Flighty, fearful Burmese

[Gilligan]

Thank you again everyone. I still have hope! Andylee - the burm that you have is still defensive, do you feel like he is a challenging snake to keep? Does he intentionally come after you like an aggressive snake or just keeps to himself as long as you don't disturb him too much? How is it to clean his cage? Do you take him out and handle him?

I am still concerned about his size. He hatched July 2015 and look how small he is. People say Burms get to be several feet long in a year, and he's almost to a year and only a few feet long. Maybe it's not a bad thing with his current behavioral situation.

[Tigerhawk]

Just don't give up. Be consistent and things should work out for you.

[Yodawagon]

Beautiful snake to get bit by. Don't let the bite happen, then put it away. Stick to it even after a bite. You don't want them thinking if they bite, they get left alone.

[Gilligan]

Yesterday I handled him again and yet again it went well. I used the non-writing end of a pen to rub along his body. I felt bad because as I did it, I could see him like squishing himself down to move away from the touch. And kind of twitchy as I moved it along him, like the way ones skin crawls sometimes.

I picked him up after and it went well. He was nervous, but crawled along my hands and mostly was calm. No hissing or striking. I held him a moment then returned him to his tub. We shall see how things progress.

Should I be worried about how small he is?

[bcr229]

Should I be worried about how small he is?

No, as long as he is healthy and his body condition is good, I wouldn't worry about it.

[Tigerhawk]

Sounds like you are making progress. Keep it up I'm sure things are going to work out for you.

[Andylee11]

Response to your questions .
He is 3 years old now a little over 10 feet long. The second I open his cage up he goes into defensive mode . Meaning he gets himself in strike position and hisses loud as he can. He does not "come after me " but he will not hesitate to strike if I get to close . I handle him and clean his cage like I do with any of my other large pythons , takes more time but he's still on the same rotation . Once he's out of the cage he becomes more hissy , he will strike if he's startled or if you even touch him wrong . The thing that really seemed to help him being minorly tolerant is being VERY slow and VERY controlled in the movement I use to handle him. I TRY to not force him into a movement or a position . I let him do what he wants on his terms with some exceptions .Generally resulting in a lot of hissing with a occasional freak out strike or two . The gentler I am with him the gentler he is with me. Sure it's a little more challenging but it also is something that I've accepted . A grumpy Burm is easier then a grumpy Retic in my opinion lol. Hope he settles down with regular handling . Sounds like there's hope . Hope that answers your questions at least a little bit . Good luck mate

[dkatz4]

I know this is an older thread, but curious about how things are going for the OP now 9 months later.

[cchardwick]

Wow, that's a stunning snake! And the body condition looks great, maybe it was underfed for a long time then switched owners and was beefed up before you got it.

First for any mean snake I'd like to see what kind of setup you have. There are mean snakes and then there are snakes that are just stressed out by the conditions they are kept in. Personally I've taken really mean snakes in glass tanks and put them in tubs and they totally mellowed out from super mean to puppy dog tame almost overnight. I would also never let a snake bite me on purpose, especially a bigger snake like that which can cause some damage. I use a long snake hook even for my smaller snakes if I think they are going to bite me, mainly to let them know I'm not feeding (to break the hunt) and to keep the head away from my hand if I'm planning on trying to pick them up. Usually once I get them up in my hands I can drop the hook and they are fine.

The biggest thing is that you build trust and respect with the snake. He has to know you are not a threat and you have to know if you are going to get bit or not, and that takes some time getting to know the snake. I also never decide I'm going to jump in and pick up a snake on any given day. I usually try to figure out their mood and go from there. If they are coiled up on the hot spot and sleeping and you try to rub them with a hook and they jump, like they have popcorn in their belly, I back off and will let them rest. I've also found that if they are under a hide in a glass tank and sleeping if you grab the hide and pull it off real fast they can get super aggressive. I've never seen that super aggression with a tub and sliding it open, not sure why the tubs work so much better than glass tanks, at least for me.

And some snakes are just down right mean, perhaps they have been mistreated so bad that they will never trust anyone. I think it's especially hard with super large snakes like a full grown retic or burm since trying to tame them down can cost you big time if you get a full on bite in the wrong place.

[Aste88]

Both my Burms started as quite feisty little fellas. They would hiss a lot when I tried picking them up and sometimes even when cruising my hands. Got bitten a few times, no big deal.

The older one, now that he's around 5ft, became super mellow. He'll still hiss a bit if I disturb him while sleeping but otherwise he's puppy dog tame. My favorite snake now. I just open the cage and he comes out on my hand on his own.

The female is still young and scared, still working on her. She's already better than when I got her, no biting anymore and stops hissing soon after I pick her up.

Just work with your animal and you'll see results, I have the impression they're a bit smarter than other smaller snake.