Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone,

I was just wondering about how I've been feeding my burm. That is, as it relates to the rate at which I have been increasing his meal size. I want to be sure that I'm not moving him up too quickly, while at the same time I do want to be sure that I am increasing his meal size at a healthy rate.

The chart below shows how I have increased his meal size (shown in pounds) since September 6th - the last two points are darkened because they haven't actually happened yet, but that's what he is scheduled to be fed.

He is about 11.5' now, just shed, and waiting for me in the other room to feed him (he can smell his food thawing already!).

Please let me know if you think this is a healthy rate to increase his meal size.

Thanks very much,
- Mark

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My personal site: www.antegy.com
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Man! That is one gorgeous snake! Dunno about the feeding! Mine hasn't reached that length yet.
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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 Black Chow, Pivo RIP Oct 23
Lotsa fish
1.4.0 Rats
0.2.0 Humans (a little obnoxious though)

looks like you are doing everything right; just stick with what you are doing....and man is that graph impressive!...even for a college prof and curator like myself (nice job)....let me know how you do it as I am still your basic computer idiot. Just continue to up the poundage very gradually and always err on the side of not overdoing it. Remember, as your burm ages, the size of the prey will increase but the frequency of feedings will decrease (once or twice a month is more than ample). Great looking lab. burm! Rob Carmichael

The smell of prey around while your burm is loose?
Mine would kill me! I have Pixie frogs, and when I thaw pinkies for them,my burms go berserk!
I normally toss their food in their enclosure, and run like hell...lol.
Nice lab burms...I have been toying with the idea of an albino granite.
But I have a retic on my shopping list.

I'm sorry if I miscommunicated the situation about him smelling his dinner while it was thawing.

The photo I posted was from while I was playing with him the day before. He was in his cage, and always is, while I prepared his dinner. The reason why he can smell his dinner so well - which I thaw in the kitchen that is two rooms away - is on account of the ventilation I have installed on his cage. It actively draws fresh air from the room (including any 'smells' from the house) through the cage and exhausts to a vent outside.

I would never have him out, or handle him in any way on feeding day. I don't want him to make ANY associations between me and "food".

Again - sorry if I was unclear on that.

- Mark

>>The smell of prey around while your burm is loose?
>>Mine would kill me! I have Pixie frogs, and when I thaw pinkies for them,my burms go berserk!
>>I normally toss their food in their enclosure, and run like hell...lol.
>>Nice lab burms...I have been toying with the idea of an albino granite.
>>But I have a retic on my shopping list.

Hi Rob,

The graph, I have to say, is a very much simplified version of one out of many that I maintain on each of my five snakes. I record for each a history of growth (length), weight (grams/lb), feeding frequency and meal size (grams/lb), and shedding frequency. I also include notes on their health, condition of shed, and d.o.b/h. For financial analysis I also record costs of feeding and housing each.

I keep all the data in one Excel spreadsheet; which is remarkably small considering how much data and formatting I put into it.

In the end it's all just for fun I guess, as I don't really use the information for anything more than entertaining myself. Though it does serve a good purpose otherwise, in helping me to setup feeding regiments, and anticipating sheds, etc.

As for my burm - he has been eating about once every three weeks now; which sounds about right according to your message.

Thanks very much,
- Mark

>>looks like you are doing everything right; just stick with what you are doing....and man is that graph impressive!...even for a college prof and curator like myself (nice job)....let me know how you do it as I am still your basic computer idiot. Just continue to up the poundage very gradually and always err on the side of not overdoing it. Remember, as your burm ages, the size of the prey will increase but the frequency of feedings will decrease (once or twice a month is more than ample). Great looking lab. burm! Rob Carmichael

Mark: that is one gorgeous burm - and you have some amazing photos on your photo.net site. What kind of equipment do you use?

I have a Canon EOS Digital Rebel, and want to get a 50/1.4 lens for it at some point. I had a 50/1.4 for my old reliable Canon AE-1 (one of the best consumer-model SLR cameras ever made, IMO) and can't wait to get some low-light shots with this bad boy.

One of these days I'm hoping to get a Leica for film work, but that is several thousand dollars from happening at present.

Thanks very much - I haven't been updating my photo collections much lately, but I've been very busy - soon enough I hope to start getting back into the swing of things.

I use several different cameras, true-digital and digital-SLR, depending on what type of photography I'm doing. I also have a digital cam that I modified myself to dedicate it for infrared capture (which is very tricky). You can see on my personal site what kind of cams I use.

Film based cameras are an unknown world for me - I'd be totally lost (as far as developing the film). But then, I've seen many absolutely amazing photos taken with a Leica of some sort. Perhaps it's the camera - perhaps it's because anyone who is serious enough about photography to spend as much as it takes to get a Leica is serious enough to be a good photographer in the first place. Who knows. It's all just fun for me.

Thanks again,
- Mark
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----------------------------------------------
My personal site: www.antegy.com
----------------------------------------------
My Kingsnake.com Picture Gallery
----------------------------------------------
My photography on photo.net
----------------------------------------------
Me on myspace.com