I probably shouldn't post what I do as any suggestion of what necessarily "should be done" when working with burms. I say this only because what I do is coupled with years of experience with reading the burms' body language. It is crucial to be able to do this when working up close and personal with burms. So for anyone that is not familiar with their body language I would suggest ignoring what I do and taking the advice from others concerning using snake hooks.
Now,... I personally do not use hooks,.. even though a own a few, they remain on the wall collecting dust. What I do begins at a young age as I mostly only acquire hatchling pythons to raise and grow with. I develop close relationships with them from early on. When they are little I touch and rub and hold them often. If they happen to be hissy I hold them more. When they throw fits I hold them longer until they are over the fit and learning that I am not a threat to them. The main part of this "tough love" technique is to teach them real young that by throwing a fit they do not get their way and "get away". It's really all just conditioning. If they learn they can make me go away by being pissy then they will do this repeatedly every time they don't want to be held. So I break this habit early. Other than this, I get them all used to a pat, a squeeze and a rub as I come through, whether it is to feed them or change their water, clean their cage or just to visit with them. I also always make it a point to make sure they smell me. I get them used to "ME" and my touch and my smell. They get to a point where they almost seem to like the physical contact and are even comforted by it. I frequently will see them wake with mild alarm as I open their cage, only to relax and lay back down as I rub and pat them. As they become big adults my pats and rubs become more hearty and firm. They're bigger and tougher, so they can handle it, and I want them to consider me as a large entity on their level. So I project strength and size to them via a firmer touch.
Now,.. regardless of this hands on familiarity, these are still relatively dumb animals and are still prone to sudden feeding responses triggered by movement. I'm sure everyone has seen this, but they will rush forward to inspect the moving thing, with a curl to their neck, ready to strike. This is always off the ground and up in the air. I back up just enough that my main body is slightly out of their range and I bring a hand up under their chin so as to allow them to smell "me". Once they smell "me" and know it's "me" any thoughts of feeding are forgotten. it's like, "oh,.. it's you,. well I'll go back in here now then." and they usually go back inside and lay back down. Now, sometimes they will see the movement of my hand I am bringing up for them to smell before I reach their tongue. When this happens I wave the other hand up high (and out of reach) in a slow circle and get their focus on that hand and once again bring my lower hand up to where their tongue can contact it. In my opinion, once contact with the tongue is made the majority of any danger from feeding mishaps is over. They're dumb, granted, but inteligent enough to know the difference between you and the food. But they won't usually do this visually. By smell is the only sure fire way to determine that it's "you". Fortunately unlike retics they *usually* smell first, even if briefly, and strike second. Retics are much more dangerous in my opinion because they are prone to strike suddenly and blindly at any movement. They don't usually identify first and are highly unpredictable. Burms usually will identify first and strike second. But always assume they will strike and be ready for it, because it does happen. I actually get bitten more from the burms simply because they are usually so predictable that when it does happen I'm not looking for it. I'm rarely tagged by the tics because I'm ALWAYS looking for it. Go figure, life abounds with ironies.
I hope this somehow helps.
>>Share them with us!
>>Here are ours. Just things that we thought MIGHT work, and were easy enough to implement for experimentation. One of the things we do, and I think it is working, to some extent, is that when we feed, we only put the prey in with the snake after we have turned the lights down. Now, this doesn't mean that we are opening the cage of a 15 foot burm in the complete dark, waiting for him to ambush us . We leave a low wattage bulb on in the background, and it gives us enough light to see where the burm is, and etc. I think it is working to the point that our Burms now get "excited" whenever we start to open the doors and the lights are "dark". Conversely, they are mellow when we open them with the lights on, and just want to come out to play (or just look at us, lol).
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>>Of course, during the typing of this, I realized that "training" them to this type of behavior could be a very bad thing if there was ever a power outage and we needed to get them out. But, you win some, you lose some! We will probably have to rethink this behavior :-S
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>>Does anyone else do anything like this?
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>>Marcy
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If 50% of one's enemies are still breathing,... it just means you're doing a half-assed job.
