Best big snake?

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Originally Posted by CeraDigital

You see, this what irritates me about "non-giant" owners. You complain and nag about how inexperienced people are, and how other people push ownership on others. This person came here looking for information on the best giant, and I laid it out solid for him, as such....




All the non-giant keepers do is see something, and comment, with no true knowledge on what is actually going on. As breeders, it is not our responsibility to be these keepers "moms". If they want a retic, burm, anaconda, afrock, etc, it is THEIR responsibility to determine whether or not they can possibly care for the animal or not; not ours. The most we can do is educate them on the animals. We do not know what their situation is, how much money they make, where they live, or how much knowledge they have...and screening customers....what good is it when you ask simple questions, and they can quickly google them to find an answer. Answers from experienced keepers on forums will even be brought up on google, giving them a quick in....

As for difficulty on keeping them...how difficult is it to keep one, with your knowledge on them? How many giants do you own?

Their care is completely straight forward. They will even feed when ill, sickly, injured, or stressed. Try getting a Ball Python to do that. Their husbandry aspects such as heating, and humidity....very simple. Much more so than with Balls, and the various other pythons available. You don't need hides for them, or anything. The "only" difficulty is cost, and cost isn't all that much now a days with the availability of larger prey from feed suppliers, and lower priced plastic caging made from companies such as Animal Plastics. That takes the costly expense out of custom built caging... Safety is a fairly easy aspect, as long as you learn from the right sources.

The everglades...bs, straight up. If it were being just giants released due to that, then how are there Lemurs, Komodo Dragon, Nile Monitor, Crocodile monitor, various paradise birds, and a large other list of species THRIVING in the everglades? Even various species of theraphosids, and plants have been thriving for decades. Still going to blame that "inexperienced" keeper? Or how about the destruction of all those homes, zoological institutions, rehab centers, and various other facilities during the hurricanes? Ever think hurricanes had something to do with it? What about Green Iguana? Green Iguana have been documented in the southern part of Florida since the 1920's, if not earlier. Long before majority of the exotic pet trade really boomed.

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Your whole post is case and point of the attitude I am talking about, keep passing the buck. So burm populations in the everglade are the sole result of hurricanes, sure they are. I see you position and it is pointless to go back and forth with you as it is clear you don't see your role in the negative impact giants are having on this hobby as a whole.

Are burms in the Everglades the cause of hurricanes? Yes.

Are they also the cause of irresponsible owners? Yes.

Pet shops don't offer care sheets. People buy them without knowing anything about them and don't think to do research after they get them. Pet stores won't always take them back, so they give them to someone else or dump them.

Have I ever heard of someone who's been keeping snakes for years dump an animal in the wild? No. It's mostly people who have no idea what the hell they're getting into.

As Todd Hardwick once said

"this weeks hot pet is next weeks catch of the week"




Or something along those lines...

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Originally Posted by Chuck

Your whole post is case and point of the attitude I am talking about, keep passing the buck. So burm populations in the everglade are the sole result of hurricanes, sure they are. I see you position and it is pointless to go back and forth with you as it is clear you don't see your role in the negative impact giants are having on this hobby as a whole.

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My role in the negative impact of giants? Buddy, you can thank your entire hobby, and the animals you own, for breeders like me. Kara, Kevin, and Andy at NERD...giant breeders, with a similar emphasis on them. Bob Clark, and Mike Wilbanks, same. Brian of BHB. Dave and Tracy Barker. Jay Vella. ALL giant breeders. ALL have revolutionized the way the market is viewed on. ALL have contributed to the hobby vastly, and brought great amounts of information to keepers, both small and large. All of them you can thank for your Blood and Ball market as well. As I said...we are not there to patrol what a keeper can and cannot keep. That is their decision alone. We do not know what they can keep, what they cannot. What their monetary gain is yearly, monthly, weekly. We do not know what they are capable of keeping, simply put. This is their decision. We are there to supply the hobby with the highest quality animals we can produce, and sound information from our experience so other keepers can have success with their animals. As Bob has said on the forums before-

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Originally Posted by Bob Clark

My job is to sell snakes not to be these guy's mommy. I think we've been looking more like retic Nazis lately and I don't think its good for business. There are precautions that should be taken when keeping certain kinds of animals and not every type of pet is suitable for every person. Keeping a retic certainly isn't rocket science and most people can do it. Let's focus on the positive side of keeping snakes.

I want to encourage and help these people not discourage them. All snake owners should be careful and exercise good judgement. Keeping retics is not difficult. Anyone with the right information and the will to do it will be successful.

I'm not going to tell these people to wear their seatbelts, put on a sweater when its cold or not to buy a retic. Its not our job. My job is to sell snakes..

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If you'd like that link, to where Bob had said that, PM me. I am not hotlinking to another forum.

Now what, in your experience with giants, lends you to give the information you do? Your opinion is fairly strong, for having no sound information to back it up, other than speculations from what you see. Tell me...who is easiest to blame for thriving invasive species? The gov't? The hurricanes? Or keepers who are looked down upon for keeping these animals, that are so feared by the general public due to their ill ignorance towards them? Iguana, Gov'ts fault. Theraphosids...fruit shipments, destroyed facilities and zoological institutions. How many people do you actually think release giants each year? Thats basically claiming that if I released 3 Burms in Toledo...one on each end..that they would find eachother and breed. Highly unlikely, if not, impossible....

This is the stuff I'm talking about. No information given out by shop, and (s)he didn't do any research before purchasing.

At least (s)he did some research after getting it.

retics are by far the "best" giants to keep IMHO and are by far the most interesting. I went from a corn snakes to ball pythons and then to a retic on my 14th birthday and am glad I made that bold leap. I now have 5 giants that are babies now after I recently sold my big girl. It is true that you must be ready and that they are a handful. and on the topic of intelligence, retics are extremley intelligent. my big figure out how to open doors by looping up over the knob and using her weight to pull the door open while falling to the ground.