir]

Breeding snakes, hots or otherwise is far less dangerous then milking them.
what I've found to be lucrative is to teach people about them, doing shows and birthday parties and bringing non venomous animals and teaching the minds of tomorrow.

[phalangus]

So theres good money in breeding and doing shows about non-venomous snakes im definatately going to look into that. I only have one snake i have had him about a year he was my first but im planning on more.

[stephanbakir]

Keep in mind that if you aren't doing what you love, its not much of a job.
Breeding isn't always good money but there are ways of making it work.