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It sounds like to me that...........

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Posted by: JohnLokken at Wed Jul 2 07:53:20 2003   [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by JohnLokken ]  
   

She doesn need to be fed more.

It sounds to me like you are trying to keep her at a certain size. And, that this is why she is acting like she is. I understand people wanting to keep certain animals at a manageable size. With some snakes it works.......With others.........It does not. In my experience, trying to control a burms feeding schedule too much will bring about "problems" like this.

What you are describing to me is an animal that "needs" more food. You have it on a "diet" of sorts. This "diet" keeps her "healthy" and functional.......But, within her little pea brain her body is telling her she needs more! You really have to understand how/what these animals are. They have a instinctual need for certain things. Like your female burm for example. Females, as they start becomming sexually mature have a "need" to put on size and weight so they will be able to breed successfully. Wheither you want to breed her or not. This will be her instinctual drive. This doesn't mean that you have to feed her and make her obese. Or, try to have the largest burm known to man/woman. But, it does mean that when you restrict basic needs from an animal.....There will be consecquences. (ie. stalking you, striking at you)

Let me give you one more experience that I have had over the years. I keep boas now. (I will have a burm again when my kids get bigger) But, back some time ago I had a couple of retics, and burm, and boas. I also keep my animals on a "maintance diet" of sorts. Most, of my boas get fed every two weeks. When I had the retic and the burm......I fed them every week. (They were babies) Out of the three types of animals.....The one who I feel this really caused problems with was the burm. Boas are easy and mellow. No agression at all with mine. The retics did REALLY well I felt. They grew at a nice slow rate and I really feel that the weekly feeding tamed them down a bit. (They were both mellow. But, I feel that when some people feed their retics every 3-4 days they are more use to feeding than handling.) As I said, the burm was the more aggressive with this. I had to actaully modify his feeding schedule because of it.

So, to sum it up. I really think that burms are just not the animals to be restricting too much in the diet area. If they are......Then, these are the problems that will arise.

Another thing that could have caused this problem is this. (And, I am just assuming here) Most new burm owners want to quickly get their animals large very fast. Once the animals has reached the owners "desired" size the owner will begin restricting the animals caloric intake. To me this type of "program" really spells disaster. The reason why is this. The burms body is use to an abundance of calories/energy to grow....grow....grow. Then, once it has reached it's "size". They are put on a diet the equals caloric depletion. (ie starvation) This will stress the animal to no end. It's thoughts will become/lean twords a feeling of survival. A need for food. This really is the wrong way to go about things.

Now, if the animal was raised slowly....This type of behavior might not be as noticable due to the fact that the animal is use to the calories/energy that it has been given in the past.

Forgive the typos and such. It is early and I haven't drank all my coffee.
John
-----
"To be the best..........You must lose your mind."


   

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>> Next Message:  Sounds like enough.... - JDP, Wed Jul 2 07:58:04 2003
>> Next Message:  I agree with some of this,..and,if you want to break her of this behavior.. - BrianSmith, Wed Jul 2 15:18:31 2003
>> Next Message:  RE: It sounds like to me that........... - clove, Thu Jul 3 13:36:23 2003

<< Previous Message:  too aggressive! - clove, Tue Jul 1 19:39:13 2003