Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Once again this forum (one of my few social activities since I quit drinking a year ago) has become rather dull. So I thought I would try to shake it up with a new topic. Post your best and worst burmese-related stories. I will start it off with mine:

Worst thing: When I was a kid in the late 70's I used to take my favorite female burmese everywhere with me, whether to the 7/11 to play Asteroids or to the rock quary to go fishing. She was the first burmese that I got when I was about 11. Her name was Burmuda. I loved that snake SO much it pains me to even think about this. Anyway,.. in the winter of 1978 I decided to let my little girl sleep with me. This was nothing out of the ordinary, I had done it many times. She was a pretty big girl by this time, at 2 1/2 years old she was right around 12 feet or so. As usual she went down around my feet. Well it was a cold night so I turned my electric blanket on high for her to keep her warm. What hurts the most is that I was trying to do what was right for her and it ended up killing her. When I woke up the next morning I immediately went to get my girl out and I found her dead. She had tried to get it, it looked, but the blanket had been tucked all around the bottom of the bed and she got trapped in the fold. I was devastated even though I didn't get right away what had caused her death. I was just a kid and not a lot was known back then and I didn't know that high temps caused snakes to die. When I figured it out some years later it pained me even more knowing that it was I that had killed her. There's no doubt in my mind that I would still have her with me today had that not happened. She would have been 27 years old this year.

The best thing: Last year I walked into my main snakeroom and found one of my female albino granites dead with a large rabbit stuck in her throat. I had just given it to her about 20 minutes before. Her body was twisted in a shape that could only be from attempting to throw the rabbit back up. I yelled and picked up her limp body and pulled the rabbit from her throat. I called to my wife to bring me a straw so I could breathe into her epiglotis or trachea opening. I located and tried to pump her heart with my thumb. The snake was limp and the heart was still. She was DEAD. My wife returned with a straw, but I couldn't fit it into the trachea. The hole had stiffened at a creased angle. So I shouted for her to get a syringe. When she got back with this I inserted the thin plastic end of the syringe into the trachea slit and blew hard. Her lungs filled with air and I pumped her heart. Nothing happened for over 5 minutes and I was getting distraught when I detected a slight movement in her lower body. She was beginning to move, but was not breathing on her own yet. After a few more minutes of breathing air into her her movements got a little stronger and I laid her down sideways in her cage. She lay this way unmoving, but her lungs were working and her heart was beating! I stayed with her for hours on end, making sure she kept breathing. Over that time her breathing became stronger and she finally rolled back mostly upright, but not quite. When I went to assist her she tried to strike, but her coordination was completely off and her head and neck mostly just wiggled weakly. I was never happier to see a snake trying to bite me, but I was terrified that she would be retarded for life due to a lack of oxygen to the brain for so long. She improved very very slowly over the course of the next few days, but she was not "normal" again for a few weeks. She wouldn't eat rabbits again and would actually run away from them when I offered them for several months. It was hell to have to feed her the equivelent in rats, but my snake was alive and that was all that mattered. Today she is a big normal girl in the cooling room with the rest of the adult pythons and boas set to breed this season. She does eat rabbits now, and has since about a year ago, a few months after the incident. After what happened I analyzed it and came to the conclusion based on the data that she had exhausted her saliva supply with the immense dense fur of the rabbit and she reached a point where she could not get it down any more and when she tried to throw it up it wouldn't budge due to lack of lubrication too. So once she began eating rabbits again, not only would I sit with her through the whole process, I always wet the rabbits first to aid her fur saturation process. And not taking any chances, after that I wet down ALL the girls' rabbits for them.

Well,. that's it for me. I look forward to hearing all of your interesting stories.
-----
Pebbles create ripples.
Ripples can become tidal waves.
Tidal waves sink ships.
The largest ships sink the fastest.
All Titanics are created equally.

The worst thing that happened to me was i had recieved a burm from a pet store. They rescued it from a land owner who found it in a wood box under some trash and plastic. The last people to live there left it there after they were evicted. Anyway i had her for a while a bred her to a male i had. She laid 51 eggs and one was a slug. I noticed she was not acting right like should did not
know what was going on. She would move around with her head upside down. I took her to the vet, he said she had a calcium deficency.He adminsitered a shot to her. I took her home and put her in a cage. I got up the next morning and she was dead.
Also i was unsure on how to incubate the eggs. So i ask a guy at another pet store how to do it. He was suppose to be the one to talk to about hatching eggs. Well i lost all but 3 eggs. But the best thing was to see the 3 that lived come out of the egg.So it was a bitter sweet moment.

