overweight burms

[stalk]

Hi guys,

I want to try and keep Apep in shape. Its easy with Serena and Sayoko because Sayoko is pretty slender and Serena exercises herself into a great shape on her own.

I'm not sure how Burms are supposed to feel. From what I understand they are pretty girthy. Apep is only 3 months old and he feels very soft and has no strength in his grip. From what I understand burms are typically very floppy when handled so this is not bad.

But the feel of apep and my red tails are so different I'm concerned. If I should just chalk it up to speices difference then that's ok.

Is their body supposed to feel very soft and squishy? He is 29" by the way. 170 grams. He is being fed one rat pup a week.

He never moved an inch when he was in the tub for a month, and never moved a inch for another month in his 6x2x2 cage. But in the last week or two he has been roaming a lot at night so he finally is getting exercise. Maybe he will gain some muscle and lose weight soon but I want to make sure I'm not calling him fat when he's just normal for his speices.

Thanks.

[SNAKEWISPERER]

My burms are pretty solid, not as solid as my boas though. I'm not sure if that answers your question.lol

[stalk]

Haha. A very vague answer to a very vague question, so it can't be helped I suppose. Now that he's more active I should probably see how his body changes over the month and decide.

He didn't have the strength to even constrict until recently. I'm feeding him on Friday so I'll see how he improves. Last feeding (one week after be became active) he had a good strike and constrict, so at least there's improvement.

[razeraze]

1.)it takes a while for them to adjust to a new cage and really explore.

2.) your cage set up will greatly affect whether the snake exercises.

3.) if it were me I would add more height if you want a potentially giant snake to climb and exercise. There is no point in climbing to the top if your tail is still touching the bottom of the cage.

4.) post some pics of him in the cage and i will try and help more.

[stalk]

Raze,

I've already utilized the height of the cage I built. He has been climbing all over up down and on the ground. He wasn't moving for about 2 months but he is moving around and exploring a ton for the last two weeks.

I think he is getting plenty of exercise and will probably still get a fair amount until he is 4 feet long.

Since he never moved for 2 months, I think he is fat. He looks a bit better in the last two weeks that he's been moving about and exploring. But I wanted to see what to expect from a burm. I wanted to know if they are generally soft feeling even in shape, or if they are supposed to get as muscular as a boa constrictor.

I've been handling a lot of large burms but most of them were in 8x4x3 cages so I felt they were probabky overweight.

I'm not concerned with the amount of exercise is getting I'm just trying to get a good gauge for what a healthy burm feels like. My bcc and bci are very healthy but I don't know if a burm would ever feel the same way as they do even if they were just as healthy.

I'd love to hold a large wild burm at this point so that I can have a idea what they feel like.

	Boa Constrictor Constrictor Red Tail Boa Constrictor (Boa constictor constrictor). Refers to "true" red tail boas such as the Guyana and Suriname locales.

	Boa Constrictor Imperator Boa Constrictor (Boa constrictor imperator). Most common is the Colombian Boa.

[stalk]

Oops double post

[razeraze]

A large wild burm might be underweight because food is sometimes scarce.

You are on the right track, and perhaps he just took longer to adjust to the new cage. If you would like to find out what a healthy burm feels like I suggest you try a zoo with a good enclosure. I will try and find the pic I have of a burm at a local zoo, it was in great shape despite the crummy cage.

[stalk]

Unfortunately the San Francisco zoo only has a green anaconda in a terrible and cramped englosure, and I don't think the Oakland Zoo has a large snake. They have a Green Tree Python but that doesn't help me much.

But if you have pictures I'd appreciate it, it is hard to show a healthy burm through pictures though in my opinion because most of them look huge in girth, I want to feel that girth to see if its supposed to be soft or hard.

Have you ever handled one? Because its kind of hard to describe how a burm generally feels that is captive.