I recently purchased two Burmese pythons from a local “breeder” right at a week ago. I put breeder in quotations, because you’d think anyone calling themselves a breeder wouldn’t release snakes to someone without them having their first shed and a few meals. I’m already beating myself up for not being more thorough with my questions with him before I made the purchase.
The granite I purchased from him took its first meal with me no problem, the albino however just hissed and continued to strike at the meal in a defensive way, never grabbing the prey item and coiling. I messaged the breeder and he informed me that the granite had shed and taken two meals from him, but the albino he sold me hadn’t had it’s first shed or first meal. These snakes are just at a few weeks old. I’ve got them both on moist reptichip with 70% humidity. Is there anything else I can do other than try to wait out the albinos first shed? When should I start to be concerned about it not shedding? I’m also going to move it into a much smaller tub, let it settle in there for a few days, and then offer another prey item. Any other advice or tips would be much appreciated. Still ****ed at myself for not doing my due diligence on these snakes. First and last time I’ll make this mistake.
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Sounds like you are on the right track.
1.) smaller tub
2.) wait awhile…
I would wait until after it sheds. That belly full of yolk will sustain it for longer than you’d think. I would wait until after it’s first shed which may be closer than you think. One of my pet peeves with albinos is how they don’t darken up like a snake with melanin would, I describe their look as “dusty” before they shed. So stay the course, don’t stress it out. Leave it alone and let it get comfortable and hungry. It will be a garbage disposal of food before you know it.
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He’s finally gone into pre-shed and has also had two meals now. I’m guessing the guy I got him from didn’t know if he had shed or not. I’m just glad he’s on the right track now. Thanks for the advice, the smaller tub helped out too.
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One thing I can tell you from all of the Burmese pythons I have hatched, they will always eventually eat. They are far from the species you ever need to worry about starving themselves.
One tid bit of advice, and you probably already know this. One thing you will learn about burms, especially babies is while they are notorious about being nippy they are also usually quick to give up the fight. What I mean by that is, handle them often while they are babies. Take a few shots, give a little blood. They are incredibly intelligent animals and will figure out very quickly that you aren’t going to eat them every time you pick them up. I would strongly suggest hook training them in the first year as well. When my girls got up to their massive sizes while they were mostly very laid back, they had a strong feeding reposose and it’s just not realistic to have a separate feeding enclosure for a 15-18’+ snake. I always fed in their enclosures but when I slid that glass open if I wasn’t feeding them I would run the hook down their side and you could literally see their muscles relax. They knew that hook meant that it wasn’t feeding time but more than likely play time.
I hope this little bit of info helps and good luck with your babies! You are going to love them!
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