Burm or Retic??

Yea NERD says they get 12-14 feet on average but its all in the genetics of the snake. What are you going to do if your retic gets 20+ feet?

All im saying is prepare for a very large snake but hope for a 12-14 FT snake.

And when you said you had a 5 year old retic just over 13 feet you were making it sound like that is what you want to do with your snake. And "maintaining" a snakes growth so it stays small is just wrong. With all the different species of snake out there why would you "stunt" a snakes growth :rolleye2:

No, remember, it's not stunting...it's managing...:rolleyes:

"managing" a snakes growth rate sounds really fishy, how would you go about this? Once a month, twice a month feeding for a hatchling? More, less?

Why do you want to make the snake grow slower then it is natrually supposed too?

And even on NERD's site, he says you should feed a meal once a week and that if you are trying to maintain their growth it can leave with you an always searching for food snake, and that's not good if you want to handle the snake a lot..

Between the two, I like retics better just because of their appearance. I think they're a more attractive snake than Burms. But if you can't handle something over 20 ft, I'd go with the Burm.

Goldfish CAN reach several inches, almost a foot, if you let them. But most people don't give them the tank space so they grow much slower and usually don't make it to that size. I think "managing" a snake's size is pretty much the same and it just doesn't sit right with me. That being said, I know a lot of people do it and I can't really stop you, but...

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Originally Posted by Kyle@theHeathertoft

I'd just like to point out that if we're making snake feeding anaologous with human food consumption, we aren't talking about obesity or weight control in adults, we're talking about food durring critical growth periods of children. :P

Yes, overfeeding your child will make them fat and unhealthy. Underfeeding will make them skinny and unhealthy.

Notice I am saying nothing about the snake, merely stating that your analogy is pretty shaky and sounds suspicious to me.

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Ok Im so sorry that I ever made a simple analogy to a human. All I was saying was that if you eat more you generally get bigger, if you eat significantly less (but still a healthy amount) you will stay smaller. You people think WAY too far into simple things. I was making a simple and very easy to understand analogy and everybody starts freaking out because they start trying to come up with a deeper meaning to what I said... The convo about that stuff is over, argue with NERD if you have anything negative to say about it, not me.

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Originally Posted by AkHerps

No, remember, it's not stunting...it's managing...:rolleyes:

"managing" a snakes growth rate sounds really fishy, how would you go about this? Once a month, twice a month feeding for a hatchling? More, less?

Why do you want to make the snake grow slower then it is natrually supposed too?

And even on NERD's site, he says you should feed a meal once a week and that if you are trying to maintain their growth it can leave with you an always searching for food snake, and that's not good if you want to handle the snake a lot..

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Would you say "managing" your personal weight is healthy or unhealthy? I dont understand why you keep using that term negatively because the way I am using it is actually a possitive thing. Im saying that if you feed a retic a healthy amount (not too frequently and too large of prey items like most people do) they will generally (yes there are genetic exceptions) stay a decent size (males around 16-18ft max).

And you keep accusing me of wanting to starve my snake. I never made any meantion of this at all. The reason all of this "management" stuff came up is because Theartisticgemini said that males were 23+ feet. And yes I know this CAN happen, either from rare genetics or overfeeding, but it is by no means the "norm" for a male retic. It is usually not the "norm" for females either which are significantly larger. Look online a little bit and see how many 23+ft retics there are, you wont find many compared to how many smaller ones you find.

And I know I could buy a retic tomorrow and it could be a world record 50ft snake (highly unlikely) but I will be fine with that. But I am going to feed resonably and responsibly (this is what "managing" is) so that my retic will grow up to be a healthy and not fat retic.

If there is any further arguments about anything in this post then please re-read it and dont overthink it. Because I dont understand how anyone could argue with anything I have said in this last post. I am sorry I havent made everything totally clear throughout the post, I thought I had but I guess I was mistaken. If I need to clear anything else up please let me know. I am an extremely responsible keeper and am more concerned about animals than myself, so I would never do anything to cause one harm (underfeeding, overfeeding, mishandling etc.). Soon I will have my degree in Wildlife biology and then working on my masters in herpetology so this is more than just a hobby to me like it is with most people.

So please, hold no grudges and have an open mind when confronted with things that you dont fully understand and I will do the same. I just want everybody to be responsible when raising these large animals because many people do overfeed beacuse they want that 25+ft snake, which most of the time the animal is not genetically meant to get that big, so they are therefore unhealthy.

