Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I adopted a burmese today that is in pretty bad condition.
I'm not sure of the sex (waiting until its in better condition before having it probed).

It is almost two years old, but only barely 4 feet long. The owner said that they were feeding it a mouse a month to keep it from "growing too fast". Pixil, my burmese baby, is only about 6 months old and already a little larger than this new one. You can see its backbone clearly.

It's shedding (going to be a rough one I can tell). I put it in the bathtub for a soak, because it is very dehydrated. It pooped in the bathtub, but only a poo the size of a quarter, and when i picked it up with a paper towel I noticed that it was as hard as a rock.

I treated it for mites.

It has a wound on its face, which I am assuming is a prey defensive attack wound, because the owner fed it live prey when he decided to feed it. I don't understand that, because it took frozen/thawed perfectly, so there is no excuse for feeding live.

The owner was keeping it in a ten gallon aquarium.

I have him in a 55 gallon quarentine tank for now (my father is building me a double-cage (huge cage with a divider) for my upcoming birthday).
He was VERY aggressive while in cage, but calmed down considerably after being fed. He loved the bathtub soaking.

I just don't understand it... why get a burmese if you don't want it to grow large?

To the experienced: What are your favorite methods for treating prey bite wounds?

Here is a picture of this snake. It doesn't do a great job of showing how thin it really is, but it's the best my camera can do.

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~Sara~
4 Leopard Geckos
3 ball pythons
1.0 Black-lined plated lizard (Lizzy Butt)
0.1 Burmese Python (Pixil)
7 Rats
1.1 Gerbils
1.1 Dogs (Ozzie and Mandy)
0.1 Cat (Isis)
0.0.1 Synodontis Catfish (Big Spotty Fish)
0.1 Convict Cichlid
0.0.1 blood parrot cichlid
0.0.1 African Featherfin Catfish

i would like to get into rescues, how did yall go about getting into it

It's not a super common thing that I do.
I happened to post an ad for selling a ball python, and someone who replied mentioned a burm that they wanted to get rid of. I don't have any ball pythons left, so I didn't have to lie about that, but I mentioned that I was interested in the burm.
It was really a "luck" kind of thing (lucky for the snake, that's for sure!)

I've rescued other critters in the past, but all of them were chance findings like the burm. I don't have a setup specifically for rescuing creatures.

Sorry that I couldn't be of more help. Good luck with starting a rescue if you decide to go through with it
-Sara

As for treating the wound- iodine swab sticks- LOVE THEM. then some neosporine.- keep it out of the nostrils and such.

as for rescue..... I started a little bit when i worked at a pet store- people would bring stuff in and say 'i dont want this' or we'd get there to open in the morning and there would be a box at the door- i took them home...
then several years ago, i started going to the herp club meetings at the zoo... and they would sometimes have a list of ppl that had called the zoo to get rid of stuff- i'd take the things i wanted.
Then I met Zeus... it was this time of the year- oct/nov. at the OUTSIDE flea market. dude had some 20 snakes/lizards/etc outside- no heat. zeus was a 12 ft skinny burm- i stepped on him. he was laying on the ground so cold he couldnt even move. he was blowing bubbles the size of my fist out his nostrils from a URI> I picked up the burm and walked of--- quickly. dude called the police and after about 3 hours and several animal control officers. I got a ticket for attempted robbery- he got fined with some 20 animal abuse charges and i left with all 20 of the dudes animals.... wtf was i going to do with them all?
blah blah blah...
word spread around slowly by word of mouth that i'd take in some animals if i could, take them to the vet and pay the bill... then my vet started calling a lot- got 2 boxes for yha... got an iguana with a 400$ bill- owners cant pay- come get it.... blah blah blah... word spread some more... then i figured what the hell... at the rate i was going i had about 4 animals a month in and out.
4 years later and we're averaging 4-8 in a week and 3-6 out. some weeks i have more in, some weeks more out... I quit my job 2 years ago just to manage the average of 30 rescue animals at a time, plus my some 15 personal animals. emails(about 15 a day), phone calls (about 3,000 min a month), advertizing, application processing (calling vets, and refrences, etc) cleaning cages, soaking, record keeping, blah blah blah...
I have hard applications and dont care how long it takes to find them a home. I've had some snakes here for over a year... have had an iguana here for almost 8 months.
I finally broke down and got some buisness cards made up about 2 years ago.... occasionally i'll put an ad in the paper... i've recently started looking into getting a table at a reptile show... I do have an adoption fee for our animals- it ranged from 30-100$... and i have never only asked 100 $ once- for a tame adult female chondro. iguanas are 30. reds are 40-75 depending, BPs are 40, beardies are 30, torts/turts are 30.... the adoption fees will get us through a week usually- helps a lot more than you would think- but doesnt come close to breaking even...
just bear in mind the cost of rescue. how healthy are your personal pets? probably quite healthy- how much is an average vet trip for you if you need to go?.... take one vet trip and multiply that by... we'll say 5- our average trip is about 200... depending.... thats 1,000 a month at the vet- which is about average. i dont get a discount.... now food... again no discount.... i dont even know how much we spend... at tax return season- i order about 900$ from rodentpro... through the year i buy crickets, worms, rabbits... stuff like that.... i dont keep track... then theres uva/uvb lights (yikes), heat lights, replacement heat pads, other medical supplies- iodine, neosporine... swab sticks, tongue depressors (for opening mouths). needless to say- i'm so damn tired of paying the bills i'm putting myself through vetrinary school.....

ugh.
rescue is a beautiful, wonderful thing... but don't get overwhelmed. mine has gone from 1-2 in 6 months to 4-8 in a WEEK. its a lot of work- quarantines, cleanings, feedings, medications, and then people.... its a lot of money as well... I have converted my garage and 2 rooms in my house to keep reptiles in.... and i have my personal animals scattered through the house- living room, bedrooms, bathroom even, theres beardies on my desk now.... they're everywhere.

hope that gave you some insight on rescue.... I have seen many people dive head first into rescue only to get a slap in the face. there are many ppl here that dont like me- and thats fine. rescue is a harsh world.... good luck
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The rescue site: www.freewebs.com/okreptilerescue