I suppose I should mention that I am the NEW momma...as she will be entering my home on Friday evening as a welcomed member of the family.

you can get rabbits as small as jumbo rats--like the 1 lb range...and I'd wagera  7' burm can eat a 1-2 lb rabbit pretty easily.   And should have been on bigger prey a while ago. but we can't know how it will impact her until you've had her on normal feeding schedule for a while.

The fact  she went a month without food  isn't a huge concern as long as there was water .. I think 5 rats in a week was a big mistake,  over feeding  is a poor remedy for not feeding for a while ..  I'm sure you can get some Xl rats  if you look around , or as stated above  small rabbits.. Let me just warn you  if you ever feed her a live buny It will scream like a baby .. It's freaky !! Good luck with the new kid  be prepaired for some huge poops ....

Yeah one month wouldn't stunt a snake long term.  I'm more wondering if maybe he just stopped upping sizes and kept her on a maintence diet at some point--1-2 rats a week isn't a ton of food for a growing burmese that is 7'. Or hell, maybe she's a really small one.  that happens too, although it's rare.

I would NEVER feed live rabbits--I actually watched a fox get a female and it's litter (what do you call a bunch of baby rabbits?) once while in the field...the rabbit screamed and screamed. It was frigging awful. 

I would agree with Doom and Paul on the live rabbit feeding, the sound is horrible, we actually use a wounded rabbit call up here to bring in coyotes.  And as we all know if the burn doesn't grab the rabbit right on the first strike they can do a hell of alot of damage to a snake with their teeth and nails.

While it's not a huge concern, there is also an easy solution, just buy from somewhere like Rodent Pro or Mice Direct.  Yeah I know it sucks to pay shipping, but personally it'd be worth it, then you could also stock up on a large supply.

i would agree with tiki.  go threw rodent pro or something like that ya shipping sucks but its pretty decent prices just buy in like 6 months at a time def alot cheaper then buy from a pet shop or something like that.  pluse u get it stocked up so u dont have to worry about if you wont have feeders or not.

So do you think I should get her on a regular schedule with large rats and increase her on my own?

I also figured that feeding her so much was not such a great idea. but, what can ya do? We'll see how her feeding response is,... see how many rats she'll readily take to please her appetite without over feeding her,...after the first few weeks, we'll determine if we need to up her meal size.

I'll tell you what,... I'll take some size comparison photos on friday night and post them. At that point we can pow wow and find out what the best route is for feeding.

That way if I need to order online, I'll know what size and what type of feeder I'll need for her.

Does a large rat even make a bump? How much does she weigh?

Well, I feel a little late to this convo, but better late than never.

Firstly, a female Burm that is 4 years old and only 7' is quite small.  A male I could see not being very large after 4 years, but not a female.  I rescued a 9' male Burmese a couple years back who was fed once every other month.  Only a couple rats mind you, and that snake was 6-7 years old.  He's now 10.5', maybe slightly larger.  A 4 year old female under a regular feeding schedule should be in the 12ft range or more, they grow quick.  Another example of that would be my largest Burm, Sammantha, who I adopted years ago at around 10.5' when she was "supposedly" 10 years old.  Well, she's 17ft now.  So appropriate food items and a regular feeding schedule can do wonders for a snake (accompanied with good husbandry, of course).

As far as the change in feeding schedule, it will not affect the animal.  They go long periods of time without food in the wild, especially after a large meal.  Changing your Burm over to F/T shouldn't be an issue, they're like garbage disposals.  I've never had an issue nor have I heard of anyone with issues switching over a Burmese.  And like Paul stated earlier, that Burm can easily eat rabbits.  I have a 8.5ft female that eats 4-5 lbers.  I get my retics on rabbits around 6 ft.  It's a pain in the ass to find them, but rabbits are the way to go.  And you're going to need them once your Burm gets big, feeding it 30 XXL rats in a sitting is going to be expensive.  So I wouldn't worry about overfeeding as much as under feeding.  I see both more often that I'd like in this hobby but it's not hard to be on the money with it. 

And just remember, once you get this girl going on a good feeding schedule she will GROW.  And I don't mean a foot per year, but possibly every couple of months or 1/4 of a year.  Get your 6' x 3' ready now (unless you have a large enclosure already, then ignore that haha).  That Burm won't last much longer in a 4' x 2' or similar sized enclosure. 

We asked him about weight and he wasn't sure. We'll weigh her when she gets here and keep track of how well she'd putting on weight.

If I had to take a guess... The closest in size I can estimate is this photo of a large boa that I found here on iherp...

When we went to see her this passed weekend, she had a HUGE belly from scarfing on those rats. So a 'bump' is an understatement,...but it also took 5 of them to make her look that way.
Her age is an approximate guess...the current owner has had her for 2 years, his brother owned her for about a year and a half previous, so theres an assumption that she was a few months old when he got her. 4 years is pretty close.

She should definitely be larger than what she is, no doubt. So with the approximate size and pretty close on the age, I suspect when I get her going in my care that shes going to grow like a weed.

I don't really want to talk about the enclosure that shes coming with,...needless to say I'll be using it for other purposes in my reptile room, and she'll never see the cramped inside of it again for as long as I live, or she lives.
The owner really cares about her,... he just seems a little inexperienced, and with just having a baby and all, working two jobs, and having the mother of his child scared shitless of snakes in general, his hands have been tied.

He's been trying to rehome her for months... and we finally gave in and agreed to take her.

