3 yr old Burm only 7'

[schugeorge]

I have been told that my 3 yr old male Burm should be over 10' by now...well my argument is that if I wanted him to be this big then I could have power fed him..I feed him a large rat every 10 days and he is doing just fine (firm, muscular body etc.)...Besides has anyone ever tracked a burm in the "WILD" from birth to 3 yrs of age to REALLY know how fast they should grow...I doubt it....

[Jayson]

snakes in the wild surly have much diffrent feeding schedules then snakes in captivity. So in my opinion we should not compare wild snake growth to captive. Also wild snakes get more exercise,theyare exposed to outside eliments and a large range of parasites they only eat what they can catch which is probable not done on a ten day schedule. I know that burms will eat all the time if fed, I think the reason is that untill they hit that ten foot mark they are low on the food chain.
My personal opinion on the burms size is if all is good husbandry wise and the snake has good body weight and muscle tone then you dont have to worry about what the stats say.
The average hight of an adult man is around 6 ft, That dose not mean a man only 5ft is unhealthy or under fed. LOL

[Gareth]

i think 5 foot growth in 3 yrs is not a lot considering there 2 foot born approx but if he is healthy and your happy with him there's no problem. have u got any pics?

[Aaron_S]

Geez might aswell cut off all food supply. The snake would EASILY take down more then one large rat. Try it sometime...you might actually have a full snake instead of a hungry one.

[retic]

my burms are 4yrs 16ft and 9mths 8ft the young one gets 3 jumbos a week and he still wants more

[ReptiZone]

this just dose not sound right a burm has a high metabolisme for good reason to grow fatser and escape from being on the bottem of the food chain.

even on a ten day cycle from birth the burm would have hit the 7 foot marker at least in his secound year. I have seen burms on a 5 day cycle for 6 monts and then a 10 day cycle. they got males to 7 feet and femalesa bit over 10 feet in there first year. So it is next imposible if you feed every 10 days (excluding sheding time and the mised meal from time to time) for 3 years that your snake is only 7 feet.

I have a fried that baught a baby burm (lack of better judgment)
and when he relised just how big it was gona be he started feeding it only 2 mice every 14 days in a attempt to slow the growth period down and the darn thig is still growing like a weed,
and I am not talking the kinda weed you grow so you can somke it 3 monts from now I am talking about the weed you pull out of your lawn on monday and comes back on friday and brings a freind.

My 7 foot retic eats 3 large rats a week and will be up graded to 1 dwarf bunnies every 14 days next month.

[T.O-SK8TER]

Maybey this burm is the runt of the litter? Feeding once every ten days sounds a little underfed, I feed my 5 month burm 2 small rats once every 5 days and he is almost 5 feet. He could likely eat more but he doesn t need it. Soon he will be on medium rats. When he gets to a year then I will slow down on the snake chow!
Thats him in my avater, one month ago.

[Aaron_S]

Originally posted by T.O-SK8TER
He could likely eat more but he doesn t need it. Soon he will be on medium rats.

What makes you think he doesn't need it? At 5 feet I had my burm pounding back 2-3 large rats every 7 days.

I don't think you quite grasp the fact that burms aren't supposed to be slowed down for our sake....you should be feeding them what they are meant to take not what you think it needs.

[djc3674]

When he gets to a year then I will slow down on the snake chow!

T.O- why would you slow down on feeding your snake after its one year old? Did your mom slow down feeding you when you hit one??lol But seriously...that would be a big mistake. If your slowing down its feeding because you dont want your snake to grow that big ...than you should of bought one...especially a burm!!

I have had my Colombian boa for nearly 2 yrs...I got him at about 2ft and he is now 7ft with a nice girth. I feed him every 10 - 14 days depending on how big the rat was...normally I feed him big jumbos..but when the pet store doesnt have them...i will give him 2 large rats...and then I will feed him again in 7-10 days.

I know you cant compare a boa to a burm..but my boa is about 2 1/2 yrs old.....I would think a burm about the same age should definately be alot bigger than 7ft.

The point is..dont starve your snakes or feed it less than it can take. Thats just not right!! Especially this time of year..my bp will go off of feed soon...so right now I am fattening him up for his hibernation. I dont know if burms to the same..but by golly george...feed your burm atleast 2 large rats every 10 days.

[Invictus]

My 4' BCI takes a jumbo rat. A 7' burm SHOULD be fed at least 3 jumbos, maybe more. You are underfeeding your snake, schugeorge. Up those prey items or you're going to find yourself with a miserable, short-lived snake.

