Some photos of my new albino dwarf reticulated python!

Just got my new snake last Wednesday, she is a 50% Jampea 50% Mainland albino (Clark strain) reticulated python. She shed just after I got her, then ate a medium rat and two large mice all in about an hour, seemed like she could have handled several more medium rats and seemed eager to eat more but I don't think I'll power feed this girl. It's only been a few days since I got her and decided to take a few photos of her before she gets huge LOL! Right now she is about six months old, probably about four and a half feet long.

This is an absolutely amazing snake, very friendly with no aggression at all! I'm planning on handling her for at least a few minutes every 1-2 days to tame her down. She seems like she is a bottomless pit and would probably eat my shoe if I threw it in the tub LOLOL! We decided to name her 'Lucy'. You can almost see the bulge in her from the rat, didn't want to handle her too much since it's only been a day since she has eaten, but wanted to share her with everyone! ENJOY!!

http://www.capsandstems.com/reticulatedpython-1.jpg

http://www.capsandstems.com/reticulatedpython-2.JPG

http://www.capsandstems.com/reticulatedpython-3.JPG

http://www.capsandstems.com/reticulatedpython-4.JPG

Man that is a gorgeous albino!! The colors are so intense!! Thanks for sharing :)


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Name her Peep, she had a row of peeps down her back!

I had her out again today and let her crawl all over the place. I'm trying really hard to keep at least one hand on her at all times when she is out of the cage so she doesn't switch over to hunting mode, seems like it's working really good. We are starting to build confidence in each other and now I'm not afraid she will bite me when her head is on my arm. After about 10 or 15 minutes she starts speeding up a bit and I know it's time to put her back in her tub. Tonight I tried to put her back in the tub and she didn't want to go, so I kept her out for another five or ten minutes, then she started moving faster, maybe getting a bit stressed? And then she was ready to go back in the tub LOL. I'm guessing if I keep working with her she will want to stay out longer and longer. Our routine is that I feed her, then give her two days to digest, then handle her on the third day.

So far in the last 1.5 weeks I've fed her three medium rats and two adult mice. She didn't go to the bathroom (other than pee) and I just weighed her, she is coming in at 1027 grams (weight taken on 12-Aug-2016). The rats I've been feeding her are about 2x - 3x wider than she is and she still pounds them down. She has a bump from the rat the day after feeding and then by the second day she looks skinny again. She seemed really too thin for her length so I'm trying to fatten her up a bit, then I'll slow down the feeding. I'm going to feed another medium rat tomorrow, then will probably slow down to 2x a week instead of 3x. I plan on posting updates to this thread as my retic grows and post weights so you can track the progress of her.

Here's another bizarre thing that is happening... Before I got my reticulated python I would handle my Australian Woma python twice a day for about five minutes per day. Once I started cleaning up the rack I could see the woma in the tub window practically begging to get out and be handled. The first day I got my retic the woma saw that snake in my hands and he has totally changed. Now the woma doesn't even want to come out. I open up the tub and he just sits there all coiled up. Can snakes get jealous? I still open up the tub twice a day but he refuses to come out to play, never knew a snake could get jealous but as far as I can tell it's happening!!

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

Here's another bizarre thing that is happening... Before I got my reticulated python I would handle my Australian Woma python twice a day for about five minutes per day. Once I started cleaning up the rack I could see the woma in the tub window practically begging to get out and be handled. The first day I got my retic the woma saw that snake in my hands and he has totally changed. Now the woma doesn't even want to come out. I open up the tub and he just sits there all coiled up. Can snakes get jealous? I still open up the tub twice a day but he refuses to come out to play, never knew a snake could get jealous but as far as I can tell it's happening!!

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snake are incapable of showing jealousy. Any reclusion from normal behavior for the woma is likely environmental - stress from new smells, change in environment, on coming shed, etc. Cheers

Here's a video of Lucy eating a frozen thawed rat. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/J4XS_TKSA3I

Wastes no time! Love her!


