Who is more aggressive Rock or Retic?

Sadly, because of irresponsible media portrayal of ALL of the large snakes, questions like your's arise. Temperament when it comes down to it is based on an individual snake by snake basis. I've heard people say King Snakes are terribly flighty and prone to bite as are Carpet pythons. But I've seen people who keep both say otherwise. I've handled Carpets and have been very impressed.

My Barranquilla Colombian boa is settling down, but compared to our Royal python he's been more of a handful. That will change.

Any snake can make a mistake and once it does, "media" will automatically make it a mean snake. They won't report that the person that got bitten was recently petting a rabbit or a dog or had blood from a rat on them. Just that the snake bit them.

The "super snake" is also BS. Each species has individual characteristics that help it survive and thrive in a certain area which is why the range of different snakes varies. Hybridization will often make adaption more difficult. Who's care sheet do you follow when you combine 2 separate species? And then can the hybrid reproduce? Usually its rare, but possible. The Florida scare is somewhat over blown. A lot of the snakes, but not all still fall victim to the elements, and will never survive much further north of where they are.

Retics will be your longest snake. However the girth of the body is less than the anaconda and which also gets close to the lengths of the Retic.

African Rock's come in the Central species (larger) and Southern species. They are also huge, long and thick.

Burmese and Indian Rock pythons are very thick and can be long. While not as long as retics they are quite heavy bodied.

Anaconda's are the heaviest of the snakes and can attain lengths close to the retic. The Green form is much larger than the yellow.

There are so many pythons that can be discussed.

Australian pythons (there are many) can get huge as well. Scrub pythons and Olive pythons can be very long yet less heavily bodied. Scrubs can be considered aggressive but I'm sure like most, somebody out there has a docile one.

I'd highly recommend reading BOAS AND PYTHONS OF THE WORLD By Mark O' Shea a leading herpetologist and snake guru.

Almost anything you see on TV will contain such poor info you will get confused.

I'm no expert, but have researched a great deal. You can find a lot of people who keep each species of these snakes that can shed more light.

I'd say the meanest snake will be the one that bites me the hardest when I'm not expecting it LOL!

Alright, let's get a few things straightened out.

There are no aggressive snakes. There are some defensive ones, though.

Given that, ANY SNAKE can be raised to become a calm, trusting and tractable adult. I know because I have done it with every giant species, except for scrubs. But a snake is a snake is a snake. Teach it early on to trust you, and you will never have a problem as long as you are not stupid. ie smelling like food, bothering it during a molt, etc.

Chris

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Originally Posted by mumps

Alright, let's get a few things straightened out.

There are no aggressive snakes. There are some defensive ones, though.

Given that, ANY SNAKE can be raised to become a calm, trusting and tractable adult. I know because I have done it with every giant species, except for scrubs. But a snake is a snake is a snake. Teach it early on to trust you, and you will never have a problem as long as you are not stupid. ie smelling like food, bothering it during a molt, etc.

Chris

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I would agree and maybe replace aggressive with mean. As in no "mean snakes" as they have zero human emotions.

Aggressive could be used to describe a feeding response one snake's VS another's. For instance my boa has a far more aggressive feeding response than our Royal's. Or consider in general terms, that maybe a certain species IN GENERAL will be more apt to defend itself by striking.

For instance a Royal python's natural defense is to BALL up, other species have marked tails that resemble a head so potential predators don't attack their head, while others will strike.

I guess it all depends on how the word aggressive is used.

I tend to agree with mumps and don't think there is a such thing as a "mean" snake, and aggressive can be looked at differently depending what characteristic you are speaking of.

Mumps/Chris, you would be a good person to ask seeing as you've raised large snakes.

In general, what species has been the most difficult for you to deal with initially? What takes the longest to settle down? Some snakes are obviously better for beginners than others.

Wild caught African Rocks have taken the longest to establish trust with. Wild caught retics a close second.

Luckily these days there is no need to purchase WC, so the time it takes to establish trust is greatly diminished.

If you want a big snake with the "easiest" amount of work to establish trust, get a Burm.

Chris

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mumps

Wild caught African Rocks have taken the longest to establish trust with. Wild caught retics a close second.

Luckily these days there is no need to purchase WC, so the time it takes to establish trust is greatly diminished.

If you want a big snake with the "easiest" amount of work to establish trust, get a Burm.

Chris

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Great answer and thanks for the insight.

Retics and Afrocks can mate, the resulting babies are called cateaters. It seems Bateaters ( retic x burm) are a lot more common though.

I have met 6 rocks all 6 are very calm and quite friendly. Most of the retics although not aggressive I can hardly say calm, active, alert and fast, fits better.
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