Alright, you guys have me almost convinced!!

[Sauzo]

Ok all this talk and pictures of SD retics has me wanting one now too!!! So I got a few questions for you retic owners. I found a female 50% SD platinum tiger het anery 50% het snow. The parents are a 75% SD platinum anery x 25% SD 12.5% dwarf motley tiger het albino. My questions are does this sound like its going to stay under 10' with normal feedings? I don't some monster that is going to eat my neighborhood. Also are females generally more laid back than males? I know males stay smaller. Also how are the general temperaments for an adult female retic? I'm guessing not as laid back as a boa but they aren't devil snakes right lol? BTW I asked the breeder about the parents and am just waiting to hear back from him. Anyways thanks guys.

[jmcrook]

My SD is only 8 months old so I can't speak from the perspective of having an adult snake but she is around 5' now and is amazing. Her parents were wild caught Kalatoa 5'dad and 6' mom and I'm guessing mine will end up around 6-7', maybe even 8' at her growth rate. I would guess with close to 50% mainland blood the one you're looking at stands a chance to get larger than 10'. I would ask reptile experts on here. He's also got a bunch of great SD related videos up on YouTube.
I will say that my retic is very fast and very curious. A little cage defensive when first getting her out but she's a puppy dog out of her enclosure. Always on the go and super enjoyable to work with. Definitely keeps me on my toes


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[dkatz4]

My SD is only 8 months old so I can't speak from the perspective of having an adult snake but she is around 5' now and is amazing. Her parents were wild caught Kalatoa 5'dad and 6' mom and I'm guessing mine will end up around 6-7', maybe even 8' at her growth rate. I would guess with close to 50% mainland blood the one you're looking at stands a chance to get larger than 10'. I would ask reptile experts on here. He's also got a bunch of great SD related videos up on YouTube.
I will say that my retic is very fast and very curious. A little cage defensive when first getting her out but she's a puppy dog out of her enclosure. Always on the go and super enjoyable to work with. Definitely keeps me on my toes


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Glad to hear you're enjoying her, I fantasize about a first SD some day, so I've been following your posts. How is her poor little face?

[jmcrook]

Glad to hear you're enjoying her, I fantasize about a first SD some day, so I've been following your posts. How is her poor little face?

Still has a little dent in her lip but doesn't seem to bother her or affect her in any way. Hope it works itself out soon though.


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[Sauzo]

Yeah, I talked to kris at Vital Exotics today and expects the male ive been looking at to top out around 7' with normal feedings. Still waiting to hear from the gal on the Platinum Tiger I was looking at but its a higher % SD. Kris' are about 37% SD 31% D where as this platinum Tiger is 50% SD and 6% D but it is a female vs Kris' is a male. And I watched a bunch of Cody's videos and sent him a PM but not sure if he is around or not. Thanks guys. And Gio where are you when I need you!!?? How is the little guy you got from Vital Exotics? That's one of the two people I've nailed it down to for a retic. Looking at white albino!!

[Gio]

I'm so far from being an authority here, but I'm thinking with a female you may end up over 10'. My male is 37.5% SD and 43.75% dwarf. I've been told by Reptileexperts, Kris at Vital Exotics and another very knowledgeable friend that I should expect 7'-9' and possibly on the biggest end 10, maybe 11 feet.

More mainland = more chilled out snake so I've read and been told. The SD and dwarf add a bit of fire to their movement, though I don't think the likelihood of biting increases, just more jumpy. The tiger gene is a plus that I have going, as it is said to generally mellow out the animal.

I have heard various accounts about male VS female and I am comfortable with a male since I'm not breeding him, he probably won't have issues although I do have 2 different species of female pythons here so we'll see if those pheromones kick in at certain times of the year and make him edgy.

My fella shed last night and I had to clean his cage. He trashed it. Pooped in the water dish, P'd all over and stuck his shed to various items in the cage. He ate last night as well and today I got my first taste of some real defensive behavior. I used the hook and tried to establish some rapport but he struck at it repeatedly. If I moved, he'd follow me. He took several air strikes at me so I kept on with the hook and continued cleaning.

