Reptile & Amphibian Forums

is this a regular burm? lots of people told me its not. you cant see in the picture but he has a lot of green and small black dots.

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1 IndianXBurm (Cuddles, 5foot)
0.1 Albino burm (Lestat 3foot)
2.0 Ball pythons Josie and Monty (3-4foot)
0.1 Columbian Red tail boa (Chester 4foot)
1.0 Savannah monitor (Dino-LeeZard 1foot)
1.0 Albino Australian Shepherd (Sheepy)
1.0 Parakeet (Trucker)
1.1 Kitties (Jizzer and Miss Kitty)

I'm not an expert, but it looks normal to me. The little light colored one buried in the substrate, on the other hand, is far from normal.

It looks likea normal burm to me.

You need to get that little one out of there. The bigger one will ultimately intimidate it and stress it really bad possibly causing it not to eat. If sickness were show up in one of them it will pass to the other. The list of negatives from housing snakes together goes on and on. If you cant afford to house them seperately you shouldn't have them.
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1.1 Albino Burmese
0.1 Normal Burmese
1.0 Veild Chameleon
Waiting for more reptiles of any kind

np

about posting something. Getting things that you didn't ask answered. Often excellent advice is recieved that way, regardless of how it's said.
Though I do think that the "you shouldn't own a burm" card needs to be used as a response to a declaration of willful ignorance, hypothetical bad husbandry, irresponsibility, etc. But not as an initial first strike. In this case we do not know if angelic_eyes is going to get a second cage. Therefore she might and hopefully will. Validly said or not, that phrase is in threat of losing its power if said too often.
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0.2 chickens (Falcon & Condor)
0.2 dog mutts (half ownership, only mine when they misbehave, Lucy & Amy)
0.1 Halflinger horse (Crissy)
0.0 Arizona Mountain Kingsnake (coming soon)
1.1 parents
Still searching for 1.0 WC human

I was waiting for someone to say something about the other one in there.... I am hoping it was just in there for the picture.

It needed to be said (the stuff about stressing the smaller one out and all the bad things that can happen), but the "you shouldn't have a burm" card shouldn't be pulled unless the person actually says they don't have the room or money to house seperatly first, before jumping to that idea of the keeper.

In any case, the big one is a normal, the other is a beautiful albino/green it looks like.... wow! House them seperate and that gorgeous little one won't be little for long!
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1.0 gorgeous spider ball python
2.2 het for axanthic
5.9 normals
www.blazingreptiles.com coming soon!

I have raised a few Burmese pythons in the past 10 years and I have to say that I have have raised them separately AND together. The albino patternles pair I have now were raised in the same cage, eventhough the male was a year older than the female. He was 6 feet long when I introduced the 30 inch female into his enclosure. Never once did the small female "stress" or feel "intimidated". She was fed in a separate cage and never once missed a meal, regurgitated or had a bad shed. Stress can come from many places...mostly from improper husbandry. Raising snakes together is OK within reason, and the snakes in the photo are just fine together so long as the husbandry is there. If you think snakes only come together JUST during breeding season, you might be wrong. Telling this person they shouldn't have snakes just because they are doing something different than you would is thoughtless.

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Derek Roberts
Sonoran Reptile Breeders
sonoranreptile@cox.net

Housing snakes together is not ok. There are many reasons for this and many were mentioned above. As an expereinced keeper you should realize that young begining hobbyists will read your words and becasue it suits them better then others such as my self or Rob Carmicheals then they are going to follow your guidance. It is easier and cheaper way out but it is far from the right way out. Also, feeding outside of the enclosure is the biggest improper feeding technique anyone can do with any large boid. So many things are jsut wrong about it. The stress on the animal. The higher probability of regurgitation, and the danger to the keeper. Please, I am not questioning your experience or your knowledge, just please use caution when offering advice. Thank you, Todd

First off, Todd, I respect you and thank you for your insights and opinions that you put to good use on these forums. It is greatly appreciated.

I think sometimes regular people on these forums lose sight of the fact that not all kingsnake.com users are breeders. Alot of them are actual pet owners. It would be wonderful to be able to keep our animals safe from diseases, unwanted bugs, scars, bad sheds, feeding problems, etc. Unfortunately we are dealing with exotic animals. Animals who have not been in the public care for much of a long time. It would be great to keep them in a disease free environment, but that is not really possible or maybe even healthy for the animal(s) in question. Sterility does not always mean healthy. Otherwise, how would animals build their immune systems?

Let me say this before I forget to type it: I am talking about housing similar species together. i.e. Colombian boas with Colombian boas. Not Ball pythons and Rainbow boas together.

People keep pets together all the time. Dogs, cats, birds, horses, etc. I don't think dog owners are going to keep their dogs in separate rooms for 15 years are they? I grew up with a Doberman Pinscher, a black Labrador, and a stray cat as pets. They got along just fine. The Dobie didn't really like humans though.

Eventually these "domesticated" pets will need to go outside as well. Are you going to immunize them everytime? One of the unfortunate happenings when you own an animal is that is will more than likely get sick at one time or another. This must be planned for no matter what kind of animal.

I do agree that some animals CANNOT interact with others. Dogs may be violent toward certain animals as well as cats and birds. Some animals are very susceptible to other diseases and/or bacteria that other animals may have. Birds are defnitely not immune to salmonella for instance. Fish are the worst about getting diseases from one another but I haven't seen many houses with 100 fish tanks and only one fish in each. You definitely would not want to house 2 male carpets together for breeding purposes as they may injure or kill one another. And so on and so forth...

In this instance, with two young Burmese pythons, with proper husbandry, I think they will be just fine. It really wouldn't matter if there was 1 or 10 pythons in the same cage if they were being cared for improperly. The result would be the same: sickness. The enclosure they are in looks just fine for now. It has a large water dish, good bedding, a thermometer, a hide spot and the animals (from what I see in the photos) look outwardly healthy.

Also, you said " As an expereinced keeper you should realize that young begining hobbyists will read your words and becasue it suits them better then others such as my self or Rob Carmicheals then they are going to follow your guidance.". that is why I tell ANYONE who is getting a new animal to RESEARCH everything about it. But I can only RELATE to my experiences in raising these animals and what has worked an NOT worked. And trust me, some things just don't work. But if people see my results, then maybe they can consider it. Never did I say it will work for everyone, or everyone should try it. It worked for me. It may have been more cost effective, but it was more work intesive.

Pet owners like to interact with their pets and sometimes like to see their pets interact with each other. I think that breeders lose sight of this fact and are so "disease concious" that it may take some of the fun from this hobby. Remember what brough most of you into this hobby; the love of reptiles.

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Derek Roberts
Sonoran Reptile Breeders
sonoranreptile@cox.net