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Hi everyone,

Lately, my burm has been doing this strange sort of rubbing along things as he moves about. It looks very much the same as when a cat rubs up against your leg - except here its a twelve foot burmese python, and he's rubbing against anything he comes across (ie, walls, furniture, etc).

Now this isn't the normal way a snake rubs against something as it slithers about - this is weird, like I said, it looks just like a cat. He's rubbing his head, and anywhere along his body that touches anything.

Anyone ever seen anything like this?

This is him doing that rubbing thing up against a fake tree in his 'sandbox'...

Here, from a different angle, you can see how he raises and arches his back several inches, and pushes (quite hard acutally) against things...

By comparison, here is when he is not 'rubbing'... (notice how he's just sliding along, normally, without any of his body arched or raised, or pressing against anything...)...

I know it's probably hard to tell from the photos, but it is really strange to see him do this, as he presses quite hard, as if he is angry or irritated with whatever he is touching. But then, he's still completely tame and fine with being handled.

I've also noticed that whenever I let him out, he has a tendency to take extended notice of the mirror that is in his room. Now, I don't know if he thinks it's another snake, or possibly a 'mate', or maybe he just likes checking himself out? But this too is a little weird, and a relatively new behavior for him.

Looking in the mirror...

If any of you have noticed this kind of 'rubbing' behavior before, or have any kind of insight into why he might be doing this, please share your thoughts on it.

Thanks very much,
- Mark
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The only 2 things that come to mind are that he's trying to rub off old skin (judging by the pics it doesnt look like hes in a shed though), or mites (which Im sure you would have noticed). Do you notice he rubs one spot of his body in particular against a foreign object or is it all over?

My burm has a tendency to rub against things too. My yealring male seems to rub the top of his head on everything he slides across. In my opinion it's normal, like having an itch, if you've ever "tickled" your burm, they seem to raise their backs as if they like it(at least mine do).

My burm also rubs his head against things. And he does the same thing (raising his back) if I 'tickle' him. I guess maybe this is normal - only thing is, he only started doing this recently. Hmmmm....?

>>My burm has a tendency to rub against things too. My yealring male seems to rub the top of his head on everything he slides across. In my opinion it's normal, like having an itch, if you've ever "tickled" your burm, they seem to raise their backs as if they like it(at least mine do).

Well, he's not in shed, and as far as I can see he doesn't have mites at all. And it doesn't seem that he is rubbing any particular part of his body - it's just any part of his body that touches anything.

>>The only 2 things that come to mind are that he's trying to rub off old skin (judging by the pics it doesnt look like hes in a shed though), or mites (which Im sure you would have noticed). Do you notice he rubs one spot of his body in particular against a foreign object or is it all over?

My male Retics would do the same thing,the guys at NERD told me this was because they wanted to breed.Maybe it's like scenting to attract a female?

But I don't want to breed him! I mean, it's not like I want the poor guy to be 'lonely', but I have no intentions whatsoever of ever breeding him.

There are no female burms around him, at all, anywhere. So, is there anything I can do to get him out of his 'heat'? Maybe lengthen his daylight hours? Something like that? It seems to me that he has gotten into this high-activity behavior mode the past couple of years, right around this time of year. Maybe it's just breeding season for him (or so he would think)?

There's got to be a way to get him over it...!

Any advice anyone?

Thanks,
- Mark

>>My male Retics would do the same thing,the guys at NERD told me this was because they wanted to breed.Maybe it's like scenting to attract a female?
>>

I'm not sure how you would stop it....if he's not hurting himself,I probably wouldn't worry too much!Like I said,I'm not sure that is what he is doing,but it sounds like the same behavior as my male Retics....they started doing that at around a year old.The guy's at NERD said "breeding" behavior,I was just throwing that out there as a possible answer to your question!

By the way it looks, I would say you're right - it probably is breeding behavior. Trouble is, he IS hurting himself - that is, he is so active and rubbing his nose so much inside his cage that he gets that 'nose-rub' condition. He has even (in the past) pressed so nose so hard trying to get out that he has knocked out a couple of teeth (that was last year - and I don't ever want a repeat of that).

There has to be a way to appease his "urges" without actually getting him a lady friend...???!

>>I'm not sure how you would stop it....if he's not hurting himself,I probably wouldn't worry too much!Like I said,I'm not sure that is what he is doing,but it sounds like the same behavior as my male Retics....they started doing that at around a year old.The guy's at NERD said "breeding" behavior,I was just throwing that out there as a possible answer to your question!

I have heard of males doing this to move the sperm along in his body to get "ready" for that special someone. I dont know if its true or not but you can check out Albinoburmese.com and Craig ( the owner/breeder of albino labs ) has MANY pics and movies posted of his adults breeding. One of the movies shows his male doing this while in a cage with a female.
Hope this Helps.