Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just bought my first burm and he will be arriving tomorrow.

just few questions. I will have him in a 40 gal cage an d its already set up with cypress and a hide. The basking spot is 89 with the cool spot hitting between 75-78 at night.

Are thse temps ok?
will he be able to hanlde a small rat right away or mice for the first few feedings?

thanks

I'm not a big fan of using tanks for the purpose of keeping snakes...when you have a chance, try to purchase a cage such as a neodesha, vision, Habitat Systems, Crescent Moon Creations just to name a few; these cages are designed to not only meet the needs of the snake, but they are also designed to be secure.

With that being said, I feel that your temps are a litte too cool. I would recommend keeping your cool end temps at 80-82 deg F 24 hours a day (or certainly no lower than 78 at any given time). Your basking area should be at around 90-94 deg F. so you are pretty close there (I tend to keep temps at these levels on a fairly constant basis with only a slight night drop). You may have to include a ceramic heating element that can be left on continuously, will increase ambient air temps and boost the basking site temps (that's just one of many options you have). I personally use Pro Product Radiant Heat Panels to heat all of my various herps (monitors, venomous snakes, burms, boas, crocs, just about everything).

Hope this helps. Rob Carmichael

yea, the cage is just temporary. I will buy a 6ftr from animal plastics asap. Ive read on some care sheets the temps that I have are fine, is there a reason you bump it up a little higher? or do they just need that? thanks

I recently got my first burm about a month ago and I'm keeping mine in a 30 gallon tank until i get my vision for xmas. I was just curious, how do you heat your cage? And if you use bulbs, what wattage are they. I use a 100 watt during the day at the right end of the cage. And a 75 watt at night on the right end of the cage. This keeps his basking spot at about 100 during the day and 92 at night (I think those might be a little high) And on the left end of the cage i have a heat tape under his hide rock. Normaly sitting over the heat tape, my burm would fry, but i put about 20 paper towel layers over it, and it keeps the temp there at about 85 degrees. She never seems to move from that hide spot EVER unless shedding. Its kinda weird.

Well I am use a red heat light for the heat source which runs 24/7 and keeps the ehat at 92 degrees. I then have a basic aquarium light set on a timer providing light form 7:00 in the morning to 7:00 at night. his cool side is any where between 76-82. at ngiht usually hits about 75-76 and he has a hide there. I have the heat source running on a thermostat so it never changes. if he gets cold at night he can always move to the hot side. He should be arriving in a few hrs.

Rob covered the temp question for you quite thoroughly but seemed to miss the feeding question. A juvenile Burm should have no problem taking rat pups or weanling rats. I would recommend starting off with rat pups that way you never have to switch from mice to rats. Hope this helps, Todd