Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 3 year old 8 foot female albino burm and I really was hoping that I could breed her. she is 19.5 lbs and well fed. I have never bred snakes before? I have read some books on it but am still a lil confused. I need to know the appropriate breeding size for females? How to brumate (if necessary)? When to brumate? For how long? At what temp? Incubation temp? Basically I need to know if it would be safe to attempt it this year? And everything I need to do to make it happen safely? I need as much help as I can get?

How often and how much are you feeding most females reach that size in 15-18 months sometimes sooner. Alot of breeders dont cool or change their light cycles with burms or retics alot of people believe they breed year round. Also most people like to have them atleast 10ft .

Also I forgot to say just keep feeding her heavily and when she refuses food except for when shedding try putting a mature male with her and see what happens. Thats straight from Bob Clarks mouth and I think he knows what he is talking about. I hope this helps just put some size on her and she should be ready to go.

Sorry about all the posts but I keep forgetting to put things down. The incubation temp is 88-90 degrees.

Till recently I was feeding her weekley. 1 rat one week, 2 the next and so on in this fassion but I was advised to cut it back to biweekly at her size. Shes really girthy but only 8 feet.

Who told you that you should be cutting it back to feeding biweekly because at eight feet they have quite a bit of growth left. Its pretty hard to overfeed them at that size. Also have you thought about switching to rabbits I switched my retic at 7ft and I'm pretty sure your 8ft burm is bigger around than she was. Honestly I would try feeding every time the bulge goes away that should put some size on her pretty quick I feed my younger retics every 2-4 days and they are not the least bit over weight. Also try putting the heat up a tiny bit more to help speed up digestion process. And one more thing are you positive it isnt a male did you see it get probed if so was it someone that actually knew what they were doing.

She definately needs to be heavier. Are you positive on the age? The minimum you should think of breeding her is 40 lbs, heavier is better though.
Most of my females would feed right through cooling. I feed them up to a certain time during cooling, then take them off feed. I do alter the light cycle though. Some people do get breeding without changing anything, but Careful cycling,etc gives you a better chance. Most people breed retics by going by when a female refuses food, but not usually burms.
But get her size,weight up and then see what you can do.

Bob Clark and Mike Wilbanks both dont cool there burms but you can trigger breeding behavior by cooling them to make it more predictable. I would say for a first time breeder to just feed heavily and and wait for her to go off feed so that way he doesnt accidently take the temp down too low because burms so easily catch
R.I. and it just makes things so much more simple. Bob and Mike both have told me that people make burms and retics difficult by cooling them when it just isnt needed except in rare occasions. They both believe burms and retics breed year round. They dont even put lights on their cages they just feed them until they stop then add a male.

Are you going off just what you are told? Or are you putting what you've been told to use? I'm not going to get into a pissing match over who's taled to Bob and MIke more. But I've known Bob for years, and Mike for several. Mike only has one pair of burms. they are in OKC. So its gonna get cold,therefore trigger the female into breeding.
I imagine what you dong is what a lot of people do. Your taking a blanket statement and taking it to heart. And if burms breed year around, whens the last time you saw a clutch hatch out in September/October? Not I'm not really trying to bust your nads here. Just wanting to know how much of your info is from talking to people, and how much is from experience?

I have been told before by a few breeders not to power feed her(to cut back), and that a snake her size should not be eating that frequently and to allow for proper bone developement before she begins packing on the weight. I am going to switch to rabbits soon but first I am using up the remainder of my stock in rats before I do that. I got her when she was very young (1 to 1.5 feet) so I am very sure on her age. Also I am positive she is a female. She was popped as a juvinile by the breeder who assured me she was a female. I then saught two seperate outside opinions using probing and probbed her twice myself. This all happened when she was about a foot or so in length. Her cloaca bulges like typical femails and her tail is fairly long too. so I'm pretty sure about her sex. I may have made an error in calculating her weight though, cuz my scale does kilograms and lbs. I may have confused the setting. Thanks for all the help buy the way!

I really wouldn't consider that power feeding. There are people that feed their snakes daily as much as they will eat. There really hasnt been any documented proof that power feeding does any damage expept sometimes it looks weird in some boas which seem to become overweight easier and their heads dont grow as fast as the body. There are plenty of healthy snakes out there that were put on a heavy feeding schedule including most of my collection that are not at all sluggish overweight or aggressive. Also females generally have shorter more narrow tails its the males that have wider longer tails where the hemepenes are stashed away.

What I meant to say is that she has the cloacal bulge that quickly tapers to a point. I realized my typo after posting the message! I will be sure to pick up her feeding too! Thanks for all the help guys!