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Yea, most times she doesn't even hesitate for more than a few seconds. I had a couple left over frozen thawed adult mice that I gave her right after the rat, my ball pythons are so picky, they usually only want live rat pups. The first mouse she snapped up just like the rat. I guess I gave her the second one too soon, she still hadn't eaten the first mouse and the funny thing is she was very gentle when she took the second mouse, just kind of slowly wrapped her lips around it LOL. I guess if you feed them a lot real fast the feeding response becomes much more gentle. I can't wait until she gets twice as big HA!

I took out Lucy today and brought her up to the living room. I put her on the back of my leather couch in front of the fish tank and she just sat there for about 10 minutes totally motionless while we watched her and took a bunch of photos, it was pretty wild! I've never seen a snake just sit still, I was wondering if we were watching her or if she was watching us LOL.

http://www.capsandstems.com/Reticulatedpython-5.JPG

She decided to crawl along the back of the couch at the end of our photo shoot. This video gives you an idea of how big she is already. The fish tank in the background is a 125 gallon six foot long African cichlid aquarium. I think she grew a foot in the last couple weeks after eating several rats and several adult mice!!

https://youtu.be/eDtKM1rbU2Q

She still kind of freaks me out a little bit, it's like getting a new dog and not knowing how it was treated as a puppy. You never know if it's going to cuddle or bite you until you really spend some time with it and build some confidence. Will probably take me a couple months at least to be totally comfortable with her. I think she also needs to build confidence in me as well. But so far there has been no aggression at all, THANK GOODNESS! Not sure what I would do if she ever bit me or snapped at me or hissed... I usually try to read my snakes really well before I take them out. If they are all coiled up and don't move when I open the tub I leave them alone. If they pop their head up I'll take them out to play. And if I see them pacing back and forth through the window in the tub I take them out for sure.

Fantastic cichlid aquarium! I had a 225G back in the day that I wanted to do pretty much your exact setup - background and all. Got a place with more info on it so I can live vicariously through you?

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

I took out Lucy today and brought her up to the living room. I put her on the back of my leather couch in front of the fish tank and she just sat there for about 10 minutes totally motionless while we watched her and took a bunch of photos, it was pretty wild! I've never seen a snake just sit still, I was wondering if we were watching her or if she was watching us LOL.

http://www.capsandstems.com/Reticulatedpython-5.JPG

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Wow, that photo deserves a frame and a place on the wall!! 😱😊😍

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Originally Posted by Megg

Wow, that photo deserves a frame and a place on the wall!! ������

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Thanks! I do have some pretty awesome animals! I'm also finding that this snake has an incredible metabolism. I fed her a medium rat and three adult mice this weekend. After the first day she had a bump, the second she just looked 'plump'. Now on the third day she looks really super skinny! I'm going to give her another rat tomorrow, I'm thinking I may need to feed her twice a week until her metabolism slows down a bit.

I took her out again tonight and played with her in the basement for about 10 minutes. I took our confidence limit to the next level, I let her rest her head on my bare arm quite a bit, she still gives my arm that look like it may be tasty LOL. She was a bit head shy at first, but tonight I've been touching her under her chin. She kind of freaked out at first but after a couple minutes she seemed OK with it. Just trying to slowly desensitize her so I can play with her head when she gets bigger and doesn't freak out. Still no aggression at all! She also poops a lot, and when she pees it stinks up the snake room LOL. I've never had a snake that had pee that smelled so bad.

Here's another photo, this is me looking at Lucy looking back at me. I'm smiling in the photo but I'm actually thinking, "You're not going to bite me, are you?". And Lucy is thinking, "You're not going to hurt me, are you?" LOLOLOL

http://www.capsandstems.com/Lucy.JPG

"I usually try to read my snakes really well before I take them out. If they are all coiled up and don't move when I open the tub I leave them alone. If they pop their head up I'll take them out to play. And if I see them pacing back and forth through the window in the tub I take them out for sure.”

I have read that more zoos are using behavioral enrichment for their charges, including reptiles. Part of that is letting them make choices like you are doing here about whether she wants to interact or not. Beautiful albino that you have.

