Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am looking to breed burms in the near future however i have no experience with breeding them... pythons are the only snakes that i have owned since i got into herping.. now i am looking to breed them and any helpful information is needed... like size, how to cool, when to introduce them, etc.. thanks.Heath

As I'm sure you've heard, the rescues and shelters nationwide are dealing with abandoned burms in numbers of near epidemic proportions. Please don't add to this by producing more inexpensive (and thus expendable) burms. Save a little cash and invest in a high end morph. Like albino granites for example. By the time you raise some babies to breeding size (24-30 months) the prices will still be high (should still be over 400 per baby then) you should be able to make some really good cash and the people buying them won't view them as expendable and abandon them when they reach 8 or 10 feet.
Now, to answer your questions,.... If you raise them from babies and feed them very well and you should have a 12 to 13 foot female and a 10 to 11 foot male at 2 years old. (though I personally prefer to keep my males smaller like 7-9') Begin cooling in October-November by reducing their night time temps to 77-78 degrees, and their day time temps to 80-82 degrees. Take their photoperiod down to 8-10 hours of light and 14-16 hours dark (while a decreased photoperiod is not crucial to breeding, I feel that it increases the chances of fecundity). Do this for about 2 months, then put the snakes together and gradually increase the temps to 80-82 nights and 84-85 days while increasing the photoperiod to 12/12 hours. You should get immediate courtship and soon after, breeding. Allow them to breed until the male loses interest (usually a few weeks, but can last much longer). After successful mating, return them to seperate cages and up their temps to 88-90 degree days.
Many breeders have different proceedures and methods that are equally successful that you can also use. This particular one has worked for me the best. But I have had burms breed and produce huge, fertile clutches when I did not cycle them at all and took no measures to intentionally breed them. So you almost can't go wrong. They're one of the easiest python species to breed in my opinion. But I think the most important key to successfully breeding any species is to keep the snakes stress free and very content in their environment. If they don't like to be held,. don't hold them, etc. If they are a nervous snake, give them a darker cage out of sight of trafic with a hide, etc.
I hope this all helps. Sorry so long winded.

>>I am looking to breed burms in the near future however i have no experience with breeding them... pythons are the only snakes that i have owned since i got into herping.. now i am looking to breed them and any helpful information is needed... like size, how to cool, when to introduce them, etc.. thanks.Heath
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The fastest way to achieve great wealth is by living more poorly for much longer.

The amount of burms in shelters is larger than we could possibly imagine. Not to mention.. the amount of snakes let loose into peoples' back yards..

Just the other day here in town, Someone bought a used car, and found A Bal Python under the floorboards! I know it's not a burm... but still, "normal" snakes are increasingly being abandoned.

Try to breed some morphs as said above. This will not only booste the "quality" of people you'll be selling to in the future, but also raise your profits.
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Randilyn -;,-
Desolate Gray: Reptiles

I'd like to help,if I can.I've breed reptiles for years & have been thinking bout getting a Burm,BUT,it makes more sense to me to adopt a pair rather than possibly get a WC animal or pay a petstore/whole seller for a WC animal. Does anyone know of one in TN? I'm NOT looking for snakes to resale.If I have a choice,I'd rather rescue than put money in someones pocket so they'll go import more animals.
The pet shop near me gets in WC boas,Balls & Burms.They keep em ALL together and leave a small peice of No Pest Strip in the cage 24/7. I've rescued animals from them only to find out they say," HEY,we sold these WC's......Let's get somemore,their selling!" One boa I got I had to tube feed it due to it had mouthrot sooooooo bad,that just getting it's mouth open looked like the snake was bleeding to death.Not to mention it's entire floor bedding was 100% stool bout 1"thick. ANY info would be great! Dave

First you can try searching through Kingsnake.com's decent-size listing of Shelters-> http://www.kingsnake.com/adoption.html

But the way I prefer, since there is no "real" shelter in my town, is get in contact with the people in the Local herp society. Usualy the herp society will have an adoption program. Join to society, talk with people and such and every so often there are new animals in the rescue, or hear aboutsomeone wanting to get rid of a snakie by word of mouth. I also regularly check the Classifides in newspapers. *every so often* there is a reptile free to good home, but most of these aren't that neglected and serious as some reptiles are, as the person spent money and all to finda good home for their beloved pet.

I hope this helps a bit
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Randilyn -;,-
Desolate Gray: Reptiles

High end morph or not I don't think that just anyone should breed Burmese. There are only a limited amount of potential owners that can care for and commit to owning a giant snake. As far as unwanted burms I don't think the morph matters it is the owners commitment and planning prior to purchase that makes the difference.Right now breeders hoping to make some money are buying the morphs for high prices, but in a few years when all these people start producing clutches,the price will go down and people will buy them just as pets and if they succesfully raise them most will tire of them, it will get too big, their having a kid and the wife is scared, apartment won't allow, can't afford to feed,don't have time for, scared of now that is big, the usual excuses and then there will be a bunch of unwanted morphs in addition to normals. Look at the number of purebred dogs in animal shelters, the price paid for an animal does not matter once owners are tired of 'em.......

Also when the price goes down on morphs a lot of breeders will get out of them and sell off their breeders to get into the next new fad and that adds to the problem of surplus snakes. Don't deny that this happens all the time, in all types of animals not just burms...

Is this person looking to breed burms a young person? If so have they thought through all the changes that will happen in their lives? College, living in rented housing, dating, marriage, having kids, job changes etc. will they be able to take a pair (or more) of giant snakes with them through all that?

My advice, leave breeding burms to a few dedicated individuals with proper facilities and long term commitment and breed something more manageable and more apealling to a wider audience like balls or colubrids, until you are really settled and have thought through all the pros and cons.

Just my humble opinion...............