Hello, I just received my first a burm, An albino at that. Any advise in keeping him tame, and in a safe enviroment.
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Hello, I just received my first a burm, An albino at that. Any advise in keeping him tame, and in a safe enviroment.
>>Hello, I just received my first a burm, An albino at that. Any advise in keeping him tame, and in a safe enviroment.
Hmm... Well, that's a pretty open ended question. There are many points to cover.
1. Research, Research, Research! It's generally good to do this before you get any critter, but oh, well. Scroll down the forum here and read in the archive too. Look on the site www.anapsid.org it's a good all around reptile site. I go there so often I should pay rent! And buy books and ask questions.
2. Snake safety. Make sure your cage is strong and secure enough so your guy/girl can't escape. Make sure your substrate is safe, you feed prekilled food, he/she can't get burned on any lights or heating elements. Also if you live in a busy household with guests coming in often, get a lock on the cage so no dumba** yahoos mess with your little friend.
3. Human safety. I don't care how sweet tempered of a saint your critter is. He/she is still an instinctive and (no offense burm lovers) stupid wild animal. After he/she reaches 8-10 feet which can happen in a single year, you need someone to assist you every single time you open the cage door! Even if it's just to change his water! Having someone there could save your life. And when your snake gets this big, the lock is needed so he/she doesn't mess back with the dumba** yahoos.
4. Taming is in theory the easy part. Just gently and consistently handle your critter, making sure to have someone spot you when he gets to the critical length.
5. You are beginning to undertake a huge 20-30 year responsibility. (pun intended) Great costs, but great rewards lie ahead. Good luck!
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0.2 chickens
0.2 dog mutts (half ownership, only mine when they misbehave)
0.1 Halflinger horse
0.0 Arizona Mountain Kingsnake (coming soon)
1.1 parents
Still searching for 1.0 WC human
>>Hello, I just received my first a burm, An albino at that. Any advise in keeping him tame, and in a safe enviroment.
A sstated in the other reply gentle and consistent handling will ensure that your "baby" is tame. Never handle you animal only when time to feed and never when food smells are around or on you. Always use tongs to feed with and watch out for that huge strike, (i speak from experience, Got my arm wrapped in a coil when my tongs got caught in with the rat and on my finger, I kept a small bottle of oil just for that thing) Make sure you heed the warning of crirical size this will be important later.
Cage size will be a big chore they require a lot of room when they get big and they get big FAST be one step ahead and have the final living space ready by the time it reaches six feet or so.
Lastly keep reading in the forum and get all the info you can.
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Chris, my wife Mary
a dog, two cats, two birds, four snakes
oh and three kids
>>Hello, I just received my first a burm,
Um, I have an odd question. When you say your first a burm, does this mean,
A- you have experience with other snakes and this is your first burm, or
B- does it mean that the first snake you have kept is this burm?
because A is all well fine and good and I apologize for this speech. But if your first snake is a burm, that's a terribly hard way to start out.
It's sort of like teaching a fifteen year old with a brand new learners permit to drive by putting him in a stickshift eighteen wheeler in the heart of New York city and demand that he floor it.
Now feel free to reject this recommendation, but if you are brand new to this hobby and this is your first snake, I strongly suggest that you return the critter where he came from (with or even without a refund you'll save money in the long run) and get a corn snake. Cornsnakes can grow to five feet, which is maneagable but still decently impressive. They are very gentle tempered, docile, and very forgiving of occasional minor maintenance errors. What's more, they come in a wide variety of morphs or colors. Albino cornsnakes don't even scratch the surface! And the price is right too.
If I've grossly misjudged your experience level or if you're offended, I am sorry. Just my thoughts.
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0.2 chickens
0.2 dog mutts (half ownership, only mine when they misbehave)
0.1 Halflinger horse
0.0 Arizona Mountain Kingsnake (coming soon)
1.1 parents
Still searching for 1.0 WC human
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