Reptile & Amphibian Forums

first off, iv been keeping monitors and tegus for awhile now, but never had a snake. i work at a Pet store (no its not one of those PetCo P.O.S. shops, its really great) and my manager and i went down to a reptile show and i bought an Albino Burm that was 1yr old and 5'. i know not that big. though now he is 10' and 30-40lbs, havent weighed in a month or so. he is very nice, and i walk around the store with him wrapped all around me. he has NEVER had any problems eating. he LOVES rats, but now it takes so many rats to fill him up (F/T ones). i started him on rabbits and he was eating them great. 2 weeks ago we didnt have any rabbits so i fed him 2 guinea pigs. now he doesnt touch anything. so is he hooked on Guinea Pigs now? i dont want him always eating those. so i was just going to offer him food every couple days until he finally takes another rabbit. is this what i should do? anything else i can do to get him back on track? i'll take some pics of him soon and post them. he really is awesome, and Justin (my manager) and I are planning on breeding him with his female who is het for albino. now i was going to build an 8x4x4 cage for him. whats the best substrate? i've used Aspen Bedding and Newspaper so far. anything else i can use?
thanks for any help
-matt

I would never feed a guinea pig to anything(unless I shaved it). Their hair is realy thick and hard to digest.(most are) I guess you might be able to scent the rabbits if it does not take any within the next couple weeks without senting. i'm not an expert with experience just giving my $0.02.
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Justin

Hey matt,

I very seriously doubt hes hooked after just one feeding, but I would use caution with guinea pigs. I know some snakes have a hard time digesting the skull, and I know of one snake that It killed. Yours sounds like its big enough to pass it regardless, but I would use caution.

I would try rabbits again, but I would only try about once a week at most. Hes big enough that if he decides to go for a month or two without takin food, it wont hurt him, and if he gets a little hungry, hell take anything u stick in front of him. One other thing is if he is going into a shed, he may not eat till he sheds.

For your cage, I would really suggest not going 4 ft tall. There is a post down below this one where this is discussed. The title is burmese enclosure, and you will get several recent points of view on the subject.

For substrate, I feel that newspaper works great. It cleans up easy, is cheap, and easily replaceable. Ive found its a lot easier to change the bedding when it only costs you about a penny a week, instead of 4 or 5 bucks.

Hope I help ya out
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1.0 Albino Green Burm
0.2 Normal Burm
1.1 Java Retic