Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My 15'150lbs female burm can handle several rabbits at a sitting. I have access to small goats at a decent price. I was wondering if I could convince her to eat one. I know in the wild they have been found with just about everything in their stomoch from antelope to small leapords. I was wondering if anyone has experience with feeding a small goat to a burm. Any pics or pointers appreciated------Thanks, Lonnie

Burms, like all pythons, are opportunistic hunters; if it smells like food, it's food. Although I am not aware of anyone feeding goats to captive burms, and I personally wouldn't, I can't think of a good reason why you could't. Obviously, you want to make sure these are coming from healthy stock. I don't know the proper protocol for putting down a goat prior to being fed, but I certainly wouldn't feed it to the snake alive (ethical and physiological reasons). You also want to guard against feeding a meal that is too large. My large burms 18 feet only get rabbits that are in the 8-10 lb range; I couldn't imagine feeding even a small goat to these snakes even though they could probably eventually get it down.

>>My 15'150lbs female burm can handle several rabbits at a sitting. I have access to small goats at a decent price. I was wondering if I could convince her to eat one. I know in the wild they have been found with just about everything in their stomoch from antelope to small leapords. I was wondering if anyone has experience with feeding a small goat to a burm. Any pics or pointers appreciated------Thanks, Lonnie
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

I have fed several small goats to my burms. They are animals that were culled from a herd or stillborn. The snakes took them as any other prey.

My friend also uses pigs in much the same fashion.
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CDieter
'Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.'