Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all, I recently aquired a Burmese and have a few questions. I'm not new to snakes and the general husbandry seems mostly well covered in the forum. I'm curious about a couple things. Are Burmese more intelligent then the average snake? He's a young male but seems much calmer, and more curious then my coastals or balls, even though the coastals are much older and settled in. I generally handle all the other snakes twice a week. It seems to be enough to keep them calm and easy to work with. However none of the other snakes will get near as big as the burmese and I would seriously like him to remain friendly and easy to get along with. So my question is "How much handling or free time is to much?". I don't want him stressed out. Thanks all.
Bill

Hey There,
Welcome to the world of Burms. If you recently got him, I would let him settle in for a week, without handling and make sure he gets a meal in. If the cage is see through, covering it with a towel, so that he can't see out will help him settle in. After he's settled in, I would handle him every day to keep him nice and tame. Come up with a routine when you are taking him out of his cage for playing or cleaning etc. For example, I'll gently rub the body of the snake a bit before I take him out. This way, he gets conditioned to know the difference between play time and feeding time. Other people condtion in a like wise manner with a snake hook, for when they get a bigger. Also, very importantly, as a general rule, most snakes don't really like to be handled when they are in shed. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. It's also a very good idea not to handle him 48 hours after a meal, because it can cause regurgitating and can possibly injure their stomach. Other than that, I would handle him everyday, definitely. He'll end up being a big mush. As for intelligence, I don't think Burms have much of it. They can be inquisitive and curious, but in general, I wouldn't call them smart, like a retic.
-Cathy
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Cathy Hrusa
poetichusky@hotmail.

~My Ever-growing herp Collection~
1.0 Albino Green Burmese Python
0.1 Green Het for Albino Burmese Python
1.0 Het for Albino Ball Python
0.1 Bearded Dragon
0.0.3 Normal Leopard geckos
0.0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko
0.1 FL Cooter
1.0 Sunburst X Blue Veiled Chameleon

Thank you, the everyday thing is what I was more or less wondering about. Emma, my 8' coastal carpet gets testy if she is bothered too often. Curious to me is a sign of intelligence, the burm crawls into the hood on my sweatshirt, lays his head on my shoulder and appears to watch what is going on around us. All of our animals are family, but he seems special for what ever reason. I have read and agree with conditioning the snake for feeding time. When I'm taking her out I reach in and pull Emma out by hand and shes fine with that. At feeding time I thump the bottom of her cage a couple times and toss her her rat. Seems to work well. I do have a snake hook ordered for training the as yet unamed burm though. Thanks again. This forum has been a wonderful source of information and the people that hang out here not only know their burms but are friendly and helpful as well.
Bill