Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, well i took my burm approx. 29" to the vet 3 days ago and they told me it was in fact a girl. Most poeple in here will be mad when i tell them this but i am only 15 and can not handle a full grown female burm. So i returned it to the pet store and hopefully it will go off to a better home. Now most will not help me now since i am planning to get another one that is definatyely a male. I would like to order offline this time so could people please post good web sites to purchase hatchling burms off of with cheap prices. It will be greatly appreciated. thanks,
mike

Any QUALITY breeder knows the gender of their animals. I only buy from Bob Clark, myself but the quality shows. If you dont believe me, check out my recent posts of my burms. I know for a fact that he has baby male normals for $85 right now. I know because Im buying one of them!
www.bobclark.com or bob@bobclark.com

Yeah,.. you'd deffinitely think so, huh? But I would still advise everyone everywhere to DOUBLECHECK the sexes of their animals AS SOON AS THEY RECIEVE THEM!! I used to believe like you just posted, that any quality breeder would know the sexes of the snakes they sell. But in 2001 I ended up with an extra male albino retic $3,000.00 that was sold to me as a "female", and extra male patternless green african rock python $1,000.00 that was sold to me as a "female", and an extra male super tiger $550.00 that was sold to me as a "female". Over $4,500.00 in initial cost that turned out to be virtually worthless males, but in terms of the loss of would be offspring that I was unable to produce the losses are closer to $125,000.00 just for the first year of losses, and every year after that, and even incalculable losses in geometric terms of raising potential breeding stock in the half dozen years after purchase. So three itsy-bitsy sexing "mistakes" that only cost $4,550.00 out of pocket, actually costs me potential millions in less than 10 years. Do the math just on the one female albino retic and you'll see how mindblowing it is.

Do I feel stupid for placing blind trust in the "Quality breeder" to accurately sex the animals I bought from him? Yes! Yes I do. I feel INCREDIBLY stupid in 20/20 hindsight. And there's really nothing I can do about it now. I certainly double check the sex of every snake I purchase now (from other "Quality breeders" [what a joke]). Though I must admit, I have never had any mis-sexing from anyone else, I suppose it could happen eventually. Can't see it happening THREE times with expensive high end morphs,.. but I suppose one never knows, does one, lol. It happened to me.

>>Any QUALITY breeder knows the gender of their animals. I only buy from Bob Clark, myself but the quality shows. If you dont believe me, check out my recent posts of my burms. I know for a fact that he has baby male normals for $85 right now. I know because Im buying one of them!
>>www.bobclark.com or bob@bobclark.com
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"If I had 365 enemies it would only take a year out of my life to settle all scores. Heck, much less if some live in the same states as others" Mia Myselfani

"All deeds be they good or bad shall be repaid one hundred fold." Yers Troolie

Thats very true Brian. We must always remember that its *rarely* the actual breeder (Bob Clark in this example) who picks, packs and ships the animal. There are always chances for these problems but I imagine the instances are slim. As Brian said, its always a good idea to sex anyway.

I suppose. But I drove 1900 miles and picked up my animals in person, directly from the "Breeder". Granted, the supers themselves were shipped later, but the "breeder" assured me that he himself picked, sexed and packed them. All the same, I got the albino retics and patternless greens in person and it wasn't no assistant I was dealing with.

>>Thats very true Brian. We must always remember that its *rarely* the actual breeder (Bob Clark in this example) who picks, packs and ships the animal. There are always chances for these problems but I imagine the instances are slim. As Brian said, its always a good idea to sex anyway.
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"If I had 365 enemies it would only take a year out of my life to settle all scores. Heck, much less if some live in the same states as others" Mia Myselfani

"All deeds be they good or bad shall be repaid one hundred fold." Yers Troolie

Additionally, sexing is an inexact science. Its not uncommon for animals to be genuinely misidentified. It happens.

I suppose that could be somewhat true by definition, though when one correctly "rolls" a boid's tail it is pretty darn exacting to me. I dunno though. Three times with one breeder yet never with any other breeders that I buy from (9 in all) makes me wonder a tad. 3 from one, 0 from 8 others. Kinda strange. Plus, I have sold many many snakes over the years and have yet to have a single person bring back a missexed animal. I guess I have just been lucky, huh? I always double and triple check though, but then most experienced breeders do.

