Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well my midwest tongs hook just broke on my 10ft burm yesterday and she promptly tagged me after dropping to the floor, so I was wondering what hooks you experienced burm keepers use? I thought midwest was the best, but mine is laying in two pieces and my burm still has a lot of weight to gain. Any advice?

This seems like common sense but why on earth are you using a snake hook to lift a 10' burm? Don't blame Midwest; they have the strongest hooks on the market. I only use hooks for big burms for the simple purpose of keeping their head turned away from me while I am taking a large burm out of its enclosure (I also have some homemade shields to use as well). Once burms reach 8' or more hooks become difficult to use in terms of lifting a burm. Unless the burm is highly aggressive (in which case, the use of a shift box or divider becomes crucial in cage design), most burms do not need to be lifted with a snake hook; in fact, even aggressive burms shouldn't be lifted with a hook. Instead, the use of some sort of shield is far better. All you want to to is to be able to shield the head when you first open the cage door as the snake could be expecting food. Once you have the snake out of its cage and it knows that food is not coming, most burms will settle down right away.

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center
Lake Forest, IL

>>Well my midwest tongs hook just broke on my 10ft burm yesterday and she promptly tagged me after dropping to the floor, so I was wondering what hooks you experienced burm keepers use? I thought midwest was the best, but mine is laying in two pieces and my burm still has a lot of weight to gain. Any advice?
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

Are you talking about one of the big python hooks or a regular hook? If the python hook, then yeah, I'm surprised it broke with a 10 foot burm, but otherwise I agree with Rob...hooks are for getting a burm's attention so you don't surprise him and redirecting him if he's being unruly, not for lifting him.

HELLO
Cuold you show me a picture oif this hook for phyton?. How expensive is ones of this hooks?
GOD BYE

"This seems like common sense but why on earth are you using a snake hook to lift a 10' burm? Don't blame Midwest; they have the strongest hooks on the market."

I'm not posting on here to rip on midwest. I know they are a quality product
Yes its the flat python hook, that I was told by more than one person was the strongest made and was easily good enough for my semi-adult/adult burms. And no I was not trying to do preacher curls with my snake, I was supporting about half its body and it snapped. I was just curious if there were other options out there cause all I ever hear about is midwest, and maybe there is alternatives. I may have to try the golf club idea since I have some beaters in the garage

I agree with the other post that says using hooks to lift a snake that big may not be the best thing to do.

I have never used store-bought snake hooks, but rather, I make my own from old golf clubs that I pick up from yard sales/thrift stores. Cut the head off with a hacksaw and use a propane torch to soften and bend the metal and then file or grind the sharp edges for safety. Then you can fashion it specifically for the body of your snake. For the size of your snake, I would just use it to gently guide the snake rather than lifting it.