Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello! I have a few questions for breeders. What is the ideal feeding regiment for baby burmese' that will become breeder animals(fingers crossed!)? What is the ideal breeding size,and age?. I have read Philippe de Vosjoli's Burmese Book and he says some breeders report animals breeding at 18 months of age. He also states some breeders hold off a extra year or two to increase weight and size of females for larger clutch sizes. However, later he said the top U.S. breeders report no significant difference in the long run. I would just like the peoples opinion, since nothing seems to be cut and dry in the world of reptiles. Also does anyone know where I can find diffinitive burmese python genetic information? Thanks in advance, nano-bear.

In order to develop a good breeder (over the long haul), you cannot rush growth rates. Those that do will end up with short lived snakes; its as simple as that. I would encourage you to just follow a regimen of 1-2 appropriately sized prey items every 7-10 days to youngsters and then, once the burms are adult sized, cut back to every 14 days (sometimes, even a good sized meal once a month is sufficient). My old burms (over 30 years) are fed 1-2 appropriately sized prey items (usually 5-7 pound rabbits) once a month keeps these animals in great shape with good activity levels. Just my .02 (as a parting note, most burms are obese and overfed).

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center
Lake Forest, IL

>>Hello! I have a few questions for breeders. What is the ideal feeding regiment for baby burmese' that will become breeder animals(fingers crossed!)? What is the ideal breeding size,and age?. I have read Philippe de Vosjoli's Burmese Book and he says some breeders report animals breeding at 18 months of age. He also states some breeders hold off a extra year or two to increase weight and size of females for larger clutch sizes. However, later he said the top U.S. breeders report no significant difference in the long run. I would just like the peoples opinion, since nothing seems to be cut and dry in the world of reptiles. Also does anyone know where I can find diffinitive burmese python genetic information? Thanks in advance, nano-bear.
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

The other poster pretty much nailed this one, but I still have a few thoughts I would like to add to it to maybe help explain *why* it is best to not overfeed.

As is already posted it is better to be patient and raise your burmese correctly and breed at an otherwise natural breeding age (similar to what it would be in the wild, 3-4 years & up) than to power feed them to grow at unnatural rates in order to breed a year or two sooner. And here's why: Although massive sizes can and often are achieved by breeders and enthusiastic herpers seeking only great size, it is not natural. The reason why it is thought to be potentially harmful is due to the fact that the snake's vital organs are overworked in order to digest the incredible volume of food required to achieve those great sizes. It is also commonly thought that perhaps these same vital organs are incapable of growing at the same rapid rate that the body of the snake is capable of growing. So the end result may be overworked, yet undersized, heart, lung, kidneys, etc. So potentially the vital organs may be too small and weak to support the demands of the mammoth, oversized snake. And early death as the other posted alluded to is not only possible but perhaps inevitable.

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David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com