Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Many of you have seen a number of the photos I have shared of my Labyrinth burm. He has been a great pet in most every respect. But I have made the decision now to find a new home for him, though I'm not sure exactly where to start. I want to adopt him out to a good home, with a competent keeper.

If you know where a good place is to start the process of finding a new home for him, or if you are interested yourself, please let me know.

You can view a bunch of photos I have of him here: http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/index.php?user=3299&cat=500&subcat=554

Thanks in advance,
- Mark
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Wow. If you don't mind me asking, why?

BTW, cool pics below as always.
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1.0 Ball Python
1.0 Burmese Python

Yea if you dont mind I'd also like to know what made you do this, you've also posted tons about your burm and seem to be very happy with him and I highly doubt you will find a better home for him then where he is.

First off, I just want to say that I really don't want to do this, but I just want to do what's best for him. The impetus for my decision is my frustration with trying to keep him healthy.

Here's what I'm talking about..

He hasn't been healthy for a long time now - that is, ever since he really started getting bigger (from his first growth spurt up to about ten feet). Once he got to about ten feet he has always had a real hard time breathing. I have recently learned that Labyrinth burms in particular are prone to having small heads in relation to the size of their body; and I have suspected just that for a while now. So now I really have no choice but to accept it. It's obvious looking at him that he has to make extra effort to breath, on account of his nostrils being too small to pass the amount of air a snake his size needs to respirate normally. This stress in turn only makes him more susceptable to other respiratory ailments. It's very difficult to watch him strain to breath, in spite of my best efforts to keep him healthy (with all the time and money I've spent on temperature and humidity controls, etc.).

I thought about having him euthanized, but that is just way too unfair to him. So instead I want to try to find someone who is better able than me to deal with his condition.

That is my situation. And I don't like it one bit. I think from this point on I am never going to get another 'morph' again. I think nature's design is both beautiful and functional - so I'm going to stick with that here on out.

- Mark

Frankly, it sounds like you're doing everything you can, and that's a fair bit.

I strongly suspect that the best home you'll be able to find, (best case scenario) is with an ethical, responsible keeper with no more resources at his/her disposal than you have right now. Even if you include all your supplies and they chip in with their available resources, your burm will probably be no more comfortable than he is now with you. The chance of getting him adopted by a super-vet/genius/rich-person/saint is virtually nil.

You are more than welcome to cuss me out over this. But if you're already offering optimal conditions, if there's no procedure available or even theorhetically possible to widen his breathing passages, and if he already feels stressed with a condition that will take his quality of life downhill as he grows, then euthanasia may actually be an unfortunately fair option.

F*** but I hate breeders who breed the brains out of dogs, soundness out of horses and the heads off of burms. Whatever happens, I wish you well.
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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

Those stupid people putting cats in a bottle. I feel so sorry for some animals.
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Justin

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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

...that was a hoax by some college kids. Unless you've seen one in person, best to believe it's not real.
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DZ

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell

Yea, I also do not like all these morphs. Sure some like albinos and a few others are fine but whne it causes someting to be wrong wiht the animal that is different. I have even noticed, comparring my 2 burms when it did get a little cool in my snake building when the heater went out, that the albino took a mild respiratory infection and the normal did not. I am not saying that it being albino is the reason, but it is a suspect. Plus if you think about what causes albinism and other morphs? It is a defect in the gene. Is that not right. And plus in my opinion retics and burms look best in their normal phase to me. I still like albinos and a few other morphs but not when it causes suffering. Now albino water snakes, I have heard nothing being wrong with them and they do look better than the regualr phase, well soem of them anyways. That is what I am trying to get now. I am just so into water snakes now.
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Justin

Mark, this is like watching your better half with something like emphasema, and knowing she's gonna die anyhow. I'm only sorry I don't have the room to take him in. Whatever happens, I wish you well Bro.

Quig

That just sucks!
i often wonder why people think the morph breeders are almost gods...they seem to be in it for the money..nothing else.

