It is best to prevent Burmese attacks and accidents!

Burmese have been known to be dangerous animals, sometimes killing their owners. They are certainly among the largest snakes in the world and without proper care and husbandry these massive animals can over power just about any strong human. Most will outweigh their owners in three to five years, and a large portion of this weight is muscle. It is best to prevent these sorts of accidents by exercising great care in your husbandry practices. My advice to people has always been to avoid provoking the snakes to strike - and there's two reasons why a snake will strike, they think you're prey, or they think you're putting them in great danger. So, if we can avoid scaring our snakes or being confused for prey, many "pet python" accidents will be prevented.

#1. DONT BE CONFUSED FOR PREY!

You can avoid being confused for prey by not moving like it, and by not smelling like it. There are three reasons a snake is motivated to eat: Motion, Scent and Temperature. Arguably there is a fourth which is conditioning - the argument for this reason is that many pet pythons begin to have preferences for the most frequently offered food etc. All four are important if we are to prevent serious accidents.

• If you NEVER feed live prey and you move slowly when you approach the snake, you'll prevent being confused for moving prey. Eventually the Burmese will almost completely lose their striking and constricting instincts and will just start eating the prey without a strike or coil. This is safer for you because if you were to smell like prey, you wouldn't be dragged down nearly as viciously. The snake may always retain some instinct to constrict or strike, but feeding pre-killed prey will drastically reduce the likely hood of a mishap or fatality.* How to humanely pre-kill prey items.
• Never handle prey items prior to approaching your snake, especially without washing your hands very well. When you do feed, avoid touching the prey items with your bare hands which gets your scent on the prey. Obviously it is a bad idea then to use your hands to place the prey into the cage as well, the snake could strike and miss hitting you instead of the rabbit. For an example of what might happen if you're not using tongs or common sense download and listen to this file: 911call.mp3 (5.2MB)! Please use tongs to feed your Burmese! For the little guys, a big pair of forceps will work, but soon you'll need to invest in a good pair of tongs. Not only are they great for feeding, but they're relatively safe to handle an out of control animal with as well. Great snake handling equipment is a great idea and well worth the money - a great place to buy it is www.tongs.com, tell them I sent you!
• It's hard to avoid being a similar temperature than snake prey, but it is possible. We average surface temps on our skin of around 87-91 and rats average 75-100. Feeding frozen thawed, I've noticed the snakes prefer the warmer range - I think it helps them "see" it with their infrared sensory apparatus (heat pits). Anyhow, if you heat prey items to 104 and wear gloves, the snakes will love it, and there's no way I'll ever have a surface temp of 104. It really helps to have a temp gun, they're just nice, handy little gizmos! Here's a place to buy a good one: www.tempgun.com
• What ever regimen you feel is safe and effective, stick to it so you create a habit of doing everything the same each time. The snakes may have a very small cerebellum, but they can be influenced to a degree by conditioning. Creating good feeding habits early on will help prevent accidents in the future when your snake weighs more than you!

  *Some people are resistant to feeding pre-killed prey - arguing they know how to handle the snake just fine, or that they've never been struck. I encourage even these people to feed pre-killed because it can also be dangerous for the snake! Snakes may do fine striking and killing their prey most of the time, but occasionally a rat can really go to town with their teeth, getting a last ditch revenge which can leave your snake badly injured or even killed!

#2. AVOID MAKING YOUR SNAKE SCARED OR UPSET!

Since they have adapted away from having legs, snakes don't have the privilege of out running their predators. As a result of just having a mouth, snakes often strike the things that scare them as a defensive maneuver. There are several things that will make for a scared snake that are easily preventable:

• Avoid reaching into the cage to quickly, or coming in from directly above instead of from the side. Snakes are commonly predated upon by birds and perhaps that has led to this phenomenon, what ever the cause - approaching snakes from above seems to scare them more than if you pick them up from the side. You should build an enclosure that has its doors on the front or sides rather than the top, which will also make it easier to clean. If you only have an open top cage, and your snake is one of those who's easily scared - consider buying a good snake hook so you can gently uncoil them and alert them to the fact that you're going to begin handling them.
• Avoid handling a snake in a way that puts them off balance. When you handle your snake you should attempt to support all of its body weight in a balanced manner so that the snake doesn't have to hang on for its life. Burmese are not arboreal species, they mostly crawl around the ground and only venture upwards if there is a very stable platform to sun on, hunt from, etc. When your snake is young it is easy to support all of its weight and they won't mind it much if you pick them up from mid body. As your snake pushes 15 feet however, they're a lot heavier and it becomes difficult to support all of their body in an even manner without lots of help. Get lots of help! Avoid the temptation of hanging the snake from your neck, I know at least one man who died in this manner. Instead, keep the snake on just one shoulder if you must carry them - prevent them from forming loops around your neck, and get them to the ground as soon as they show signs of being uncomfortable. If a large snake starts constricting your neck, it's probably because they are scared of falling, lay down and give the snake a place to crawl where it doesn't have to hang on!*
• Avoid handling a snake which has just eaten. Sometimes people try to handle a snake too soon after they've eaten and they get whacked! It is best to allow the snake time to digest, the exact time period varies on the snake, meal size, and temperature, but the key is to avoid handling them while they have the big bulge or when ever you've just fed them. The snake can feel vulnerable when they have a big meal digesting and sometimes they may feel too full to play! What can also happen, that really irks a snake, is that they'll be digesting the flesh and cartilage a bit prior to the bones so when you pick them up they can get poked from the inside! A strike is a typical response to painful stimuli.
• Avoid handling a snake that is in the process of shedding. When snakes shed there is a blister type space created between the two layers of skin and this space makes it very difficult for snakes to see. If their vision wasn't poor enough to start, the shedding process makes it much worse and so they feel ultra-vulnerable.

* A great rule to have is that once your burm gets to be a certain size you should have someone else around who is willing and able to save your life! If you can't have them right there, they should be in calling distance in case something goes wrong. Mistakes and accidents can happen, and sometimes these snakes can revert to their wild ways. If that happens, and stuff turns south, you really don't want to be alone! The best way to uncoil a snake from someone is not by pulling on the coils, that will only cause them to tighten out of reflex - instead, find the closest free end of the snake, tail or head, and begin unwrapping them from the end pulling out and away from the victim. Also, if you've got teeth that won't come lose from your skin, sometimes you'll have to advance the snake's mouth farther onto yourself, going forwards before pulling away.

* Another thing that should be mentioned: Make 100% certain that the cage is escape proof, and keep the snake inside the cage! Besides being necessary to keep your snake alive and at the correct temps, the cage is an invaluable safety tool - that should keep the animal locked up and prevent them from roaming the house looking for prey. Read this article: A Fatal Attack on a Teenage Boy by a Captive Burmese Python (Python molurus bivittatus) in Colorado.

More tips to come! Anyone who wants to email me some of their own tips, I'd appreciate being able to add them here as well. Thanks.

Preventing the risk of zoonotic disease:

Aside from the risk of physical harm and death, by owning a Burmese python you have an extra risk of getting ill from the bacteria that reptiles can carry in their bodies. To avoid getting sick from these bacteria, follow the steps on the safe reptile handling page.