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Temperature Gradient
Proper temperature range is essential to keeping your snake healthy. The ambient air temperature throughout the enclosure must be maintained between 85F-88F during the day, with a basking area kept at 90F. At night, the ambient air temperature may be allowed to drop down no lower than 78F to 80F. Special reptile heating pads that are manufactured to maintain a temperature about 20F higher than the air temperature may be used inside the enclosure. There are adhesive pads that can be stuck to the underside of a glass enclosure (unfortunately, when the time comes to move your snake to a larger tank, the heating pad cannot easily be removed from the old tank and reused). Heating pads made for people, found at all drug stores and supermarkets, are also available; these have built-in high-medium-low switches and can be used under or inside a glass or wood enclosure. You can also use incandescent light bulbs in porcelain and metal reflector hoods to provide the additional heat required for the basking area. All lights must be screened off to prevent the snake from burning itself, and bright lights must be turned off at least 12 to 14 hours a day to mimic a proper photoperiod; if kept under lights all the time, the snakes will stress and may become ill. If the proper temperatures cannot be maintained without the incandescent light, then you must use another source of non-light emitting or dim light emitting heat. All pythons are very susceptible to thermal burns and for this reason a hot rock must not be used. Buy at least two thermometers: one to use 1 inch above the enclosure floor in the cooler side, and the other 1 inch above the floor in the basking area. Don't try to guess the temperature. You will end up with a snake who will be too cold to eat and digest its food. Once your snake is bigger, invest in a pig blanket, a large rigid pad for which you can buy a thermostat to better control the temperature.
Special Lighting
No special lighting is needed. You may use any incandescent bulb in the enclosure during the day, and a suitable red, blue or nocturnal reptile light at night. Snakes do not require ultraviolet B wavelengths. Make sure the snake cannot get into direct contact with the light bulbs. If they climb into the fluorescent tube fixture, they may pop out and break the bulb--an expensive and potentially lethal accident.
Feeding
Allow your snake to acclimate for a week or two to its new home. Start your hatchling (about 22" in length) off with a single pre-killed week to 10-day old "fuzzy" rat. A smaller sized hatchling may require a small mouse. Older Burmese may be fed larger pre-killed rats. The rule of thumb is that you can feed prey items that are no wider than the widest part of the snake's body. While Burmese (most of whom are bottomless pits when it comes to putting down food) will often gladly eat prey that is too large for their size, they will generally regurgitate the prey item one or more days later--not a pretty sight. If you have not had any experience force feeding a snake, you may not want to try it yourself until you have seen someone do it. It is very easy to overfeed Burmese as most of them are always eager for food, whether they need it or not. Be judicious--you will end up with a giant snake soon enough. Just feed enough to keep it healthy, not obese.
Veterinary Care
Routine veterinary screening for newly acquired snakes is essential. Many of the parasites infesting Burmese and other reptiles can be transmitted to humans and other reptiles. Left untreated, such infestations can ultimately kill your snake. When your snake first defecates, collect the feces in a clean plastic bag, seal it, label it with the date, your name and phone number and the snake's name, and take it and your snake to a vet who is experienced with reptiles. There it will be tested for parasites (which the majority of pet trade reptiles have) and the proper medication given.
Handling your New Snake
After giving your Burmese a couple of days to settle in, begin picking it up and handling it gently. It may try to move away from you and may threaten you by twitching its tail and hissing. Be gentle but persistent. Daily contact will begin to establish a level of trust and confidence between you and your snake. When it is comfortable with you, you can begin taking it around the house. Don't get over-confident! Given a chance and close proximity to seat cushions, your Burm will make a run (well, a slither) for it, easing down between the cushions and from there, to points possibly unknown. Always be gentle and try to avoid sudden movements. If the snake wraps around your arm or neck, you can unwind it by gently unwrapping it starting at the tail end, not the head.
Water
Provide a bowl of fresh water at all times; your snake will both drink, soak and may defecate in it. Check it and replace with fresh water as necessary. Bowls should be big enough for the snake to get into and soak before its sheds. As the snake gets too big for suitably sized tubs in its enclosure, it will have to be taken out and bathed in a secured and safe bathroom.
Necessities
Some things you should have on hand for general maintenance and first aid include: Nolvasan(R) (chlorhexidine diacetate) for cleaning enclosures and disinfecting food and water bowls, litter boxes, tubs and sinks etc. Betadine(R) (povidone/iodine) for cleansing scratches and wounds. Set aside feeding and water bowls, and a soaking bowl or tub for the sole use of your snake.
Bad Press - And Often Deservedly So
Giant pythons have been in the press quite a bit, all due to the fact that their owners died as a result of improper handling of their snakes. While admittedly the press sensationalizes in order to better sell papers, the fact of the matter is that not only is there still a great deal of morbid fear on the part of the general public as regards snakes in general, and giant pythons in particular, but there is also a great deal of stupidity being displayed by many giant python owners (such as by those owners who are surprised to find that their ten foot snake left their backyard to go exploring the neighborhood when left outside for a bit of sun).
And for every story that the press "neglects" to correct, such as the man who actually suffered a fatal heart attack while watching TV with his python, rather than being killed by it, the press also fails to point out what was being done improperly by the snake owner at the time of the "attack." If you smell like food to a snake, especially some of the giant pythons who seemingly contain a bottomless pit instead of a finite stomach, you will be grabbed. And since most people's reaction when being grabbed by a mouth full of fangs in a head the size of a cantaloupe is to flinch and draw away, the snake, sensing live "prey," does what a snake ought to do--bite harder to retain a good grip on the "prey" (hopefully your arm and NOT your face) and coil and constrict around it to begin the process of suffocation. In the case of the unfortunate Canadian snake owner who was killed, his python was not very big, but a) the owner was highly intoxicated at the time, b) the snake was in shed and its eyes were fully opaque and c) the snake was known to be temperamental in general. So not only was the snake feeling particularly cranky and intolerable of human interaction, its human was too intoxicated to act, and react, appropriately.
According to one hospital emergency room physician who has made a study of snake bites, he found that the majority of bites happen to young adult males (late teens through mid-twenties) who are intoxicated at the time of the "attack." On the flip side, though, is the unfortunate Colorado family whose young teenage son was napping when he was attacked and killed by the family's eight foot pet Burmese, a snake who had been free-roaming in the house ever since it was brought home as a hatchling.
While it is true that you are more likely to die in an automobile accident, it is also true that in the past year alone, the number of deaths attributed to and actually caused by pet pythons has more than tripled. As a direct result of the irresponsible actions of these python owners, cities and states are enacting ordinances and legislation banning or severely restricting the private ownership of large pythons - in many cases any snake of any species that reaches 6 or more feet in length.
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