Normally I would have left him as his grumpiness after eating the night before was purely defensive and not a feeding response. He just wanted to digest without bother. However I had to clean and I didn't want his little, yet semi intimidating display to go unchecked.

Out he came and we spent a moment or two reestablishing trust.

My off track rant comes with good intentions though.

These are VERY different snakes, at least amongst the boas and pythons I'm used to, and I don't think anybody can overemphasize the precautions to take early on. If my guy was putting on this display at an age greater than 4.5 months and he had some size on him, I'd have been a tad nervous. This probably wouldn't have even occurred had I not needed to get some of the wreckage out of his cage.

I've also been assured retics will give you plenty of warning before they will actually bite you. I'm very much in the learning stage with this animal and we are figuring each other out. It is quite rewarding so far and I'd recommend the species to an interested, responsible keeper.

I think they (retics) are wonderful. I love the excitement and challenges that come with them but I will say make certain you get the right sized animal because I can see where a big one could be a handful.

Cody (Reptileexperts) has some really good video posts on Y-Tube. You can see the size difference between the dwarfs, SD's, males and females. He has certainly laid out a lot of information regarding the species and it has helped me a great deal with my comfort level rated to this species.

Keep us posted.

LOL! I was typing when you were typing.

Hope that helped. Get the male from Kris, he knows his stuff!

[Gio]

Yeah, I talked to kris at Vital Exotics today and expects the male ive been looking at to top out around 7' with normal feedings. Still waiting to hear from the gal on the Platinum Tiger I was looking at but its a higher % SD. Kris' are about 37% SD 31% D where as this platinum Tiger is 50% SD and 6% D but it is a female vs Kris' is a male. And I watched a bunch of Cody's videos and sent him a PM but not sure if he is around or not. Thanks guys. And Gio where are you when I need you!!?? How is the little guy you got from Vital Exotics? That's one of the two people I've nailed it down to for a retic. Looking at white albino!!

Hey, which male are you looking at?

Is it the brother to mine? SD X Dwarf tiger?

[Sauzo]

Thanks Gio. Nah i'm looking at either the SD/D white albino or lavender albino. Cant decide which one. I just have a thing for morphs I guess lol. Kris told me they should top out around 5-7'. He said the dad was 5' and the mom was 8-9'.

[Sauzo]

Well I took the leap!! I placed my order for the 2016 male SD/D White Albino 50% het snow. Now hopefully it doesn't turn into a monster and eat my neighborhood lol. I blame you Gio and all the others who have been posting pics of tics and all the good talk about them!! This will make my final snake.....for now mwahaha

[Gio]

Well I took the leap!! I placed my order for the 2016 male SD/D White Albino 50% het snow. Now hopefully it doesn't turn into a monster and eat my neighborhood lol. I blame you Gio and all the others who have been posting pics of tics and all the good talk about them!! This will make my final snake.....for now mwahaha

Awesome man!!

You and I have been doing a lot of the same things. Pro-Line cages around the same time. Boas around the same time, and now retics.

You have me edged out in the number of animals (snakes) but that's cool I like the fact you have the option to add more.

I checked out your animal on the site and it looks great.

They are not at all hard to keep, just study the Vital Exotics care sheet, and ask questions. I share the same size concerns that you have, and feel the 7-10 schedule (maintenance) for males will make for a reasonable animal size.

I think our SD and Dwarf pertenages are fairly close. I'll recheck the animal you are getting I think we have the same SD percentage but I think I have even more dwarf, but I also have tiger in the mix. Kris said 7-9' for mine, the mom was 10' dad was 5'. Cody thought 10' tops and another friend said he'd be surprised if I git 9'.

The big key IMO is the ultimate girth. If they are not overly thick things will be manageable.

Congrats!!