Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is that old? I dont know anything about Burmese but I thought OMG that is really old..She has had the snake its whole life,got it back in 1975...She fed it Turkey legs..Unfortunaly it is also very sick and they dont expect it to make it much longer.Its had a reacurring abcess and infection in its mouth and now its losing weight and it just cant fight the infection anymore.Antibiotics arent working..Poor thing...
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MMMMMM turkey legs. Do you know the money I could save if I could get my guy to take poultry like that. Haven't tried yet so...

But yea that is pretty old considering most don't even make it to maturity with people droping them off on doorsteps and all.

Anyone else wanna chim in here? Life expectancy on a burm is something like 40 years maximum right?
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1.0 Ball Python
1.0 Burmese Python

40 years would be a world record (Ball pythons hold the record for the longest lived snakes on earth). Based on the data we do have available (such as Slavens and Slavens), an old burm would probably be in the 25-35 year range. My oldest burm is 36 and although she is now showing signs of old age, she's still going strong and a wonderful animal so longevities exceeding 40 could certainly be possible with the proper environment. I'd be surprised, though, if most captive burms see 10-15 due to improper care.
Rob Carmichael

>>MMMMMM turkey legs. Do you know the money I could save if I could get my guy to take poultry like that. Haven't tried yet so...
>>
>>But yea that is pretty old considering most don't even make it to maturity with people droping them off on doorsteps and all.
>>
>>
>>Anyone else wanna chim in here? Life expectancy on a burm is something like 40 years maximum right?
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>>1.0 Ball Python
>>1.0 Burmese Python
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

Planning on setting a new record, Rob? hehe
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-=Eddie=-
0.0.2 Burmese pythons. Boomer, Casper(albino)
0.0.1 Gold Tegu. Jacko
3.1.0 Dogs. Sam (boxer), Gizmo (yorkie), snowball(mix),Dexter (Jack R.)
0.0.5 angel fish (don't last long enough to name )

I've always thought it would be interesting to track a group of juvenile wild Burmese and a similar group of captive Burmese to see what percentage of each group had the best chance of making it to adulthood. You would think on the outset that the captives would stand a better chance, what with no predators, a steady diet and constant care. But we know what happens to most captive baby Burms. They get abandoned, neglected, released into the wild, etc. I don't know if there's any realistic way of doing such a study (maybe with microchipping it might be somewhat possible), but I'm sure the results would be very interesting.

I had a 10 year old albino Burm that was as pampered as any snake in the country. Sadly, she died about 15 months ago due to an infection caused by eight impacted eggs. But it is rare to see captive snakes a decade old or older, much less one 30 or more years old.

I knew a dermatologist about an hour from my home who was a ratsnake enthusiast. He did have one python, though -- a ball python that was nearly 30. And that was eight years ago. Don't know if it's still alive or not.

RP

Well, speaking of longevity, I've seen a 19 year old red tail boa, and with wc animals, a garter snake that was caught full grown and passed on after (I'll double check this if someone wants) 15 years in captivity. A gopher snake that was wc and is still living at least 16 or 17 years in captivity (cranky little bugger), and I've heard rumors of corns living to 25.
The world record was set by a 47 year old female ball python right?
So long as our little friends are properly cared for, it seems like slow metabolisms serve 'em well.
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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

This Green Anaconda was a super stubborn girl as a baby. She was an incredibly picky eater who knew exactly what she wanted. She started out by eating snakes. I only let this go on for rare occasions to assure her staying alive. Then someone recomended grocery chicken. I gave her some chicken parts and she was going pretty good on them. Eventually I got her to take whole day old chicks. For some reason she preffered the raw chicken parts over FT babies so I just went with it for a the time being. My main goal in mind was to get her eating ft rodents. This snake is so picky she will look food up and down for a long time to make sure it is what she wants and it is the size she wanted it to be (When I noticed she would refuse some chicken parts..I would adjust the size and sure enough that was all it took). So after being persistant I got her pretty steady on the FT chicks and eventually would try scenting rodents. Nothing worked until I decided to tie ft rodents to ft chicks with cotton string. This worked. Then I moved to scenting but she still needed the whole ft chick introduced to her to get her into the "feeding mode." This was when I blew my friends mind when I would put a rat behind a chick and let her come up and check it out and when I knew she was going for it I would quickly flip my hand around so the rat was in front when she went for it. Once in her coils she would usually take (sometimes she didnt). This little trick I developed deffinitely impressed my friends with my quick speed but can only be done with a juvenile anaconda if you value your hands. Anyway, I eventually got her eating scented rats by rubbing ft chicks on them. Then finally I got her eating ft rats without scenting. This process was almost a year and a half. The moral of the story is...ft rodents are the best thing you can feed a snake so if you have a snake who is taking them...be happy and keep them on it.