Let me guess, it was a 40 breeder or something? I'd get ahold of animal plastics and make a payment plan for thier  7x3 foot cage :)  8x3 if you want to be nice to her. They'll let you pay it out over several months (the cage doesn't ship till it's paid off). 

If it takes 5 large rats to make a lump she can for sure take a rabbit.

It was a bit larger than a 40gal breeder,..she's in a 55gal,nowhere NEAR what it needs to be. It'll be put to great use when we get her enclosure finalized.

I'll have to start pricing out rabbits online and see what i can find. I'll see if i can order her some this weekend.... uggggghhhhhh need a LARGE FREEZER for rodents ONLY!

...and the list gets longer. sheesh.

RodentPro has rabbits...but they range from XSmall to XXXlarge. I'm lost

it gives a weight if you do browse products. The Xsmall rabbits are about the same size as a large to xl rat.   I'd start with small for the first few times, and just put her on a once every week schedule for now.  Go through a month or two of small rabbits and then see how she's doing and probably up to medium.  My 8' retic can take a small rabbit, leaving a visible but not huge lump so I'd expect that'd work for your burm (which is shorter but they're stockier animals).

Ooook so RodentPro is charging $61 for shipping... for two months worth of food.I don't really think so. I'd rather just hunt them down locally.

Good luck! the closest one I found was 2 hours away :X  I'll pay shipping for that since he couldn't do more than 100 or so lbs at a time. 

I do go to OKC for pigs (which is 4-5 hours away) but I can buy a ton of them at once--several hundred pounds.

we do have a local pet store that has them every so often, and another that is an hour and a half away (with a large collection of adult burms) that will most likely have feeders for me. Theyre an awesome store,...made Zoo Med store of the month... extremely reputable, I trust those two guys with ALL of my animals. It would just take planning and arranging pick up.

Welcome to the world of large constrictors.  It only gets more expensive as they get larger!

I would personally stay clear of pigs.  Super high in fat content, not good for the snake in the long run.  A treat every now and again is fine...but not as a main food source. 

I alternate-the pigs are a lot cheaper and 50/50 doesn't seem to be bad. That said, I don't feed tons either at this stage.

Pigs are definintely cheaper, for sure.  But the high fat content and the low metabolism of the animal doesn't fair well in the long run.  They can develop fatty liver disease or other health complications that reduce their lifespan substantially. 

I don't necessarily see a problem with 50/50, I'd probably do a 70/30.  But if the snakes get their "exercise" outside and in the enclosure I don't see why ya couldn't.

As far as exercise... unfortunately its cold as hell here, so taking her outside is not really a good idea... you think just letting her cruise around the bedroom is ok? Maybe once a week or so? (she'll probably shat all over my floor, but thats what our $300 carpet cleaner is for lol)

Baths? yay or nay?

I'm not sure where you live but with Rodent Pro, you can have them deliver to a show near you and not have to pay shipping.  I picked upabout $200 worth of feeders a couple weekends ago at the KC Reptile show and saved well over $100 on shipping charges.  

Try going to some local rabbit shows. If you go to the ARBA website there is a list for every state of where and when the next sanctioned shows are. A lot of people sell rabbits cheap there since they don't want to bring them back home and feed them, especially over the winter. I used to breed rabbits for years, so knowing that world by the time I got into the bigger snakes helped a lot. I got fifteen 2-4 lb rabbits at a show for $21 once. Of course, you'll most likely have to kill them yourself. 

I don't recommend deceiving any breeders to get them, I was 100% truthful to the people I bought them from and they didn't mind. Of course, there are those who are against it too. Some shows actually serve rabbit soup among other food products so some of them obviously don't care. About 1/3 of the rabbits at shows are meat or fur breeds anyway.

I live in BFE.... closest shows are either 6 hours away in Tucson, 8 hours away in Colorado, or 9 hours away in Dallas. boo.

Hey, Alamo ain't the BFE--my family's from there! My grandmothers on both sides taught at schools there...small world.

Paul... lets be honest,...it's a shithole. LOL I grew up in Florida. This place is bleh.

Blah. You've got great herping nearby, and some beautiful country out there!   If I could get a job there I'd have moved there years ago :(  Otero county has excellent herping and camping and hunting.

Well, you could try getting on some rabbit forums or classified sites and locating a rabbit breeder near you. I'm sure TX has a huge rabbit population and you could probably find one near you that you could buy from on the regular. Of course, sometimes it can be hard to find one since a lot of meat/fur breeders aren't really active on the online communities. Try Craigslist, Hoobly, put up ads stating what you need. You'd be surprised! When summer and fairs roll around that would also be a good opportunity to find a breeder.

My job is hiring.... always. pay sucks ass, but it's work lol

what is it you do?  I can't move yet...but my wife and I are talking about NM or WY in 5-6 years.

I work for MedCo... they have a cust. svs center here... I talk to old people about their medications all day. its rather... hmm... boring?

Anyway/.... Here she is....as promised....

We got her a giant frozen guinea pig... letting it thaw tonight and theeennnn we'll see what happens tomorrow.

should be able to do a small rabbit at least yeah. Not a problem.  Looks OK though.

oh--I was going to say--you might want to wait a few days. but if the g-pig is already thawing oh well. Still looks kind of big from the last meal.

i can refreeze at this point. no heat, just chillin in the reptile room. She has a great temperament. Shes been cruising around the living room with us, doesnt mind being picked up, slighty jumpy when you reach for her in the cage, so we just cover her face with a dish towel and as soon as we get a grip on any spot of her body, she relaxes and becomes social =0)