TLDR: Hundreds of millions of mice and rats are bred and killed each year as feeder animals for pet snakes, in conditions that resemble the worst of factory farming. We are developing a convenient, cost-competitive, and nutritionally complete snake food made from beef meat, organs, and bones to displace frozen feeder rodents. Cattle to mice is up to 1 to 100,000 replacement and a very strong welfare tradeoff. Products will be on the market in 2026, and will start displacing feeder rodents immediately on a 1:1 basis. We are anonymous on the Forum, but are an ACX Grants project raising 75k in marginal funding for early product launch, plus 9k for a university study. You can donate via Manifund or reach us at thesnakefoodcompany@gmail.com. 

1. The overlooked problem: hundreds of millions of mammals in poor conditions

Each year, on the order of hundreds of millions of mice and rats are bred, farmed, and killed as feeder animals for pet snakes. These mammals are typically:

• raised in crowded plastic tubs
• kept in barren environments
• exposed to high disease and mortality
• killed using methods that would be alarming by farmed-animal standards (freezing, blunt-force trauma, sometimes live feeding)

Despite the scale, this area is almost entirely absent from animal welfare work — until now.

2. The approach: a convenient, cost-competitive, complete diet for snakes

We are developing a sausage-form snake food made from beef meat, organs, and bones. The product is designed to be:

• nutritionally complete, formulated with a veterinary nutritionist
• convenient to handle and store
• cost-competitive with frozen mice and rats

We are using inputs from large animals where the displacement ratio is extremely favorable. Even under a very conservative model, we estimate something like one cow per roughly 100,000 feeder rodents displaced. In practice, the ratio is likely better than this, since a significant share of our formulation uses organs and other components that are already low-value byproducts of existing cattle production.

We are deliberately not positioning ethics or welfare as part of the value proposition to snake owners. The product is designed to win on convenience and cost, which makes adoption far easier. This framing has been validated repeatedly in conversations with keepers and breeders.

3. Short-timeline and 1:1 replacement at scale

It has unusually favorable properties for impact:

• huge numbers of mammals
• high suffering per individual
• neglected
• Unusually tractable because very feeding directly replaces a feeder rodent on a 1:1 basis

The pathway from adoption to impact is immediate and linear. Because most feeder rodent production comes from many small, highly elastic operations, reductions in demand translate quickly into reductions in supply.

This is a short-timeline intervention: the product is already ready and has begun displacing feeder rodents in early trials. We'll move into full commercial launch in 2026 to really ramp up the number of animals displaced. 

4. Where we are now

• Initial palatability testing looks promising
• Formulation work is supported by a respected veterinary nutritionist
• Clear early demand signals from keepers and breeders
• 100+ keepers enrolled, covering ~2,000 snakes
• Two US manufacturing partners tested and able to scale

We are on track for 2026 US commercial launch and can start displacing feeder rodents immediately on an ~1:1 basis.

5. Why this post is anonymous

We are posting anonymously to avoid perceived ulterior motives among snake owners. Some keepers might assume the product is inferior or agenda driven, which would directly undermine uptake.

We know anonymity increases the trust requirements here. We hope this is partly mitigated by the fact that we are an ACX Grantee, and donations go through this Manifund page. We’re also very willing to share substantial detail privately if you email thesnakefoodcompany@gmail.com.

6. Funding gaps

A. $75k for pre-launch activities

Supports:

• Marketing experiments
• Logistics + operations setup
• Initial inventory
• Packaging + compliance
• Expo presence

B. $9k for a published university veterinary study

Funds a controlled, university-run study overseen by a respected veterinarian, resulting in a published paper evaluating health outcomes for snakes fed the diet.

If you can directly fund this 9k study, please email.

C. Pre-seed funding + potential European build-out (impact investing interest)

Next year, we expect to raise a pre-seed funding round, since this intervention will ultimately be executed as a commercial consumer packaged goods company. If anyone is interested in this impact investing opportunity with a check size of $25k+, please reach out and we can stay in touch.

Europe is a major pet-snake market and a large share of the total achievable displacement. We plan to explore a European build-out alongside the US launch, and will pursue this earlier if there is aligned funding interest.

7. How to help

• Contribute to our live Manifund campaign (ACX Grants 2025) to support the marginal funding needs.
• If you can directly fund the $9k university veterinary study, please email us.
• If you are interested in supporting next year’s pre-seed round, we’d be happy to talk.

For due diligence or more background: thesnakefoodcompany@gmail.com