I had a rescued burm too weak to eat on its own, and I had the local butcher make special sausages from meat scraps that I force fed her until she could eat on her own.

eunectes-Try rubbing the raw chicken on the f/t rat. If that works, you can keep the same piece of chicken in the freezer and thaw it to scent the rats. After a few times, try feeding without scent. One of my burms won't eat rabbit unless it's scented with rat blood.
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1.1.30 albino burms (male also labyrinth)
1.1 normal burms
1.2 ball pythons
1.1 spotted pythons
1.2 albino corn snakes (1 female snow)
0.1 house snake
1.2 kenyen sand boas
1.0 guyana red tail boa
1.0 amazon tree boa
1.1 everglades rat snakes
1.2 iguanas
1.1 leopard geckos
1.3 bearded dragons
0.0.1 ornate box turtle
1.2 dogs
0.1 children
0.1 wife

When I worked out with the carnivals, the large Burmese that we had on the show ate jumbo turkey legs. The boss said she'd been eating them for years and loved them. I had never thought of it, but the snake did love them!

Circusfan

Its funny how people are mentioning feeding turkey or poultry to Burms. Ive considered putting a leg or something in the cage because I swear he will eat anything. He has never refused a meal to date, and has eaten everything from mice, rats, rabbits, and even quail, and has never once had any objections to any food items placed in his cage. I will try this out of curiosity. Although I'd imagine most burms would refuse it since it cant smell the normal feathers or fur associated with normal prey.

>>When I worked out with the carnivals, the large Burmese that we had on the show ate jumbo turkey legs. The boss said she'd been eating them for years and loved them. I had never thought of it, but the snake did love them!
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>>Circusfan

One thing, I believe you missed that the green anaconda IS currently eating ft rats without scenting (thanks to a ton of work and persistance). Secondly, I do not think offering cleaned poultry should be offered to an animal who is taking rodents. Whole food is by far a better source and much less risky than cleaned puntry which could have god knows what in it and is sitting in a bath of its own juices for quite a while before it reaches you shopping cart. Also, I will just make a note the snake I was working on switching over actually "preffered" the scented rodents I rubbed the chicks on over ones I had rubbed raw chicken parts on. (go figure). It was however a nice suggestion (I had attempted it myself close to a year ago) but the snake is eating great now. Sorry if my post was taken the wrong way but I certainly do not recommend feeding cleaned poultry over ft rodents/mammals.

Not sure if that was directed towards me but I just mentioned that I wanted to try it out of curiosity to see if he would take it. I would by no means use it as a permanent substitution to rodents. Its more expensive to use poultry anyway. I wasnt neccesarily following up on your post but rather commenting on something within the post.

>>One thing, I believe you missed that the green anaconda IS currently eating ft rats without scenting (thanks to a ton of work and persistance). Secondly, I do not think offering cleaned poultry should be offered to an animal who is taking rodents. Whole food is by far a better source and much less risky than cleaned puntry which could have god knows what in it and is sitting in a bath of its own juices for quite a while before it reaches you shopping cart. Also, I will just make a note the snake I was working on switching over actually "preffered" the scented rodents I rubbed the chicks on over ones I had rubbed raw chicken parts on. (go figure). It was however a nice suggestion (I had attempted it myself close to a year ago) but the snake is eating great now. Sorry if my post was taken the wrong way but I certainly do not recommend feeding cleaned poultry over ft rodents/mammals.

what if it doesn't take rodents anymore and prefers poultry?

do you put vitamines in the rodents? How long have you been feeding thawed?