Been meaning to stop by to say cool pickup cchardwick. I seriously considered a SD retic but decided not too. Cause everytime i handle the columbian red tail i realize he's big enough lol. Also good luck with her. All ill say is when she gets older be careful when feeding. I've seen some really nasty mistaken feed bites to people calves and forearms.

Here's an update... When I weighed Lucy my albino retic 16 days ago she weighed 1027 grams. When I weighed her today she weighed 1238 grams and tomorrow is feeding day. That's 211 grams in 16 days!

That's nearly half a pound in just over two weeks WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BYW, My Australian Woma python decided she wanted to ball up for two weeks and not come out to play. Finally she shed and went to the bathroom, now she is a sweetheart again LOL. Reading them really well before messing with them is totally working for me.

Well I just fed all my snakes and the biggest frozen thawed rat that I had was just a bit bigger than a XL mouse. Not really big enough for Lucy. And I don't have any rats the right size, I'm trying to raise up some new breeders so I'm keeping all my babies until they get big enough to sex. She will eat the males once they grow a bit bigger and I put them in the freezer, and the females will be my new breeders to increase my rat supply. So I decided to try to feed her one of my jumbo African Soft Fur rats. I choose a big fat male, one of the originals that I got from my colony of ASFs, probably as big as they get. He was looking really old and had a bunch of warts on his tail, probably near the end of his life, so I gassed him with CO2 (fresh killed). She didn't strike it right away, maybe because I handled her a couple hours before? So I just laid it in her tub right next to her. After about 10 minutes I peeked in the tub and sure enough she was eating it! I should have weighed it, it was pretty big, probably at least 200+ grams. She is going to grow like a rocket after that one LOL. That one may actually hold her over for a whole week!

You seem to be having a ball with Your new python. I hope I can find a nice drawf like yours some day.

Here's an update on Lucy, my dwarf albino reticulated python. It's been just over two months since I got her and she has more than doubled in weight! Today is feeding day and she came in at 2,152 grams, just shy of five pounds! She is slamming medium to large rats once a week. Still no signs of aggression at all. I took her out and gave her a bath today, here are a few photos and a short video. She is still a little lighter than my biggest snake, my biggest is a Jungle Woma Spider female ball python, I put a photo of her below as well. Enjoy!

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...ucy_bath-1.JPG

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...ucy_bath-2.JPG

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...ucy_bath-3.JPG

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...ucy_bath-4.JPG

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...ucy_bath-5.JPG

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...oma_spider.JPG

https://youtu.be/MUjJLFwCSAI

Looks good.
Nice update.

Thanks cchard, Lucy looks amazing! Maybe you should consider tap and hook training now and while she is so responsive to you. Also while she is still very young? Good luck with her.

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

Here's an update... When I weighed Lucy my albino retic 16 days ago she weighed 1027 grams. When I weighed her today she weighed 1238 grams and tomorrow is feeding day. That's 211 grams in 16 days!

That's nearly half a pound in just over two weeks WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BYW, My Australian Woma python decided she wanted to ball up for two weeks and not come out to play. Finally she shed and went to the bathroom, now she is a sweetheart again LOL. Reading them really well before messing with them is totally working for me.

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Glad to hear your Woma is back to normal .... I wondered if the smell of the Retichad effected the Woma given that they hunt and eat snakes in the wild ..... sounds as though everything got sorted though .


Stunning looking Retic incidentally ...... I'm so envious . I put a £50 deposit down on a SD Purple Albino Retic a few months ago but the breeder is still having trouble getting him to feed regularly so I'm still waiting ..

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

Glad to hear your Woma is back to normal .... I wondered if the smell of the Retichad effected the Woma given that they hunt and eat snakes in the wild ..... sounds as though everything got sorted though.

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Actually when I was talking about my Woma python I was actually referring to my Australian Woma python. He is my third biggest snake, here's a photo below. He actually started taking small fresh killed rats weekly on a regular basis a few weeks after I got my retic, he actually eats better than he ever has!

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...oma-python.JPG