>>Once again this forum (one of my few social activities since I quit drinking a year ago) has become rather dull. So I thought I would try to shake it up with a new topic. Post your best and worst burmese-related stories. I will start it off with mine:
>>
>>Worst thing: When I was a kid in the late 70's I used to take my favorite female burmese everywhere with me, whether to the 7/11 to play Asteroids or to the rock quary to go fishing. She was the first burmese that I got when I was about 11. Her name was Burmuda. I loved that snake SO much it pains me to even think about this. Anyway,.. in the winter of 1978 I decided to let my little girl sleep with me. This was nothing out of the ordinary, I had done it many times. She was a pretty big girl by this time, at 2 1/2 years old she was right around 12 feet or so. As usual she went down around my feet. Well it was a cold night so I turned my electric blanket on high for her to keep her warm. What hurts the most is that I was trying to do what was right for her and it ended up killing her. When I woke up the next morning I immediately went to get my girl out and I found her dead. She had tried to get it, it looked, but the blanket had been tucked all around the bottom of the bed and she got trapped in the fold. I was devastated even though I didn't get right away what had caused her death. I was just a kid and not a lot was known back then and I didn't know that high temps caused snakes to die. When I figured it out some years later it pained me even more knowing that it was I that had killed her. There's no doubt in my mind that I would still have her with me today had that not happened. She would have been 27 years old this year.
>>
>>The best thing: Last year I walked into my main snakeroom and found one of my female albino granites dead with a large rabbit stuck in her throat. I had just given it to her about 20 minutes before. Her body was twisted in a shape that could only be from attempting to throw the rabbit back up. I yelled and picked up her limp body and pulled the rabbit from her throat. I called to my wife to bring me a straw so I could breathe into her epiglotis or trachea opening. I located and tried to pump her heart with my thumb. The snake was limp and the heart was still. She was DEAD. My wife returned with a straw, but I couldn't fit it into the trachea. The hole had stiffened at a creased angle. So I shouted for her to get a syringe. When she got back with this I inserted the thin plastic end of the syringe into the trachea slit and blew hard. Her lungs filled with air and I pumped her heart. Nothing happened for over 5 minutes and I was getting distraught when I detected a slight movement in her lower body. She was beginning to move, but was not breathing on her own yet. After a few more minutes of breathing air into her her movements got a little stronger and I laid her down sideways in her cage. She lay this way unmoving, but her lungs were working and her heart was beating! I stayed with her for hours on end, making sure she kept breathing. Over that time her breathing became stronger and she finally rolled back mostly upright, but not quite. When I went to assist her she tried to strike, but her coordination was completely off and her head and neck mostly just wiggled weakly. I was never happier to see a snake trying to bite me, but I was terrified that she would be retarded for life due to a lack of oxygen to the brain for so long. She improved very very slowly over the course of the next few days, but she was not "normal" again for a few weeks. She wouldn't eat rabbits again and would actually run away from them when I offered them for several months. It was hell to have to feed her the equivelent in rats, but my snake was alive and that was all that mattered. Today she is a big normal girl in the cooling room with the rest of the adult pythons and boas set to breed this season. She does eat rabbits now, and has since about a year ago, a few months after the incident. After what happened I analyzed it and came to the conclusion based on the data that she had exhausted her saliva supply with the immense dense fur of the rabbit and she reached a point where she could not get it down any more and when she tried to throw it up it wouldn't budge due to lack of lubrication too. So once she began eating rabbits again, not only would I sit with her through the whole process, I always wet the rabbits first to aid her fur saturation process. And not taking any chances, after that I wet down ALL the girls' rabbits for them.
>>
>> Well,. that's it for me. I look forward to hearing all of your interesting stories.
>>-----
>>Pebbles create ripples.
>>Ripples can become tidal waves.
>>Tidal waves sink ships.
>>The largest ships sink the fastest.
>>All Titanics are created equally.
-----
Thomas Jones
aligatorhunter@earthlink.net
(252) 757-3879

My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend, I Sure Do Miss HIM!!!

Brian,

First off, congratulations on your year of sobriety. And, your stories are moving, to say the least.

I'd have to say that the worst thing to happen regarding my burmese is entirely my fault. My first burmese, I got when I was in my early teens. As it happend, I wasn't much differnet than most teens as far as learning about life - especially through the process of experimentation. Unfortunely, some of my experimentation led to an addiction, which in turn drained me of all money, time, and self respect. I lost so much in that time, including my burm - who was so friendly, calm, and playful - who I could not afford to keep, and who I was too 'distracted' to take care of. To this day I'm still ashamed of that and other things I had done at the time. I wish I still had him (that wish is one of many things that keeps me completely straight now) - he would have been 16 years old now (I hope he is somewhere, happy and healthy).

