Burm refusing his dinner!

[pipistrollers]

Hi everyone, we are new to the forum but thought we should come straight here rather than the introduce yourself section.

Our boy burm is a year and a half old, 9ft long, in good health, is lively, is not snappy or agressive, come out regularly, is happy in his viv with good temps, regular fresh water and is happy with his hide.

We have had him since he was a baby and have gone through the correct feeding spectrum i.e., 1 small mouse, then 2, then 1 medium, then 2 and so on. He went up to 2 giant rats at the beginning of January this year and took them readily. He has been eating 2 giant rats per week since then until last week when he refused his food for the first time in is life. We ended up putting the first giant rat into his viv as we thought he would get around to it but he didn't. We left it in there for a while but then took it out. About an hour later, we tried him with the second giant rat but again he refused. We left that in his viv for a while but he was not interested. Today (a week later) the same thing has happened - he is not in the slightest bit interested.

He is not shedding or coming up for shed and when he comes out of his viv he is not snappy at all. He has never been snappy but we thought that if he was hungry he may snap a bit?

We are worried as his behaviour with his food is totally out of character for him. He is our first burm.

Please does anyone have any advice as to why he may be doing this - should we be worried?

[Squirtle]

Can we get some pictures of him and his setup?

[NBLADE]

At that age and size, and now the weather is starting to warm up a little, my first thoughts would be he has only one thing on his mind right now, and food isn't it.

2weeks without food is nothing for a burm, aslong as it is a healthy animal, he can go months without losing any weight and still be perfectly healthy.

It would help if you could post some up to date pictures of him, and just run through his set up, (temps etc), although if you have had him this long and not changed anything set up wise i seriously doubt that will be the issue now, but always good to double check everything.

[pipistrollers]

Thank you so much for your replies.

I have uploaded a couple of pics to show him and his viv. By the way, the skull isn't in the viv any longer! These pics were taken mid December.

Nothing has changed with his housing. His ambient temp is 84.7 and he also loves his heat mat which of course is under his spot bulb. His water is changed fresh daily. He has his hide plus a log and some jungle vine for climbing on and of course he as nice deep substrate. He is happy in himself, his usual placid friendly self, not snappy at all.

We are a bit concerned about his viv size which is being rectified in a couple of weeks. He is in a 4 x 2 x 2 and is going to be moving up to an 8 x 3 x 3

Do you think he could be wanting a lady? Bless him he's on a baby haha

[Squirtle]

I think you should take out all the decorations out of his cage to give him more space, until you get the 8 foot cage. The 4 foot one is good for him right now, I keep mine that's about the same size but a year and 3 months older in a 5 x 2 comfortably, but I'll be giving him a bigger cage when he's bigger. Mine is off feed as well, since January.. Although I'm fairly certain that mines is refusing food because he wants to breed since he's two years old. I could say the same for yours if he's at least 18 months old, so as long as you remove the furnishings in his cage and keep his temps the same and don't change anything else, I wouldn't worry too much.

[pipistrollers]

Hi and thanks for your reply

We can't take anything out of his viv. The basket is his hide which he needs and uses every day. His log is screwed in and he uses that every day along with his jungle vine. The only other thing in his viv is his water dish which obviously we can't take out. His cave isn't there now as he has his basket and his tunnel isn't there now either

Will see over the next little while what happen with his feeding - perhaps our son has become a man!!!

[Aaron_S]

I think you should take out all the decorations out of his cage to give him more space, until you get the 8 foot cage. The 4 foot one is good for him right now, I keep mine that's about the same size but a year and 3 months older in a 5 x 2 comfortably, but I'll be giving him a bigger cage when he's bigger. Mine is off feed as well, since January.. Although I'm fairly certain that mines is refusing food because he wants to breed since he's two years old. I could say the same for yours if he's at least 18 months old, so as long as you remove the furnishings in his cage and keep his temps the same and don't change anything else, I wouldn't worry too much.

furnishings don't really matter. To him it's more ground to move over. It only looks like there's no space due to how we see things. To them, they don't care.