-Cody

You're talking about managing weight, weight has nothing to do with anything. If a human eats too much to fast, they get fat, but will still grow at a normal speed, if a human eats less and healthier, they will be thinner and healthier, but still grow at a normal speed.

If you were to feed a human less than they should get as a growing child, then you will stunt their growth. If a person should be eating 3 meals a day, and you only fed them once a day, or every other day, I'm sure you could stunt their growth until they didn't reach their full potential.

The only way you can get your snake to not grow like it should normally, is to not feed it enough to maintain healthy growth, which is stunting it's growth, not managing. Managing would be making sure your snake doesn't get too fat, like feeding an adult ball python a large rat every single day. That could potentially make a fat snake. But a large rat every week to 10 days, would allow for a healthy weight and normal growth rate.

Like hatchling BP's/retics can be fed every 3 days without becoming fat and still grow at a normal pace. They can also be fed every 5 and 7 days while still growing at a normal pace and not becoming fat.

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Originally Posted by AkHerps

You're talking about managing weight, weight has nothing to do with anything. If a human eats too much to fast, they get fat, but will still grow at a normal speed, if a human eats less and healthier, they will be thinner and healthier, but still grow at a normal speed.

If you were to feed a human less than they should get as a growing child, then you will stunt their growth. If a person should be eating 3 meals a day, and you only fed them once a day, or every other day, I'm sure you could stunt their growth until they didn't reach their full potential.

The only way you can get your snake to not grow like it should normally, is to not feed it enough to maintain healthy growth, which is stunting it's growth, not managing. Managing would be making sure your snake doesn't get too fat, like feeding an adult ball python a large rat every single day. That could potentially make a fat snake. But a large rat every week to 10 days, would allow for a healthy weight and normal growth rate.

Like hatchling BP's/retics can be fed every 3 days without becoming fat and still grow at a normal pace. They can also be fed every 5 and 7 days while still growing at a normal pace and not becoming fat.

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Ok you obviously did not look back at my post before typing any of this like I asked you to do. Im not trying to argue with you but you keep making points that have nothing to do with anything im talking about and trying to argue with someone who isnt arguing back......

I used the word weight to make another analogy. Im sorry you seem to not understand any of them so I will stop making simple analogies.. I was explaining what the word "managing" meant. The first thing I thought of was people always talking about managing thier weight so I figured that would be easy to understand but obviously you tried to apply it to something else and overthought it.

And again I dont understand why you keep explaining what starving a snake is. I understand the difference in starvation and eating healthy. But you continuously talk about starving a snake which I make no meantion of (except for saying that I am NOT talking about starvation). So please stop meantioning starvation.

The ONLY thing I am saying about feeding a snake is that I am going to feed it a HEALTHY amount and not OVERFEED like a large % of retic and burm owners do. I didnt say I was going to stunt growth, i didnt say I was going to underfeed, and i didnt say I wanted a small Retic! You are arguing with nobody because none of the "points" you are making pertain to anything I am saying.

A 5 year old retic just over 13 FT sound like a very neglected "starved" snake and you were making it sound like that was a normal thing. Thats the reason everybody is flaming you.

I was just wondering how you go about managing their growth?

How much do you feed, etc..? I can't find any info on it, other then not feeding enough.

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Originally Posted by Theartisticgemini

A 5 year old retic just over 13 FT sound like a very neglected "starved" snake and you were making it sound like that was a normal thing. Thats the reason everybody is flaming you.

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But after about 5 posts saying that it is not my intention at all, it hasn't stopped. So obviously there is something that yall aren't understanding and thats what bothers me....

And who knows, maybe the 13ft male I was talking about is genetically smaller, like you said genetics have something to do with it too. But I cant say that for sure because there is no way of knowing. All I can say is what I see and know to be true- The retic is 13-14ft, 5 years old, and is NOW healthy, idk if he was healthy when he was yonger but he is showing all the signs of a healthy snake NOW. So please stop bringing that specific snake up, I have been researching a good bit and there are plenty of other examples of smaller retics. I am not saying that these were fed properly because I was not there so please do not bring this up in another post. I am just stating what I know, that is all.

You have obviously misunderstood what I have been trying to say this entire time so there is no reason for any further discussion unless you would like to comment on what this post is actually about....

The point if everything that I have been trying to say is............ DO NOT POWERFEED RETICS TO GET THEM BIGGER FASTER (AS MANY PEOPLE DO), FEED A HEALTHY AMOUNT (NOT STARVATION) AND THEY WILL GROW TO THE SIZE THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE.