Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has anyone dealing with the dwarf burms have any information on average size for adult (3 plus years) half burms. I am thinking of getting a pair or trio in theh near future and was just wondering what size they are obtaining. I have seen many pics of adult true dwarfs as well as many half dwarf babies but not any of half dwarf adults. Thank you in advance for any responses, Todd

Todd,
I believe they're basically too new to determine average adult lengths, yet. However, I could be wrong, as usual. Randy (ArtInScales) should be able to give you a guesstimate, at least. If he doesn't reply soon find one of his posts below & click on his username to contact him. He's the only one I can think of at the moment that knows much about dwarf & 1/2 dwarf Burmese pythons.

Catch ya later!
Mike
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

Our half dwarfs are only 2 years old and about 6 feet long. We think they will be comparable to the size of boas, males about 8 feet and females about 10 feet. There have only been 3 clutches of half dwarfs to my knowledge. The oldest clutch was 2005, they reproduced last year, the male was about 6 feet and the females were about 8 feet.
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Randy and Michelle
Art In Scales
(719) 439-4199
info@artinscales.com

Thanks for the information. It is pretty good to hear. I know a "well fed" 2 year old burm can easily be over 12' so hearing that they seem to be staying under or around the 10" mark is good. Is there a big difference in the size of their clutches? Sorry so many questions and once again thanks in advance for your replies. Todd

I'm not sure about the size of the clutch in half dwarfs, I'm sure it will be a lot smaller clutch than a 15 foot burm.

Our dwarf female is gravid right now. When we ultrasounded her she should have 9 good eggs and 2 duds. I can't wait to see what see actually has, this is a dwarf to dwarf clutch due to lay at the end of the month.
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Randy and Michelle
Art In Scales
(719) 439-4199
info@artinscales.com

Todd-
There have been 4 half dwarf clutched produced. Only one was from a Half Dwarf to another Half Dwarf. The latter clutch produced visible greens and albino Half Dwarves. The other 3 were from a Dwarf male to a normal sized female that produced hets or double hets. Currently, I have 10 Half Dwarves from 3 different clutches that have been produced. The oldest are the ones that I got from Randy and Michelle - they are 2 years old now and are about 6'-7' long...but significantly smaller in girth than a traditional burm - and I feed a couple of them more than I should because I want to see if these things really will get big. After heavy feeding - I am convinced that they'll never reach anywhere near the sizes of full sized burms and like Randy or Michelle says - probably max out about 8'...maybe 9'. They are still eating large rats and should be able to stay on jumbo rats for their whole lives.

Right now, I have 21 adult normal sized burms and 10 Half Dwarves...my goal (over time) is to convert my entire collection into Half Dwarves. They are smaller, easier to manage, seem to be more active and with the size difference and more activity, they stay healthier because they are more mobile, can stretch out and move more air through their lungs than the larger ones that we keep in captivity.

I have bred a dwarf male to an 18 month old full sized female and expect eggs at the end of the month. But...the Half Dwarf X Half Dwarf breeding (only 1) happened when both naimals were 2 1/2 years. I tried this year to get my 18 month old half dwrves to produce - lots of activity and they locked up several times but no ovaulations and consequently, no eggs. This year, there should be some clutches of Half Dwarves available and next year, there should be more visible Half Dwarves...green, albino and granite.

I think that Half Dwarves are awesome and are a great alternative to someone who has a passion for burms and wants to be able to keep more of them but has been limited by space, or for someone that just wants a more manageable burm in the long run.

Good luck with all your projects-

Tom

Hey Tom, glad to hear the half dwarfs are doing good for you. I'm sorry I forgot about the half dwarf to half dwarf breeding, I was just thinking of the dwarf to full size breedings.

We also had several lockups with our half dwarfs, but no follicular growth or ovulations. It seems that female dwarfs need to be about 3 1/2 years old and female half dwarfs need to be 2 1/2 years old to reproduce.

What morph(s) did you breed your male dwarf to this year?
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Randy and Michelle
Art In Scales
(719) 439-4199
info@artinscales.com

I just bred him to 2 albino females. One is gravid...one is not. The ones I got from you are absolutley wonderful animals. I also have visible greens and visible albinos that are half dwarves. They are chow hounds but slow growing. It's nice!

I seriously doubt if the visibles will be ready this upcoming season though and I am perfectly ok with that. Until I have a reason to believe otherwise, I think 2 1/2 is the minimum age for these guys to reproduce.

Although...that also means that the half dwarves that came from S. Carolina might take another year to reproduce also.