The best thing would have to be the labyrinth burmese I have now. I got him about three years ago - and I think I pamper him, maybe on account of my past bad experience. He's about nine feet now, healthy and tame as any snake I've ever met. It makes me happy to keep him happy - I like the reciprical nature of it all.

Thanks for reading,
- Mark

You can find a few pics of him in my gallery here...
My Kingsnake.com gallery

Hi Brian;
i dont own any burms ,,but would like to get a albino burm soon , ;i own 3 red tail boas ,1 gopher snake who is 13 years old ,and a carpet python,and a black throat monitor , ,i just wanted to say i enjoy reading you'r post's ,i learn a lot from you , and every one in the burm forum.
just wanted to say thanks
Mark

Thank you Mark. The best compliments are from people like you that say they enjoy my posts. It is really a good feeling to know that my words are not typed in vain. Because of this directly I will stick around for a bit longer.

>>Hi Brian;
>>i dont own any burms ,,but would like to get a albino burm soon , ;i own 3 red tail boas ,1 gopher snake who is 13 years old ,and a carpet python,and a black throat monitor , ,i just wanted to say i enjoy reading you'r post's ,i learn a lot from you , and every one in the burm forum.
>> just wanted to say thanks
>> Mark
-----
Pebbles create ripples.
Ripples can become tidal waves.
Tidal waves sink ships.
The largest ships sink the fastest.
All Titanics are created equally.

Now that is a loaded question and one, like you, that I could probably write a book about. Best thing? Hmmmmm...there are countless. The little cardboard box that was on the doorstep to our wildlife center with a note that said "take good care of me". It contained a hatchling albino burm that would grow to a 15' beautiful specimen affectionately named "Popcorn" and truly one of our most popular education animals. Perhaps my best memories involve the many rescues that we take in. Many come in absolutely horrid health and there is nothing more rewarding than nursing these animals back into beautiful animals and placing with warm, TLC homes...that's as good as it gets. Worst thing? When I see incompetent owners keep burms for the wrong reasons (showing off, machismo bs, etc.). My worst bite involved a stupid feeding error early on in my professional herp career....involved a 16' burm full of piss and vinegar; still have few battle wounds from that encounter.

Funniest moment with a burm?....Two years ago the police dept. received a 911 call from a woman who was taking care of her son's 14' burm while he was at college. Her instructions was to take a thawed rat by the tail and dangle it in front of the burm and then toss it at him. Well, she took the lid off of the tank and the snake, who hadn't been fed in two months, came darting out after her. Every time she moved, he came toward her. Eventually, he had her cornered and it was then that she called 911. I was escorted with the police and fire department (quite a production!) and we broke the door down and followed the screams. I was expecting to see a burm just kind of slithering around thinking she was just being dramatic...not so! This burm was in a classic sit and wait predator position using her coils to keep the woman from getting around. The lady still had the rat in her hand...what a sight! I approached her and simply slid the burm away from her and told her to "drop the rat!". Soon after, we had the snake bagged and took her to our place where she dined on a big rabbit. Another happy ending!

I am new to the burm keeping, however, I have been keeping reptiles and snakes for about half my life (23 now, 12 when I got my first iguana). Due to this, my worst experancec is not with a burm, but with an iguana.
I had herd rumor of a woman looking for a good home for her iguana, (i live in a relitivly small town so unwanted lizards are not that common) so I thought that I would try to track her down. When I finnaly did, she was more than willing to get rid of the lizard. I made arrangements to pick up the iguana (which she said was about two and a half feet) and want to her house. when I got there the iguana was about two and a half feet snout to vent, not total lenght. The size was not a prolem, as I was accomidated for a full grown iguana, however, she was not. The iguana was in a 65 gallon aquarium (3 feet long, 2 feet tall, 1.5 feet deep). To top it all off, the iguana was suffuring from MBD quite severly. I took him home, and put him in his new cage for the night. The next morning, I called my friend, who owns a pet store, and brought it to him right away. We put two exo-tera 8.0 bulbs on him, make calcium and B5 solutions for oral consumtion and for his eyes and tried to get him to eat some dandielions. All our work was sadly in vien, he passed away sometime that night.
On a better note, the best thing is getting into burms in the first place. Owning a large snake has been in my mind for most of my herping years, and I seriosly started considering it for about a year and a half (with many visits to this forum) before I bought my snake. The burm shows a level of curiosity and intelegince that I have not seen in to many other snakes. I has already been a huge learning curve and I look forward to many many years with him.

Thanks,
Shane

My mother had a student of hers ask that since she had so many other animals if she would take their Iguana because their father said he was going to take it out back and shoot it!! the day that they brought it she didint know how big it would be .. it was about 4-5 ft and in the same size home made cage as you said about 3'X2'X1.5' or less even made out of pressurized wood and cicken wire. She asked them if it was its carry case. No it was its living space all the time and for the past year or more it hadnt been out of it because it was starting to get mean and whipped its tail a lot. The iguana its self was a dark brown and had little muscle tone at all. It had been on iguana pelleted food and water.

My mom called my grandfather and they made another cage that is 4ft wide X8ft long X6 ft tall .. their is a door on the one side and it brakes apart in the middle so she can transport it back and forth from school. So that during the summer she can bring the iguana home to feed it. Now the iguana is a bright eyed and a good green color. Eating fresh greens and veggie salads and getting proper suppliments .

Its great when you help an animal out it makes you feel good inside.

That's awesome that your mom's iguana pulled through.

Take care,

Shane

I'd have to say the worst thing that ever happend to me.
Is one day while cleaning the snake cages , in the snake room. There cages are stacked 3 high and spaced about 3 feet.
I had all three cages in one stack open on one side to R & R the papers. I dont know why i opened all three on one side at the same time. Was just in a hurry i guess. Well , the bottom burm decided that my foot Smelled like food enough to grab hold of me , right above my shoe in my ankle. I reached down and grabed him to try to keep him from makin to much of a wrap around my leg. When it looked like i'd have to get him off while siting down, I stood back up to close the rest of the cages , i closed the middle one , and as i looked up The burm in the top cage decided my head smelled enough like food , and when i stood up , it excited And she got me right on the cheek , mouth and lips , and started wrapin my head.
The wraping i wasnt to worried about , both were only 10 - 12 Foot. they were managable still by myself. I made sure i turned my head and kept a hand over my throat while i walked over to the step to sit down. The pain was horrable though. The female that got me in the face was riping her teeth back through my skin when i walked and she moved. By the time i got sat down on the step , i had the female half way unwraped. My wife came in to see what i was yellin about and helped me get them back in there cages. I was just having a blond day that day i guess. But it was still scarry.
Best thing that happend with or because of a burm ?
That would have to be the first day i was asked to come back to my own grade school that i went to as a child , to do a reptile program for the kids in the gym. it was the coolest thing i'd ever done. and have done a few since around town at schools up to Jr. high.
And , That for the first time. I'm Breedin some !
My Albino and my het for labby were locked up more than once in the last few days. So , Yeah man ! That's realy exciting. I'm gona be a daddy , Hehehe.
Um ,, that's about it.
if i sound like i'm rambling , Well ,, i just took my pain Pills.
Oh yeah , brian , Congrats on Not fallin off the waggon.
I stoped smoking almost 4 weeks ago , havent picked one back up yet. Wooo !
That's about it. I'm gona go lay back down.
-----
Seth Mason.
Do lesbian frogs think they taste like chicken too ?