>>Additionally, sexing is an inexact science. Its not uncommon for animals to be genuinely misidentified. It happens.
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"If I had 365 enemies it would only take a year out of my life to settle all scores. Heck, much less if some live in the same states as others" Mia Myselfani

"All deeds be they good or bad shall be repaid one hundred fold." Yers Troolie

I know it's not what you want to do, but you should take the advise so many on this forum has given you and try a different species for now. I would suggest a male Red-Tail Boa if you want a big snake. They are generally very docile and you will learn proper husbandry without the risk involved with keeping a giant Burmese. If you don't like Boas, look at Carpet Pythons. Either species make great captives and you could learn a great deal. After a couple of years you will know a million times more just from the experience, and then you could look into getting your Burmese and feel much more confident about your decision. This has nothing to do with your age, just your experience. I would say the same thing to a 40 year old man that was just getting started.

Kyle Walker
Python Fever...There is No Cure!

Hey have to completely agree with Kyle, and so many others here. You really need to to work up the ladder of snakes to keep. You can not just jump onto the giants with out something disasterous happening in the long run. Now that you have been given a second chance on this please go ahead and look at other options. Look at the carpet pythons or any of the Boa species. Please take this in the best intent but you have a lot of experience to gain as well as a lot of growing up to do before you should own a burm. Todd

you got rid of your female because of the size it can grow to. There are no guarantees that a male will stay small. Please realize you are not ready, I see what you post, and your questions. Otherwise I can see whats going to happen if the male gets to big, you will get rid of that to, and there are way to many of those out there.

You know what...I've been keeping burms since I was 14 and my little brother was 10. We've NEVER, EVER had any problems because we took the time to learn about them BEFORE we bought them....(Much like our young 15 year old man here). If you honestly feel confident in your ability to house one of these amazing snakes, then do it. You've heard everybody's opinion of your predicament; it's your decision and your RESPONSIBILITY to make that decision RESPONSIBLY. Have fun. Let me know how it works out.

Marcus

I got my first burmese when I was about 11. It was a baby female, but I didn't know what sex it was for about a year. I fed her very well (I thought, at the time) and she was about 12 feet at 2 1/2 years old. In the span of that time I also aquired some more burmese and a couple of young, skinny and VERY aggressive retics. I also had many boas, colubrids, crocodillians and even crotalids, but this is about large constrictors, so I'll keep it focused on that. This was in the mid 70's and I didn't have any benefit of learning any information on any internet like young herpers have now (lucky lucky, lucky). All I had was a few crappy reptile books (almost completely chock full of baloney), my Encyclopedia Britanicas (which was limited to a brief, though informative summary of what burmese/indian pythons were, and the ignorant, (though well-meant) advice of older adults that spoke as if they knew about these things, but it turns out they knew nothing at all. So basically I was on my own to learn by hands-on experience and by lots of trial and error. Though much more error, than trial.

In retrospect I feel that this is probably one of the best ways to learn, though there were many times that I was very lucky that I wasn't seriously hurt or even killed. But the problem with giving advice about these things is that any young herper may read it, but they won't really learn about these animals until they keep them themselves. Mildly unfortunate but true. Me and other "older, more experienced" herpers can yell advice and instruction from the rooftops at these novice herpers, but it can never compare to what they will learn on their own from actually keeping them. Plus, the phenomenon about "lecturing" younger folks about things is that they tend to shut it out when it feels like a lecture. If any of you other older herpers really want to do the upstart herpers any good you will "steer" them in the right direction gently, but will keep a stern lecture out of the mix.

>>You know what...I've been keeping burms since I was 14 and my little brother was 10. We've NEVER, EVER had any problems because we took the time to learn about them BEFORE we bought them....(Much like our young 15 year old man here). If you honestly feel confident in your ability to house one of these amazing snakes, then do it. You've heard everybody's opinion of your predicament; it's your decision and your RESPONSIBILITY to make that decision RESPONSIBLY. Have fun. Let me know how it works out.
>>
>>Marcus
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"If I had 365 enemies it would only take a year out of my life to settle all scores. Heck, much less if some live in the same states as others" Mia Myselfani

"All deeds be they good or bad shall be repaid one hundred fold." Yers Troolie

marcus thank you very much for beliving in me, your post gave ma confidence to get one even more, if you did it years ago at 14 i can do it now at 15,
thanks, mike

Keep us posted...

Marcus