Weekly roundup

Updates for This Week:

Snakes can hear better than we even realized, the reptile industry is developing, and a quick reference guide for Hognose snakes is available.

Science and Around the World

Snakes CAN HEAR!

One of the many things I get all the time is “snakes can’t hear”, and anyone who has been around snakes knows that isn’t true.

They may not hear the same way we do, but they react to sound. Snakes have the same internal ear structures as other animals, even though they don’t have an external ear. It turns out they may hear better than I even realized!

Popular Science had a great article on some research into how they react to sound. The link to the original study didn’t work, but it was still a great article.

Community spotlight

Industry and Hobby News

Growth and development of the reptile market

While continuing my research for the reptile industry study, I discovered another interesting piece of data from globalpetindustry.com.

According to their article, the overall percentage of households with pet reptiles in the US has remained relatively stable at approximately 4%, or 6 million households.* However, just like the vet industry report from a couple of weeks ago, levels of expected care have increased.

The number of reptile owners who have reported giving their reptiles medications and supplements has doubled from 12% to 24% from 2018 to 2024. Also, 49% of people have listed who they want to take care of their reptile in their will!

These are not even the flashiest numbers I have found. However, this article gives a good overview of several fascinating areas, like the fact that 27% of snake owners turned to social media for information.

If you are a breeder or in the industry in any sort of business capacity, this is a quick read!

_{*This is the low end of the estimated range, with some reports having the overall household ownership in the US closer to 9 million households.}

From MHI

Hognose Quick Reference

I am biased towards Spotted Pythons…🤓 But I know that the more popular species still need all the information out there they can get!

Western Hognose (Heterodon nasicus) is by far one of the most popular pet snakes, so I want to do some focus on them in the coming months.

In the meantime, here is a quick reference guide you can use or give to new or prospective Hognose owners:

From This Week’s Sponsor

Pet insurance is way cheaper than I thought…

Help support this newsletter by checking out Money.com’s list of pet insurance providers!

Most still don’t have great coverage for exotic pets, which is much harder to find, but this is still an excellent resource.

Only about 4% of U.S. pet owners have pet insurance

Pet care costs are rising, yet not enough people are doing something about it. Pet insurance can significantly offset rising costs – all for as low as $10 a month. Want to join the 4% club?

JOIN THE CLUB

It’s a short one this week!

I have been on the move with work a lot so not as much time to read up on some of the news I like to share.

I’ll get back at it, but in the meantime, let me know what you have and haven’t liked so far!

Cheers,

Will