anyone have any burm advice

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Originally Posted by serpents-prey

quick question i am thinking of getting a baby burm this coming spring and i would like to know if any one has advice on caging, substrate, usual temperment, unusual temperment, and average growth per year. that's alot. . . if some one could answer all of these in one post i will be amazed
can you tell i want to be prepared :D

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Now I have more time to give some advice-
caging-start with a 10 gallon, move to a 55 flipped on its side (make sure top can be secured) then they can move into their 6 foot permanent enclosure
substrate-we use newspaper-quick easy clean up
temperment-babies tend to be nippy and will usually bite, after handling they usually calm down although we have a couple that just do not want to be bothered and still tend to strike
average growth-there really is no average, depends on fedding and the snake-we have 4 one and a half year olds-one is 8 feet, one is 9 feet, one is only 6 feet, and the last is 12 feet-also depends on male or female-males tend to be smaller.
feeding-start right away with rats-do not give them mice-too hard to switch and baby burms can eat rat pups from the beginning-we switch to rabbits as soon as they will take them (we can get rabbit kits and they are the size of large rats)
As far as taking them out-we do not usually take them out in public-most people are frightened and we would not want anyone to get bit-we do take them outside in the backyard in the summer for brief periods of time when the temps permit.
Hope this covers some of your questions.

On a personal note-I love burms-they are great and we have had some of ours for years.

that definitely helps. so the 6 foot enclosure can be permenent? i thought they grew out of it.

A six foot enclosure will work for a snake up to 12 ft... you could probably keep a male burm in a cage this size it's entire life.

But just remember how big six foot is. I'm not even six foot tall... so the cage would be longer than I if I was laying next to it.

alright so females would need a larger area later on? there is a really bad pun about my girlfriend in there. :D still a 12 ft. snake seems large for our house i think i'll go with a boa for now and when we move i'll get something bigger.

A female would probably need an 8'-10' cage... they can get from 15' to over 20' in length and weigh 200lbs. or more.

And male burms can get over 12'... sometimes up as high as 15' depending.

They are VERY large snakes, male or female.

And sexual dimorphism---females being bigger than males---is common in snakes, so don't give your g/f a hard time. You may end up with a nice welt on your cheek :P

oh come on you know i was joking i would never say anything like that to her
i think i waill be going with a boa burms are to large for me to keep safely by myself

Rock on! :gj: I think this is probably a good idea---if you would be the only one handling the snake, especially. For every 8' or so of snake, you should have another person there to help you out should something happen. With a 20' burm, you'd probably need at least two, probably three, including yourself.

Come on over to the boa side... I'll save you a seat. :D

yup decision made rtb this summer

its the dark side look out......hahahaha j/k j/k i love em

heres mine

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81...n/100_1288.jpg

Actually, I believe it is considered the dark side on this site...

But we have cookies!

And I can probably get you a sweet name tag, too! :cool: