General care on retics and experiences with these amazing animals

Hmmm this makes me want a retic even more!. I really want a snake that is intelligent, quite a handful and a manageable size with 2 people of course. If i do get a retic it may be my last snake. Thats why i want something that is quite challenging. But i am still going to do a heck tonne of research and experience with handling at one of my friends houses. What do you guys think?

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A super dwarf morph is easily handled by one person. Caesar is 7' or a little more and i can handle him alone easily. He isnt the biggest fan of being carried around though but picking him up after he has climbed out of his cage and played around on the floor isnt an issue.

I found that my female retic had a very fast metabolism when young, I would feed multiple rats every few days and within 2-3 days she looked anorexic. I fed pretty heavy until she reached about 8 months old, her metabolism slowed down and she finally kept the weight on. I think by feeding her what she needed when young her personality improved, she is really a sweetheart.

When she was young if I waited a week or more before feeding she would get super food aggressive. Now I feed her a jumbo rat once a week, I actually skipped the last couple weeks and you couldn't even tell by her body condition or temperament. I know a lot of people disagree with feeding that heavy as a young retic but it has worked wonders for me. I totally feed only by body condition, if they are super skinny they get more food, if they get too fat I'll hold back the food for weeks or months if needed. I'd say she is about 35-40 pounds now and about two years old.

I keep both of my retics on coconut husk in ARS boa tubs and I find they are no more work than my ball pythons. I check on them every day and spot clean as needed and change out the substrate once a month. I enjoy them very much and they have the job of using up all my old breeder rats that are too big for my ball pythons LOL.

So retics are very food aggressive when young but get better as they mature.

See my one friend said that he'd give me a retic for free. I know that is a HUGE commitment but as i have already said i need to do a tonne of research and experience to get one of these animals

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Originally Posted by William Snakespeare

So retics are very food aggressive when young but get better as they mature.

See my one friend said that he'd give me a retic for free. I know that is a HUGE commitment but as i have already said i need to do a tonne of research and experience to get one of these animals

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Some are, some arent. Gio's retic wasnt that food driven while mine and Jacob's are.

The biggest thing you need to know is if your friend is giving you a mainland, it can grow big, like 14' big for males or 18' big for females. Be sure you are ready for a snake that size as they need large housing, lots of food and help when you are handling it.

My retics were all stupidly food aggressive when young. My daughter did a science project on a few of ours from age 3-6 months old where she tracked the weights of each feeder they got, and then we weighed the snake after each bowel movement, to see how efficiently they were digesting. About 33% of what they ate became snake; they grow insanely fast when young.

I can handle the SD and 50% SD's by myself, mainly because if they need an enclosure clean-out I have an empty tub to secure them while I clean. The mainland critters are too big for that so they are a two-person job, even if one person just has to babysit the snake while it free-roams the house, to ensure it doesn't disappear under a bed or behind the piano.

I used to try to free range my retic while cleaning, it was an impossible task a lot of times and she would get into trouble and climb everything. I finally ended up getting a third enclosure (for my two retics). I don't move them back and forth for cleaning now, I just move them once to a different enclosure. Makes life a lot easier.

Thanks guys for all your advice.
I would love to see any pics of your retics

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With Caesar, it depends on if he can free roam or not. Some days he is content to just sit under the blankets and chill. Other days, he is on the move and a few times, i heard him pushing stuff around in the bathroom which he wandered into when i wasnt looking and had him on the bed. Here are a few pics of Caesar.
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...77333f1d_h.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...7cb73a52_h.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...40a0e615_h.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...d45f2aff_h.jpg

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

With Caesar, it depends on if he can free roam or not. Some days he is content to just sit under the blankets and chill. Other days, he is on the move and a few times, i heard him pushing stuff around in the bathroom which he wandered into when i wasnt looking and had him on the bed. Here are a few pics of Caesar.
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...77333f1d_h.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...7cb73a52_h.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...40a0e615_h.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...d45f2aff_h.jpg

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He's beautiful. Definitely inquisitive animals that love to explore. Not like pet rocks.

What would be the minimum cage size for a retic male. I won't be keeping him in a bland cage that has only newspaper and a water bowl. I would like my refic to have a naturalistic home. Like branches and peat as a substrate. I don't want him to be bored.

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