Big snakes...Who can and who can't handle them?

[deadliestformula]

Originally Posted by louise

i made this thread a sticky and moved it to giant snakes.

Great idea!

[Sleepy_FF]

Originally Posted by JuliusSqueezer

No way chick. I like em too They look like mini tree anacondas. Cool snakes.

then its a race to see who gets the breeding pairs first

of course, after i win, ill give you pick of the first litter

EDIT:
since i want 3 seperate breeding pairs, you can have pick of 2 litters. so you can have a breeding pair if you wanted.

[Dbutton]

Good post Brett.
It is funny that you posted this because just the other day I was up at my partners house helping him clean our 17ft. tiger retic's cage. This entails us carrying her out into the driveway area and I keep her occupied while he cleans the cage. Well being a sweet but head strong girl that she is turned into a wrestling match while trying to keep her from going into the brush pile, up a tree, through the hogwire fencing etc.....
And when we finally got her back into the cage I looked my partner straight in the eye and (in between panting) told him "We need another guy!!".
As most of you know, some from meeting me, I am a pretty big guy at 6' 5" and around 260lbs and that girl almost kicked my butt and she wasn't even trying. All she wanted to do was go where I didn't want her to.
With my burms it is a whole different story though. They just have such sheer size that it takes two people just to carry them outside, but once out there it is pretty easy to deal with them.
I think that it is not only important to have the knowledge of handling big snakes but also there is a need for some experienced backup/help. Sure, I can still pick up Daisy or Kramer by myself if I have to and they don't give me any trouble. BUt it does kind of hurt my back now, LOL!
My point it that somewhere down the road with retics and burms you WILL need assistance for every cage cleaning or any other time you need to remove them from their cage. And finding someone willing/able/experienced may be a problem.

David

[reptilemama]

I was just thinking on this subject the other day. I've been considering getting a baby burm to use in education programs, but especially now that I'm moving, the only person I have to help me is my son. He's almost 8, and right now, even if he had the experience, I don't think he's physically big enough to help me with a large snake. He doesn't even get to handle the boas- he can pet them with me there, but not hold them by himself. So, what would you guys consider a minimum age to assist with a large snake, assuming the kid has enough experience? I'm going to have him helping me more and more as he gets older, so he'll get the experience, but I haven't decided if he's old enough that if I get a baby now, he'll be big enough to help as it grows. What do you guys think?

[Nonconformist]

I love burms. I've had a few. Not in over ten years though. I don't keep them now because of the expense more than anything else.

But my brother has begun breeding rabbits - so maybe one day, but not very likely.

[Dbutton]

Originally Posted by reptilemama

I was just thinking on this subject the other day. I've been considering getting a baby burm to use in education programs, but especially now that I'm moving, the only person I have to help me is my son. He's almost 8, and right now, even if he had the experience, I don't think he's physically big enough to help me with a large snake. He doesn't even get to handle the boas- he can pet them with me there, but not hold them by himself. So, what would you guys consider a minimum age to assist with a large snake, assuming the kid has enough experience? I'm going to have him helping me more and more as he gets older, so he'll get the experience, but I haven't decided if he's old enough that if I get a baby now, he'll be big enough to help as it grows. What do you guys think?

My son has been "helping" me with the snakes since he was about 8, but it took a few years before I let him handle any by himself. He is a great help with the burms and is now comfortable with handling at least mine. He knows no to trust other peoples snakes like he does mine. And now that he is almost 15 and pretty big he just grabs on and I have to follow when we take the big ones out.
I think that alot has to do with the individual kid and how much they are into the snakes. Just let him move into it at his own pace and see where it leads.

David

[BrentS]

very good post. It's a nice wake up call for everyone.

[louise]

i need those wake up calls every so often.

[BWSmith]

Very good topic. How about some illustrations?



This is an 18' Retic that Mike had at the shop. Lucky us, it got an RI. Normally, i would give antibiotics orally. Ummm, not with this monster. So Mike and I had to give it injections. The cage it was in had two doors. So we dragged a large hunk of snake out one door and we both straddled it. Mike in front, me about 2' behind him so i could give the injection between us. Now neither of us are huge as you can see, but that is still about 300 pounds holding down that