I too antegy am sorry to hear that you think you need to adopt out your snake. He is one of the most beautiful labbys I have ever seen. You have provided a great atmosphere for your snake and should know that not many others will be able to provide like you have. If I were you I would seriously consider thinking this over and taking on this "difficulty" for the remainder of your snakes life.
Now to everyone bashing morphs. One thing that is often overlooked is that for a few exceptions, morphs are natural occuring. bob Clark didn't wish a burm into being albino. Nature created them and a few have been known to survive in the wild. Morph specialties imported two albino males from the wild that were about 9'. so all these morphs do occur naturally. That is how evolution occurs. A new change happens and if it happens to benifit the species then it carries on. labbys, greens, and granites do not hinder the camoflauge abilities of burms so I bet that there are quite a few of them out there in the wild or atleast a bunch of hets anyway. There is truely no founded eveidence that morphs are inferior to normals. The only proven fact that I have ever found about pinheads is caused by power feeding where the body grows at a much faster rate then the head, causing a very small head in comparison to the body. In all I have read, all the hype about genetic inferiority with the morphs is all hypothetical. Todd

I have to disagree with you on morphs. Somewhat anyway. A well bred morph can certainly be as healthy as a normal snake, possibly more. Especially with outcrossing to particularly robust and non-related individuals. Some of them are certainly stunning. And any non-camoflaging wild albino that survives some time in the wild MUST have something impressive going for it.

But look at some of the disasters suffered by snake morphs due to poor breeding practices. We have albino redtails with one or no eyes, delicate non-feeding blood red corns, bubble eyed leucistic texas rat snakes, and I know a nice little albino Cal king who's fed one tiny mouse every two weeks and still looks like a stuffed sausage.

The short term reward for inbreeding snakes to get morphs quickly is big, tempting and monetarily punishes good breeders who take their time to build a healthy bloodline rather than churn out attractive but inherently flawed animals. So while color itself is not inherently bad, some terrible genetic weaknesses are often allowed to come along for the ride.
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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

The problem with this type of criticism is that, although you very well may be right, all the evidence that it is based on are a few exmaples. Just because a lab. burmese has this problem does not mean all lab. burms have this, or that it occurs more often in them than in burms of normal coloration. The same with the other examples. For this idea, that morphs experience these problems more often, to gain scientific credibility it must be backed up with data from large numbers of the animals; which would allow the rate of occurance between groups to be compared. Again I'm not saying your wrong, and I know how painful it can be to watch an animal suffer; but you have to be careful not to come to conclusions before credible research is done. If there are studies involving large groups that can show a heavy correlation, then we know something has to be done (breeders would need to breed into different lines more than they do, or, in a few rare cases maybe a particular morph should stop being bred, but only if that was really necessary.)

Don't do it. He won't find a better home then what he already has with you. Certainly, no one will be able to cure his troubles and the chances of him getting someone as competent as you are low. There's already too many snakes out for adoption and you have been providing a good home for him so I think you should seriously reconsider this. It won't be able to get better for him, only worse or at best same.

you may be part of the problem. You obsess over the temps and humidity and food and space etc. allot. I've read many posts where you questioned yourself and the reply, from those that count, said you were spot on. All your graphs and charts, it's like a science project man. You bought the snake, he's your responsibiity. We all know you love him, you can see it in your pics. You get rid of him and you'll both lose. He's been a labby all his life, doesn't know any different. He's probably cool with it. You've raised him damn near in a lab similar to the movie "Twins" with Arnold and Danny DeVito. Your snake is the Arnold. Chill a little and realize no-one else could do for him what you do. Many of the people here who are really into snakes say it's a life long committment. Your boy is counting on you to take care of him. Not to piss you off, just hope you re-consider.
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DZ

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell

My heart is breaking just thinking of you right now....
I have admired you through Kingsnake.com posts even before I bought my first snake! I know I could never have a Burm but I knew I could always come here and see the prettiest Laby on the planet, YOURS!! He will never be in such good hands as he is with you...we all know that here and I think you do too. Please keep him with you...it will hurt you more to let him go,
and besides....I'll miss him too!