Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok well i got the burm 2 days ago finally its albino and it is 17" long. they assured me its a boy by probing.i out it in the 55 gallon tank. the hot side reads 92 and cool side 80. at night it read on hot side 82 and cool side 75. is that ok i leave the lite on 14 hours a day n 10 hours dark. there are 2 hides and a brach water bowl in themiddle. is allt his ok. im going to feed him by tal=king him out of the cage puttin him in a box wait 20 minutes and f=dangle a weanling mouse in front of him in 3 days,,is all this ok thanks for every1s help..i figured he can live there til 4 or 5 feet by then i can save up to buy the 800 dollar vison nedoesha cage how long will it take for him to get that big thanks , also people need to stop judging me by my age i do have abusy life n go out alot but i luv snakes i want to b a herptaologist n i will deticate my life to it..please respond
mike

First off I would like to say that I do not judge people by their age but by their ability and by their knowledge. Now me not knowing you personally all I have to go off of is your posts here. What I have seen shows me that you are not ready to own a large constrictor. You advised a fellow herper to pin the head of a snappy burm to help teach it to be more docile. That is totally assinine. You are creating a stressfull environment and putting your snake in danger every time you do this. Secondly, if you want to present yourself as an educated young adult then you should strive to make your posts read like that. Stop using the IM abbreviations and crap. I find it extremly difficult to read most of your posts due to the abbreviations and all the typos. I understand everyone makes typos but your posts are riddled with them. Take the time to type a post legibly and people will view you with atleast a little more respect than what they do now.
Since you would not take the advice of everyone on here and you went and got the snake anyway, I will continue to advise you and try to answer any questions that you have. Your day time temps seem fine to me, however your night time lows are an the border line of what many say is dangerous. I would try to raise them up a few degrees to about 77 or 78 degrees. The "furniture" in the cage seems fine however you will probably want to remove it once the burm gets bigger because he will more than likely jsut destroy any asceticly pleasing display you make. He will rearrange stuff and knock stuff over so it really becomes more of a nuesance than it is worth. If you feed your burm a maintenance diet of one appropriately sized prey item once every 5-7 days he should be at about five feet around a year mark. If you feed more than he will grow faster. Try to get it on F/T as soon as possible. If you do it while they are young then it is much easier then trying to get an adult to switch over. Also I highly discourage feeding outside of the enclosure. If you have been following this forum for any amount of time than you will realize that most of the experienced herpers will agree that it is much safer and less stressfull on the animal to feed it in the cage.
Lastly, you have stated several times that you are getting a male and it won't get that big. That shows me, and everyone else that you have no true respect for the power and the potential danger these animals have. Most males do tend to stay smaller and lighter, however there are the exceptions. I have seen male burms at 16 feet. And regardless of whether or not your snake turns out to be a giant male or not, do not ever under estimate the power of a burm. An eight foot male has the power to overwhelm an adult human. Remember that the next time you say, "oh it is just a male, it won't get that big." Todd

thanks todd u gave me alot of helpful information. also to let u no i am not afraid of a 20 foot burmese. i just dont have the money or space to get that large of a cage. i can afford the neodesha 8 foot cage. thats the whole reason i'd like my burm to reach 10-12 feet.

I never stated that you were afraid of a large snake, I jsut questioned you skills, especially after you advised another person to pin the head of a baby burm. That is bad advise and will not work with a burm. Also I feel that you are completely under estimating the power and the danger that is involved with these creatures. All it would take is one stupid feeding error and there is know way in h>>l that you would be able to get a 10 foot burm off of you unless he was cooporating. If he truely felt you were food you would be dead. That is not a horror story or me trying to talk sh't, it is the honast truth. You have to completely respect these animals for the powerfull animals that they are. Any way good luck and I hope you take heed to these peoples advice. They have a lot of knowledge. Stop burning bridges of people that can truely help you. Todd

I have only beeen keeping burms for a couple years now, so I am in no means an expert.I also just started reading these forums and have no clue as to who this 15 yrs old kid is, but just reading the posts here, I would not recommend you having a burm. I have both male and females burms, normal, albino, green etc. As far as a male burm staying small and being easier to handle, etc, I have a 13 foot male albino burm, and a 11 foot male green burm. I can tell you that I am big guy, almost 6 foot, 280 pounds, and I work out lift weights etc, and when my snakes get to around 10 feet they are too much for me to handle on my own. And one over 12 or 13 feet I wouldnt even think of trying to handle alone without some help. I sure hope that you have a responsible adult at home to help you with this snake when it gets bigger, or when it grabs your hand when you do something stupid when feeding or handling and you can't get it off of you by yourself, because at one point or another you will make a mistake and it could be a very costly one.

i too am a teen and i am younger than you. you sound very nieve with some of the stuff you are saying. you sound to me as if you made a post didnt get what you were looking for. now you try to portrey yorself as a fearless snake handler (hats off to you mr.irrwin) i dont know if others feel this way but it sounds pretty dumb when you say"also im not afraid of a 20 foot burm" that there could be your downfall.i dont have a burm yet and i probly wont have one for quite a while.even tho i am a big person (13 and almost 6 feet tall ) and i got to the gym .you should have went with a boa even if you wanted somthing considerably bigger than a bci you could have went with a bcc. thats just my thoughts.