[T.O-SK8TER]

Hey djc3674, I never said I don t want a big snake, so please don't try to make me look like some idiot ight. Another thing I feed my snake this much in the first year cause thats when they grow the most so it is nessesary! You think I am going to feed a 12 foot snake a large rabbit every 5 days. haha I don't think so that burm would be obbesse. Right now I am feeding him smaller prey items more often is there anything wrong with this Aaron? There is no way he could get a large rat down and are you saying I have no idea what is appropriate to feed my burm?

[Aaron_S]

Yes there is a problem. You should be feeding it 2 medium rats every 5 days and then it will be fine. You would be surprised at what a burm can keep down. They can take large prey items...they are meant to.

[T.O-SK8TER]

Aaron my snake is not 5 feet though he is only 4 foot 8". I am putting him on mediums after 2 more feedings. ( all my small rats will be gone )

[Aaron_S]

WOW! A whole 4" short of 5 feet. Why don't you give the snake 3 small rats or even go with the two rats and feed him at a 3 day interval to get rid of them.

[ReptiZone]

Aaron Man some ppl just refuse to belive that a Baby burm does not have a stomac they have a botemles pit in there first year.

I also reduce the amount of times I feed my burm after the first year but they still get the same weight every month.

in other words if she eats 4 1lbs jumbo rats a month (one a week)

well then I will give her 2 2 lbs bunies a month 1 every 2 weeks she still gets her 4 lbs of food and the transition is made.
Now you can start it off like that then the you can up grade and feed 1 2 lbs bunny every week instead of every 2 weeks you see you gradualy work your way up.

You just need to visualise a bit if you can see that the snake will pass the rabit and that there will a bit of a buldge that is a good thing. this is one of the bigest pythons in the world feed it like one.
think of it for a min if a Baby Ball python can pack a adult mice as a first meal and a BABY burm can pack down a 21 day old rat and some times a bit biger. what is taking so long to get them on med rats and jumbos
man My old burm was packing down guiny pigs at 9 monts of age and was still a scrony little $#!T.

Don't start to tell me this can not be done cause I did it and I was just starting to learn about large snakes.

A Baby Burm NEEDS lots of heat and lots of food you can not be afraid to feed the littel guys as long as they are snaping it off the forcepts then keep feeding them wether it be 3 days 5 days 7 days feed them till they choose to stop every siting for at leat a year then do it one last time and calcu;at how much the food waighed and start geting biger prey even if it look a bit to big a burm will amase the living H3LL out of you.

[T.O-SK8TER]

I did a little reading and I think I will feed him 4 small adult rats, and then his next feeding I will give him 2 small rats and one medium and untill he goes to larges, 2 mediums every four days. Should I increase his warm spot from 90 0F to 93-95? Does this sound better?

[ReptiZone]

yep now you are on the right track you will see it will be a compleatly nwe beast in 6 monts.

[Aaron_S]

Shouldn't you have read up on your snake BEFORE you got it? This is the whole point of researching before getting the animal...not just on how to house it but on how much they can eat.

[T.O-SK8TER]

Obviously, I read non stop about python's. There are just different theories on how much and how often they should be fed.

[RETICULATED]

You need to feed him more then 1 large rat every 10 days try 3 rat's every 10 days

James

[ReptiZone]

there is lot of crap out there that you need to be carfull about when it comes to burms it is realy a case by case thing.

Like the presnt female I have eats like mad but only eats one item per siting. I was curious to see what her patern would be so I fed her every secound day for one week just to see if it would work and it did I would never use that as a permanit thing but it just gos to show that all animals are diffrent. now she east every 3-4 days one item but I make sure that animal is biger then she is because I know she wont eat a secound one so she alwas has a good buldg I just got rid of all of her 21 day old rats and I am gona bust her up to the next size starting friday.

[T.O-SK8TER]

Im not the one feeding him 1 rat every ten days, I was feeding him 4 rats every 10 days.

[Jayson]

If you have to feed multiple rats per feed then why dont you start feeding rabbits? lets face it when the snake reaches 10-15 ft you surely are not going to feed it 10-15 jumbo rats every feeding are you ?

[T.O-SK8TER]

No I would not do that but I might give him 2 medium rabbits if I could not get large ones. The reason why I had to give him small rats was because of the blackout, the stores that I buy my rats from only had smalls because there was a shortage. Now I am stocked up for a month or so with mediums. I went to rodent pro and saw the pics of there mediums and they were the same size as my smalls and the mediums I have now are the same size as there larges so I guesse I was feeding him enough?