[pipistrollers]

Aaron that's what we thought also. We are learning with him that he loves to go over, under and around things to explore and I suppose its all exercise for him

[NBLADE]

Thank you so much for your replies.

I have uploaded a couple of pics to show him and his viv. By the way, the skull isn't in the viv any longer! These pics were taken mid December.

Nothing has changed with his housing. His ambient temp is 84.7 and he also loves his heat mat which of course is under his spot bulb. His water is changed fresh daily. He has his hide plus a log and some jungle vine for climbing on and of course he as nice deep substrate. He is happy in himself, his usual placid friendly self, not snappy at all.

We are a bit concerned about his viv size which is being rectified in a couple of weeks. He is in a 4 x 2 x 2 and is going to be moving up to an 8 x 3 x 3

Do you think he could be wanting a lady? Bless him he's on a baby haha

He looks like he could be a little chubby in the bottom picture, 2 big rats a week is quite a lot of food for a burm his size, i'd get him up to a decent sized single meal, so a small rabbit or guinea pig and feed him every 10 to 14 days. So could be that he has refused as he isn't hungry due to being fed that much.
I'd scrap the heat mat, at the size he is now they aren't ideal for heavy bodied snakes, a burm his size can cause heat pockets on the mat which get hotter than the rest of it and risk thermal burns, heating from above is best on larger snakes unless in a suitable rack system. So your spot light heating will be fine.

At 18 months old he is more than ready to breed, and it is the current season so i'd still say this is the most likely reason, but unless he starts losing weight drastically, then he will be able to go months with no issues, so nothing to worry about. I'd leave him a week then offer him something, if he doesn't take again, then change to offering every 2 weeks to avoid wastage.

[pipistrollers]

Thank you so much

[Squirtle]

To me, that branch seems useless and he could use the space. I can understand the basket and obviously the water bowl, but removing the branch would give him much more space. I honestly think that the reason he isn't eating is because he wants to breed, are you breeding him to a girl? What morph? If you are, congrats! Hope everything goes as you want it :)

[pipistrollers]

Well we hadn't thought of breeding him at all.

[millertime89]

Its breeding season, even breeding him won't make him start eating again. Just wait him out. Decrease feeding frequency so you're not wasting feeders(money) and don't stress it. He looks healthy for a 9ft burm. What does he weigh?

[Chu'Wuti]

Aaron_S said, furnishings don't really matter. To him it's more ground to move over. It only looks like there's no space due to how we see things. To them, they don't care.

I totally agree. That branch isn't 'taking up space;' in a sense, it's actually ADDING more space, as the burm can go up more easily. It's like stairs--the stairs themselves "take up space" if you are thinking only of the horizontal/floor surface area, but they give us a means of accessing a higher level. Lucky burm!

He definitely appears to be very well fed, so letting him go a few weeks or months without eating won't hurt him. When he's ready to eat again, he'll exhibit hunting behaviors. Right now he's hunting for females, so his hunting behavior will be different from that of hunting for prey. One obvious prey-hunting behavior is hanging out over a water bowl like a branch--after all, little fuzzy critters will come to water to get a drink, right? ;-) When he starts doing that for a couple of days, he's more likely to be interested in eating.

[pipistrollers]

To be honest, I don't know how much he weighs but hes a big boy!! I find it hard to lift him. I've noticed something but don't know if I'm just looking for problems. He came out of his viv and went across my carpet which I hadn't vacumed. He came up to see me and settled down on the sofa for a cuddle. Whilst I was checking him, as I do every few days, I noticed some marks on his belly. They were not there a few days previously when I last checked him. I was worried they were mites so I ran my hand quite firmly over the scales and looked for blood on my finger tips but there was nothing at all. I don't know if perhaps there was something on the carpet he went over or whether it could be something else. I have touched them and prodded them but it doesn't annoy him. I am posting pics in the hope someone might have any ideas.

Thanks a lot.

[Aaron_S]

Your snake apparently likes cuddles and seeks you out. Why don't you just ask what's wrong? Maybe ask what's it's gotten into? If it wants to be silent send it to bed without any dessert.

[pipistrollers]

If only it were that easy!