Burm refusing his dinner!

pipistrollers · 03-03-13, 02:08 PM

Thank you so much for your replies.

I have uploaded a couple of pics to show him and his viv. By the way, the skull isn't in the viv any longer! These pics were taken mid December.

Nothing has changed with his housing. His ambient temp is 84.7 and he also loves his heat mat which of course is under his spot bulb. His water is changed fresh daily. He has his hide plus a log and some jungle vine for climbing on and of course he as nice deep substrate. He is happy in himself, his usual placid friendly self, not snappy at all.

We are a bit concerned about his viv size which is being rectified in a couple of weeks. He is in a 4 x 2 x 2 and is going to be moving up to an 8 x 3 x 3

Do you think he could be wanting a lady? Bless him he's on a baby haha

Squirtle · 03-03-13, 02:34 PM

I think you should take out all the decorations out of his cage to give him more space, until you get the 8 foot cage. The 4 foot one is good for him right now, I keep mine that's about the same size but a year and 3 months older in a 5 x 2 comfortably, but I'll be giving him a bigger cage when he's bigger. Mine is off feed as well, since January.. Although I'm fairly certain that mines is refusing food because he wants to breed since he's two years old. I could say the same for yours if he's at least 18 months old, so as long as you remove the furnishings in his cage and keep his temps the same and don't change anything else, I wouldn't worry too much.

pipistrollers · 03-03-13, 02:44 PM

Hi and thanks for your reply

We can't take anything out of his viv. The basket is his hide which he needs and uses every day. His log is screwed in and he uses that every day along with his jungle vine. The only other thing in his viv is his water dish which obviously we can't take out. His cave isn't there now as he has his basket and his tunnel isn't there now either

Will see over the next little while what happen with his feeding - perhaps our son has become a man!!!

**Aaron_S** · 03-03-13, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squirtle

I think you should take out all the decorations out of his cage to give him more space, until you get the 8 foot cage. The 4 foot one is good for him right now, I keep mine that's about the same size but a year and 3 months older in a 5 x 2 comfortably, but I'll be giving him a bigger cage when he's bigger. Mine is off feed as well, since January.. Although I'm fairly certain that mines is refusing food because he wants to breed since he's two years old. I could say the same for yours if he's at least 18 months old, so as long as you remove the furnishings in his cage and keep his temps the same and don't change anything else, I wouldn't worry too much.

furnishings don't really matter. To him it's more ground to move over. It only looks like there's no space due to how we see things. To them, they don't care.

NBLADE · 03-03-13, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pipistrollers

Thank you so much for your replies.

I have uploaded a couple of pics to show him and his viv. By the way, the skull isn't in the viv any longer! These pics were taken mid December.

Nothing has changed with his housing. His ambient temp is 84.7 and he also loves his heat mat which of course is under his spot bulb. His water is changed fresh daily. He has his hide plus a log and some jungle vine for climbing on and of course he as nice deep substrate. He is happy in himself, his usual placid friendly self, not snappy at all.

We are a bit concerned about his viv size which is being rectified in a couple of weeks. He is in a 4 x 2 x 2 and is going to be moving up to an 8 x 3 x 3

Do you think he could be wanting a lady? Bless him he's on a baby haha

He looks like he could be a little chubby in the bottom picture, 2 big rats a week is quite a lot of food for a burm his size, i'd get him up to a decent sized single meal, so a small rabbit or guinea pig and feed him every 10 to 14 days. So could be that he has refused as he isn't hungry due to being fed that much.
I'd scrap the heat mat, at the size he is now they aren't ideal for heavy bodied snakes, a burm his size can cause heat pockets on the mat which get hotter than the rest of it and risk thermal burns, heating from above is best on larger snakes unless in a suitable rack system. So your spot light heating will be fine.

At 18 months old he is more than ready to breed, and it is the current season so i'd still say this is the most likely reason, but unless he starts losing weight drastically, then he will be able to go months with no issues, so nothing to worry about. I'd leave him a week then offer him something, if he doesn't take again, then change to offering every 2 weeks to avoid wastage.

pipistrollers · 03-03-13, 02:59 PM

Thank you so much

Squirtle · 03-03-13, 03:08 PM

To me, that branch seems useless and he could use the space. I can understand the basket and obviously the water bowl, but removing the branch would give him much more space. I honestly think that the reason he isn't eating is because he wants to breed, are you breeding him to a girl? What morph? If you are, congrats! Hope everything goes as you want it

pipistrollers · 03-03-13, 03:22 PM

Well we hadn't thought of breeding him at all.