Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok well My burm is 33"in length and i have people telling me to feed him a small rat!!! a rat pup puts a good bump in him already so i am asking what do people feed their burms at this size? When do you move up to small weanlings medium and lrage raabits? Also when to move to 1lb rabbits?

I feed my Pacman frogs rat pups.
At 3 ft. I would try 2 adult mice, or perhaps offering a small rat.
Heck, I've never even fed hatchlings rat pups. You'd be amazed what can fit in the mouth of a burm. Even at 3 ft.
As far as rabbits...At around 6ft, maybe more,I'd offer a small rabbit.
I go back and forth between small to med rabbits, and collosal rats with my 8- 10 ft burms.
At 3ft though, whatever your choice, a rat pup is not nearly enough for a burm.
Plus the bones have'nt yet calcified, therefore your snake is not getting the needed amount of Ca.
Dont be afraid to try small rats. Go for it!

I agree...i just fed my 5ft one of my old breeder rats....went down no problem

Jason

I have 36 inch burm and i feed him 4 large mice evey 7-10 days

I disagree, when the burm is younger it's metabolism is much faster then while in adulthood. I feed my 8 ft burm collasule and jumbo rats weekly, and my 11 ft burm 2-5 lb rabbits every other week. I have a baby African rock around 3 ft, that I feed 1-2 rat pups ever 3-4 days. I'm sure she could take down a small rat, but I prefer feeding medium sized meals often rather than one large meal every so often. Go up in prey size slowly, pups then weanlings then a small sized rat, no need to rush into larger prey.

I still feel, that rat pups are nutritionaly incomplete.Too high a fat content due to mother's milk though that is a plus when talking about high metabolism rates, and too little calcium.
I dont know how big everyone considers a small rat, but what I'm getting from RodentPro, are about the size of an adult mouse.
Again, I say what works for some may not work for others. Glean the forums, and try a couple different methods.
You will eventually find one that works. Also... dont be afraid to let your burm tell you what size.
If they seem hungry a day or two later, then it is time to increase prey.
Look at growth rates...look at how it's hunting. Does your snake seem satisfied the next day or is it still hungry.

I was on the same thinking you were when my guy was that size. It does not seem like he can take a rat but he will! Acctually I was starting to think something was wrong with my snake because he was nearly 5 months old and still very small. When I moved up to meerly small rats I notice his growth rate greatly increase.

Here is a very crumy, small pic but it is my burms first large rat. Look at the circumferance(sp) of my snake against the size of the rat. It doesn't seem like its gonna happen but let me assure you he got that bad boy down fine.

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1.0 Ball Python
1.0 Burmese Python

rich-k how big is your burm when eating a large rat? how bigis the large rat? also how often do you feed him...lol 1 more how big is his girth?

I will agree with the fact that they indeed can take a prey item more than double their girth, it's amazing. With the prey size discussion, the rat pups I recieve from rodentpro are bigger than the adult mice I order from them, thats why I've held off from ordering small rats for my baby rock & anaconda. It's really up to the owner to figure out what size prey their snake should eat, noone knows better.

The size of the pic makes the photo appear to be taken from the ceiling making the snake look huge. At first it looked like a dog in his coils!
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DZ
1.0.0 Burm, Moses
0.0.2 Ball, Chico & Chewy (rescue, many scars)
0.2.0 Cats, Merideth & Hannah
1.0.0 Dog, Pivo (tumor in liver, will uethenized Oct 23)
Lotsa fish
1.4.0 Rats
0.2.0 Humans (a little obnoxious though)

Yea sorry about the pic quality, it was taken with a camera phone. It wasn't from the cieling though, it was from about 3 feet away. LOL a dog, rotflmao!

Anyway the rat was a regular large rat, like the pic of one on rodentpro.com. The snake was proably 34-36"no more than 40" long but very small in girth. He was in the neighborhod of the thickness of a broomstick. The guy at the local pet store I buy rats from called me a wus for still having him on mice and I didn't think in a milloion years that he would swollow that rat that day but he did. Give him a go, worst case he tries and doesn't succed. You'r out $5 and now you gota discard a dead rat without neighbors raising noses.
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1.0 Ball Python
1.0 Burmese Python