Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Our 11 ft. burm has been slowly working his way up in prey size. Right now he's getting 2 or 3 large rabbits once a month. That barely keeps him happy. Its 3 days after feeding 'day' and you can tell. My rabbit supply I think is starting to run dry. There is a local lady that supplies all the local pet stores with feeders and I usually get my 'food' from her but for the last 3 months she hasnt had any rabbits over 4 lbs. A lot of people probably think I'm over feeding him and that he doesn't need that much food but he's still not up to a good wight for his length and certainly not as long as he should be for his age. I have recently figured out how to get pigs at a local aution at the beginning of the month.
I'd like to only have to get him one item b/c it takes him sooo long to eat it. (often takes around 45 min to find the head and not get distracted by any movement and finally eat the thing, then we have to do it again...)
Should i get him say a 10 lb pig and see how that goes?
How would you suggest I talk him into eating the pig?
--I'm going to wait until the beginning of july to feed him and skip the feeding we would normally have done a few days ago, so maybe hes a little more hungry and wont care what hes offered.- sound good?
Beth
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The rescue site: www.freewebs.com/okreptilerescue

I've had very good luck with pigs and now feed them to all of my larger snakes. Feel free to email me at dutchallison00@yahoo.com and I can help you out.

In my opinion and experience a 5lb meal is plenty for a burm that size. I don't see any benefit in feeding him a huge meal for his size, especially if he is underweight. Smaller meals on a regular schedule only makes sense. If you are seeing hyper activity from him only a couple days after feeding, I would say that is a sign of stress or a possible health problem that you are mistaking for hunger.

the first question I have is why are you only feeding your snake once a month? If you are saying he is underweight for his length he needs to be fed more often. My suggestion would be to feed one 3-5lb rabbit once a week until he get's up to the proper weight then worry about switching him to pigs. Now as far as pigs go, they are just as good as rabbits in my experience. I had a similar problem of having my bunny supplier start to run dry and was forced to find an alternative food source. Luckily I had a goat farm about 5 miles from my house and was able to pick up 5-20 lb goats for only $7.50 each which helped when I was feeding up to 10 large snakes a week. Hope this helps some, but I would definately start feeding more often and at the very least feed every 2 weeks, never once a month, unless it's eating like 40lb pigs.
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Josh Hutto
JKReptiles

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well, there was a few misunderstandings there. He's not 'hyper' a few days after he eats- hes 'hyper' a few days after feeding day- when he didn't get fed. We've not had much luck getting him to eat every 2 weeks, sometimes he does, most times he doesnt- it usually ends in having to dig a dead rabbit out of the cage. When we first got him, he was eating small meals every week for about a month, then we moved to slightly bigger meals every 2 weeks and now he refuses to eat every 2 weeks, thus the once a month thing. our vet said he's doing great and that shouldn't be a problem. We skipped his regular monthly feeding about a week ago and he's acting like hes starving to death now. I'm going to try a pig next weekend and see how that goes. With the rabbits we've been giving him, it just takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R for him to eat. He wraps up the first rabbit and stays wrapped for quite a while (maybe 15 min) and then he lets go and if ANYTHING moves ANYWHERE near him, he'll stop looking for the head for about 5 min. then he'll start looking again, then try to get it down leg first, change his mind, and look for the head some more, when he finally finds the head, its gone in about 3 min. BUT- thats only rabbit # 1- we have one or two more- thats why i'm trying to get him one big item, instead of 2 or 3 small, med ones.
Beth
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The rescue site: www.freewebs.com/okreptilerescue

from your post it sounds like he doesn't like rabbits very much. I'd offer him large rats and see how that goes. I've had adult males that only wanted rats, and would not take rabbits.