Life with a Burmese?

I saw a beautiful pair of Burmese for sale; and I wondered what life with a Burmese is like. How big are the enclosures y'all who have them use?
My biggest snake is my boa, Ms. Plus Size, but she is only a little over 9 feet. She is easily handled and has a nice disposition, but I wonder how it would be to have a 100 lb.snake, she is not that heavy and I can lift her fairly easily.
So, let's hear it from the Burmese owners, what do you think?

I have a baby at the moment, but as a rule of thumb, when handling have at least one person for every 6 feet of snake. I have a friend in Washington who uses a 7 ft Long x 4 ft wide x 3 feet tall for his burms and retics. I am going to be building a cage when my little girl out grows a 4 foot long I have waiting for her. I was told a rule of enough length that the snake can easily fold themsleves in half inside the cage so they can stretch. As I said I am new to them also, but after seeing Ravenspirit's thread this really gave me a good idea of what's to be expected.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ad.php?t=71728

Sorry I am not a whole lot of help.

Hey, Lucille,
Check out this thread for a little pre-decision thought http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ad.php?t=71572
sorry - i just couldn't bring myself to retype or copy and paste it...but it is just a handful of posts

Thank y'all for your replies. I have given it some thought and have decided that since I have been a good and responsible reptile owner in the past, I feel I can live up to the challenges that the Burmese present.
They will hopefully arrive next week, their quarters are temporary while I look for a good deal on a BIG cage or cages (they have been kept together).
They are absolutely gorgeous snakes, one is albino and the other is het albino.

Lucille,

I have two words of caution about keeping them together. First is feeding time. I would hate to have to separate two hungry Burms. These two may be docile but they are still pythons with the ability to injure you a great deal with a bite, nevermind if they decide that you are food. Second is the issue of breeding. If they are a 1.1 pair and you house them together you may get eggs whether you plan on it or not. Burms can produce very large clutch numbers and the market is saturated. Way too many of these snakes have been released in places like Florida (where they now now have established populations) and euthanized because they simply "got too big".

Just another $0.02.

I think the female may already be gravid, I would never release any albino burms into the Houston bayous, though.
I am looking though some classifieds and ebay, but y'all email me if you see a good deal on cages. I did a terrific job building my custom acrylic cages in my reptile room, but I think that for such large snakes, I will purchase cages such as visions, etc.

I'm checking in late on this topic, but I'll just reiterate a few things that others have said. I have 5 beautiful burms, from 17 ft. on down.

Enclosures can be a challenge. All of ours have been made by us, so I don't have any advice on which cages you should buy, but they are 8 x 4 x 3. Each one has a pre-molded tub from the pond supply section of Lowe's to soak in. Large acrylic viewing areas, one deep shelf at the end opposite the water tub serves a dual purpose: makes for a great hide, and also gives a shelf to curl up on top of if they like. Heat is provided via under tank heat tape, augmented for basking heat by a ceramic heat emitter up top over the center area. Plenty of acrylic viewing windows, and LARGE double doors in the front so that I can actually crawl inside for cleaning if necessary.

I second the opinion that they shouldn't be kept together UNLESS you acquire a cage that has the option of dividing in half (by inserting a panel) for either feeding or cleaning. I've seen them, but can't remember where.

One person for every six feet of snake, no exceptions. The most docile snake in the world can react to stimulus you neither notice or control, and it can lead to a world of hurt. I also recommend a spray bottle of alcohol be kept close at hand just in case ... even if they don't coil after a bite, they sometimes just refuse to let go, and a spritz of alcohol will undo that.

Enjoy them, and good luck!

Ms. Terese can you post pix, I would love to see your burms and your enclosure.

Just a thought to add. I keep a bottle of 200 proof alcohol(from work laboratory). I have found that this did not work when I had a 5 foot boa latch on to my arm. I read and heard a lot from people that alcohol works wonders, not in my case. I have since learned to also use hot water, the snakes react instantly to extreme heat. I still keep the alcohol around just in case. That boa sat for 3 hours with his mouth agape after getting a nice dousing of alcohol.

Originally Posted by Junkyard

Just a thought to add. I keep a bottle of 200 proof alcohol(from work laboratory). I have found that this did not work when I had a 5 foot boa latch on to my arm. I read and heard a lot from people that alcohol works wonders, not in my case. I have since learned to also use hot water, the snakes react instantly to extreme heat. I still keep the alcohol around just in case. That boa sat for 3 hours with his mouth agape after getting a nice dousing of alcohol.

I prefer 80-100 proof alcohol, personally (call me a wimp). PROCEDURE: A little spritz for the snake, a few swigs for me, and wait. Repeat swigs PRN and titrate to effect. **please remember to put snake/lizard away at some point after it gets bored and lets go...BE CAREFUL, or you will get bit again**
sorry - I couldn't resist
On a more serious note, I do know of people that do the alcohol thing. They use cheap vodka. (I would let go to if you gave me that crap) I had considered preparing a spray bottle at one point, but I figured it was more likely to pi$$ the monitors off and make'em hold on longer...or worse, bite harder and shake. I'm not sure what alcohol the lab uses, but at least cheap vodka is technically ingestable. If the stuff you used cannot, I wouldn't spray it into the mouth of MY snakes