The Burm Has Landed!

Your Burm is gorgeous! If he knows you'll give him a mouse when he refuses rats he'll keep doing it and it'll be tougher to make the transition. Now that you know he'll eat rats don't offer him anything else unless he starts losing significant weight. It's tough love though because you may have to starve him out for a while but he'll eventually get the message and eat whatever you offer.

It's time for some tough love. If he doesn't take the rat don't give in. He will eat the rat sooner or later.

with regard to the tough love approach, 2 question: 1- how long can i keep a f/t rat in the cage and how often should i reheat? and 2 - for a 5 month old burm who was used to 10 day feeding intervals, how long should i let him go without eating before i give in and offer a mouse (hopefully it doesn't come to that)?

Also, I've heard chicken broth and/or tuna "juice" can help, but i'm skeptical considering he's never eaten fish or fowl (and he's not a cat)

He will be fine going past the ten day mark. What you want is for him to get hungry enough so that he's ready to eat just about anything that's warm and smells like a rodent. Wait fifteen days before you offer the rat. However before you offer it rub it all over with a mouse. You will win, Burm's are big snakes they can't eat mice forever. Can you imagine how many mice it would take to fill up a hundred pound burm. If he doesn't eat after that DO NOT GIVE HIM A MOUSE. You will win don't give in don't give up.:)

I agree with Hawk, no mice. You'd go broke with a mouser Burm :). If he doesn't eat right away leave the feeder in overnight. Try offering food every 14 days, then every 17-21 days, then every 3-4 weeks. Try that for 3 months and see if he gets on track. I doubt he'll go past 17-21 days though. That's about what it took for my finicky feeder to get with the program. I still believe that hunger ALWAYS wins in the end. Hang in there.

Trouble feeding ??


Hi , for what it's worth , I've had 99.99% success with the HAIRDRYER method . The basics I've noticed are to feed in the evening , after dark and in very low light . I thaw either naturally or on a radiator / heat mat or for speed in very warm water ( in a bag to preserve the all important smell/ odour . Then at the last minute blast for a short while to get the mouse / rat to a decent temp and offer INSTANTLY as they cool down very quickly . Then if there's the very SLIGHTEST interest shown you're normally in business , if there's no strike just repeat the above exactly and offer again INSTANTLY , repeat until taken .

If there is absolutely ZERO interest then I wait for ten days before trying again but there is no handling or cleaning done in that time ...


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Beautiful animal!


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Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy

Your Burm is gorgeous! If he knows you'll give him a mouse when he refuses rats he'll keep doing it and it'll be tougher to make the transition. Now that you know he'll eat rats don't offer him anything else unless he starts losing significant weight. It's tough love though because you may have to starve him out for a while but he'll eventually get the message and eat whatever you offer.

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Do you think I should attempt a rat at the seven day mark this week? I would be shocked if he actually took it, although I am curious if the tuna fish trick would actually work, but I really don't feel like throwing away a perfectly good rat either.

Just try the rat and if he doesnt eat it, leave it in the cage for a couple hours. If still no bites, toss it to the boa. Luna is DEATHLY scared of rats and does machine gun attacks on them and then runs off to the other side of the cage and hides lol. I've tried scenting and everything. What i did was lay a mouse down on a piece of cardboard next to a rat. She came over when the want for food was stronger than the scared factor and ate the mouse, then came back and checked the rat out and ate that too. Just get half size of each so it totals to the total size of one prey if that makes sense. I quit doing it though and just went back to mice as Luna is fine with adult mice still. Once she gets large enough, I'm sure i can switch her over. I wouldnt doubt your burm would switch once he outgrew mice.

Length update!

He had a perfect shed last night (and a perfectly stinky BM and pee) so i broke out my trusty dollar bill and .....[drum roll].....

2 feet, 6.5 inches!

thats just over 2 inches since i got him a month ago and, mind you, he's not been a great eater during that time. Hopefully he'll get on the rat-wagon this month! I'm going to feed him on Friday, that will have been 2 weeks since he had a mouse so i'm hoping he'll be hungry enough to take the rat. I feel bad for "starving" him, it was just lucky that he went into shed this week or else i might have caved in and tried earlier.

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