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On the average how big do male's get without powerfeeding thanks guys

A "typical" adult male will probably be in the 10-13' range, HOWEVER, there are always exceptions and I have personally seen a HUGE 16' male burm (and that snake was on a maintenance diet).

10-13 feet sounds like a 4-7 year old snake. Remember they keep growing as long as they live. A buddy of mine had a 15 year old breeder male that was 250 pounds in weight. I can't swear to length, but the owner said 20 feet.

Paul Hollander

Rob's estimate sounds to me about as acurate as one can get given the nature of the subject. I have been keeping burmese and numerous other reptile species for over 25 years and have rarely seen males over 13 feet. While your estimation of 4 to 7 years sounds pretty acurate for a 10 to 13 foot male burmese, their growth DRASTICALLY slows after reaching these lengths. So even if a 13 foot, 7 year old male kept growing an inch a year for the next 13 to 15 years it may only be as much as an additional foot and a half. And I personally don't subscribe to the common belief that all pythons grow until they die. I have had burmese that reached a certain length and never grew another inch for over a decade. One female in particular reached 13' 4" by her 4th year of life and I was feeding her a LOT in an attempt to make her very large. She seemed to have the potential for great size. But she remained 13' 4" for the next 10 years before she died of a respitory infection. She greatly increased in her overall weight and sheer bulk size. But no length. I was distraught. I had 2 year olds passing her up. So I theorized that there may be a genetically pre-determined length that they can grow to. And whether they get there quickly or get there slowly, it makes no difference, it's just what they are genetically programmed to grow to. That particular female burm grew very rapidly to her point and then stopped. To this day this genetic pre-determined length theory is the only thing that makes any logical sense. What else would explain it, short of her developing a cancer in her growth glands? And while I have not performed detailed studies and experiments I have seen something similar in a lot of males either owned by myself, or people that I know. Case in point, a close friend of mine with a 14 year old, 13 foot male albino burm. He's been about 13 feet and maybe 80 pounds for many years. Year by year he never looks or feels any bigger. So I feel it is safe to say that he's either not growing, or it is such an incredibly low rate of growth that it is not discernible or detectable. So I think it's also safe to say that every male burmese in captivity is not guaranteed to eventually reach 20 feet and 250 pounds by their 25th birthday. It just isn't even close to sounding realistic. Not trying to ruffle any feathers or start any flame wars, but this is just how I see it.

>>10-13 feet sounds like a 4-7 year old snake. Remember they keep growing as long as they live. A buddy of mine had a 15 year old breeder male that was 250 pounds in weight. I can't swear to length, but the owner said 20 feet.
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>>Paul Hollander
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"If I had 365 enemies it would only take a year out of my life to settle all scores." Mia Miselfani

Brian I completely agree with you on this. I have stated several times on other threads about this exact thing. A while ago someone posted that they were not going feed there burm a lot so it would stunt there growth. I told them that I completely disagreed with the methodology. I explained the genetic thing precisly the same way. Why shouldn't genetics play an important aspect into how large a snake will become. It applies to humans or else everyone would be 7' tall basketball players, so why wouldn't it apply to snakes. I totally believe that a snake is genetically programmed and once they reached their max then that is it. It is only logical. Todd

I completely agree that genetics is a major factor in how big a snake can grow.

Paul Hollander