Does your retic tail paint?

I'm considering a dwarf/super dwarf Retic, but one thing that puts me off is tail painting; it seems like a real hassle to bathe a lager snake covered in crap every few days.

Does your retic roll around in his/her own feces and smear it all over the enclosure, or does he/ she poop in a corner?

If you own multiple retics, what percentage of your retics tail paint, and what percentage leave nice piles?



Also, do tail painters start rolling around in their feces as juveniles, or do they grow into the habit? Could I possibly ask a breeder to select
a non- tail painter?

I have 2 seven foot Carpet Pythons and 3 at eight foot. I also have a heavy bodied 8 foot Boa. They all tail paint at times or spread the news. Sometimes that just lay in the mess.

In my opinion, as long as the cage is shorter in length than the snake is long, it’s going to happen. Compounded by the fact that they are heavier as well. The snake really has no way of escaping their own mess.

Imagine if you were imprisoned within a 4x4 room with a chamber pot in one corner. I bet it would get knocked over or stepped in every now and then.

Not many of us can afford the cost or space for 10 foot cages for our 6 foot snakes.

I would think that the odds of such messes would increase with a Retic due to their increased frequency and volume of output. I don’t think that it is a behavior.

A good amount of retics here, they do leave large waste and sometimes it will get smeared up on the cage wall or what not but they don't roll around or go through it. Generally they avoid their feces and will poop in a corner and then go to the other side of the cage. As long as you are cleaning it out within a few hours to a day of it happening, never really had any issues with needing to wash the snakes. At least in our experience.

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Originally Posted by AbsoluteApril

A good amount of retics here, they do leave large waste and sometimes it will get smeared up on the cage wall or what not but they don't roll around or go through it. Generally they avoid their feces and will poop in a corner and then go to the other side of the cage. As long as you are cleaning it out within a few hours to a day of it happening, never really had any issues with needing to wash the snakes. At least in our experience.

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Thank you!


I personally don't mind messes now and then, I just don't want a snake that bathes more often than I do LOL

In general my boas are much neater than my retics. My boas tend to go in one corner, then they sit in the opposite corner and look at you like... "Oh slave, come clean that up NOW". The retics go in multiple spots and then crawl through it - repeatedly.

Oh and for even more fun my SD retic male has picked up an annoying habit. He will pee on the floor the instant he comes out of his enclosure. The first time I thought it was an accident, then he did it again the next time and I thought it was coincidence. Nope. Every. Single. Time. I have to drop his back third into a large tub with a towel in it to catch the mess.

When I had my retics they painted the entire enclosure and themselves almost every time. Including, I kid you not, the ceilings of the enclosures.


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Both my retics poop in their water. I provide large water areas for them. They also pee in there

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Most of the time mine have nice hard poo's. If I feed heavy then they get runny. I haven't had any painting from either of my two.