Hey bro,

Wow, someone else that got tagged in the face. We have something in common to talk about. There is just nothing like it, huh? Mine happened almost identically, only my girl wasn't caged. She was a girl that was very spoiled and I always let roam free in the snake room. (she was my second "Bermuda" that replaced the first one I spoke of in this thread). She was on top of a cage stack. She was a 13 foot 8 inch 2 year old female burmese. This happened back in the mid 80's, I really don't remember what year, but I think it was 85-86 based on what girlfriend I had at that time. Anyway, my cage stacks were 8 feet high because everything I built back then was 2 feet each and I'd stack them 4 high (these days I build 18 inches high). So what happened was,.. I was going around the snake room with a wheelbarrow full of dead chickens, throwing a couple in each python cage. When I reached the stack that Bermuda-2 was on I had no idea that she was up there. I stooped and threw some chickens into the lowest most cage and as I was straightening back up I looked up. I never saw it coming. She got me right on the mouth. It was like being punched by hulk hogan. My head and body was slammed first backward and then she pullled me back forward and up to coil on my head and shoulders. It all happened in a second or two, but before I could really put it all together I was on my tippy-toes being constricted by my pet burmese. I wasn't afraid, and I didn't panic. At this point in my (carreer?) I had been bitten and wrapped so many times that I knew if I was still she would release me soon. My only real concern was that I couldn't breathe. Not because of the constriction, but because my lips were in her throat. She had my lower face at a 45 degree angle, with her upper jaws over my upper lip and across my left cheek, and her lower jaws under my chin and right lower jaw. The result was that my lips were in her throat. Her body covered my nose, so that was out. My girlfriend was about 6 feet outside of the snakeroom door watching tv in the living room. I couldn't call out for help. This may sound stupid, but my first thought as this happened was, "Cool! I finally got bit in the face!" or something like that. (When I was younger I was very obsessed with danger and death) So anyway,.. she held me way up high for what felt like an eternity but what was more likely 40 or 50 seconds, and then began to relax her coils. I waited until she got to the point where she released me on her own before I did anything. The release is really the most painful part of the bite. Her head twitched and the long teeth were pulled free and this is when the blood began to GUSH. I got her off of me and made my way to the door with my hands cupped to catch the blood (we had nice carpet). When I opened the door my girlfriend went berserk. She began ushering me to the sink to wash it off to see the damage. I was like, "F that,. get the camera, take some pictures" Of course it came out more like, "Huc sat,. geh da cahera" lol. So she took some pictures and we washed it off. I must say, i was kind of disappointed with the lack of damage ( I was into cool scars). It was very few tears and hundreds of pinpoint puntures. My gums were cut up pretty bad from where her teeth went through my cheek and raked them up. One cool thing was when I filled my mouth with air pressure red bubbles would come out my cheeks and throat through the many holes. When we were done playing with the wounds I went back and gave Burmuda her chickens. There were no hard feelings.

Thanks for the congrats on my sobriety. But it isn't an "on the wagon" thing. It's gone for good. It's a forever thing. It's really nothing, even though I was a full blown alchie. It was just something I had to do in the name of "professionalism". And I'm not just talking about being a reptile breeder or snake peddling businessman. But everything else in life that requires disipline and professionalism. I have been many things in my life other than a reptile breeder. Even though I have never had a job. The booze was beginning to make me careless and undisciplined and I couldn't have that and so it had to go. An easy choice.

I quit smoking a little over a year ago too, but it's hardly the same. That was a long overdue choice based on health and just the simple fact that the act of smoking is stupid and how can I respect myself if I do something that I know is stupid. You know?

Sorry for the long boring post. Great stories on your part man. I must say, I have yet to be tagged and held by two giants. Maybe one day.

>>I'd have to say the worst thing that ever happend to me.
>>Is one day while cleaning the snake cages , in the snake room. There cages are stacked 3 high and spaced about 3 feet.
>>I had all three cages in one stack open on one side to R & R the papers. I dont know why i opened all three on one side at the same time. Was just in a hurry i guess. Well , the bottom burm decided that my foot Smelled like food enough to grab hold of me , right above my shoe in my ankle. I reached down and grabed him to try to keep him from makin to much of a wrap around my leg. When it looked like i'd have to get him off while siting down, I stood back up to close the rest of the cages , i closed the middle one , and as i looked up The burm in the top cage decided my head smelled enough like food , and when i stood up , it excited And she got me right on the cheek , mouth and lips , and started wrapin my head.
>>The wraping i wasnt to worried about , both were only 10 - 12 Foot. they were managable still by myself. I made sure i turned my head and kept a hand over my throat while i walked over to the step to sit down. The pain was horrable though. The female that got me in the face was riping her teeth back through my skin when i walked and she moved. By the time i got sat down on the step , i had the female half way unwraped. My wife came in to see what i was yellin about and helped me get them back in there cages. I was just having a blond day that day i guess. But it was still scarry.
>>Best thing that happend with or because of a burm ?
>>That would have to be the first day i was asked to come back to my own grade school that i went to as a child , to do a reptile program for the kids in the gym. it was the coolest thing i'd ever done. and have done a few since around town at schools up to Jr. high.
>>And , That for the first time. I'm Breedin some !
>>My Albino and my het for labby were locked up more than once in the last few days. So , Yeah man ! That's realy exciting. I'm gona be a daddy , Hehehe.
>>Um ,, that's about it.
>>if i sound like i'm rambling , Well ,, i just took my pain Pills.
>>Oh yeah , brian , Congrats on Not fallin off the waggon.
>>I stoped smoking almost 4 weeks ago , havent picked one back up yet. Wooo !
>>That's about it. I'm gona go lay back down.
>>-----
>>Seth Mason.
>>Do lesbian frogs think they taste like chicken too ?
-----
Pebbles create ripples.
Ripples can become tidal waves.
Tidal waves sink ships.
The largest ships sink the fastest.
All Titanics are created equally.