Alright, you guys have me almost convinced!!

Ok all this talk and pictures of SD retics has me wanting one now too!!! So I got a few questions for you retic owners. I found a female 50% SD platinum tiger het anery 50% het snow. The parents are a 75% SD platinum anery x 25% SD 12.5% dwarf motley tiger het albino. My questions are does this sound like its going to stay under 10' with normal feedings? I don't some monster that is going to eat my neighborhood. Also are females generally more laid back than males? I know males stay smaller. Also how are the general temperaments for an adult female retic? I'm guessing not as laid back as a boa but they aren't devil snakes right lol? BTW I asked the breeder about the parents and am just waiting to hear back from him. Anyways thanks guys.

My SD is only 8 months old so I can't speak from the perspective of having an adult snake but she is around 5' now and is amazing. Her parents were wild caught Kalatoa 5'dad and 6' mom and I'm guessing mine will end up around 6-7', maybe even 8' at her growth rate. I would guess with close to 50% mainland blood the one you're looking at stands a chance to get larger than 10'. I would ask reptile experts on here. He's also got a bunch of great SD related videos up on YouTube.
I will say that my retic is very fast and very curious. A little cage defensive when first getting her out but she's a puppy dog out of her enclosure. Always on the go and super enjoyable to work with. Definitely keeps me on my toes


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Originally Posted by jmcrook

My SD is only 8 months old so I can't speak from the perspective of having an adult snake but she is around 5' now and is amazing. Her parents were wild caught Kalatoa 5'dad and 6' mom and I'm guessing mine will end up around 6-7', maybe even 8' at her growth rate. I would guess with close to 50% mainland blood the one you're looking at stands a chance to get larger than 10'. I would ask reptile experts on here. He's also got a bunch of great SD related videos up on YouTube.
I will say that my retic is very fast and very curious. A little cage defensive when first getting her out but she's a puppy dog out of her enclosure. Always on the go and super enjoyable to work with. Definitely keeps me on my toes


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Glad to hear you're enjoying her, I fantasize about a first SD some day, so I've been following your posts. How is her poor little face?

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Originally Posted by dkatz4

Glad to hear you're enjoying her, I fantasize about a first SD some day, so I've been following your posts. How is her poor little face?

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Still has a little dent in her lip but doesn't seem to bother her or affect her in any way. Hope it works itself out soon though.


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Yeah, I talked to kris at Vital Exotics today and expects the male ive been looking at to top out around 7' with normal feedings. Still waiting to hear from the gal on the Platinum Tiger I was looking at but its a higher % SD. Kris' are about 37% SD 31% D where as this platinum Tiger is 50% SD and 6% D but it is a female vs Kris' is a male. And I watched a bunch of Cody's videos and sent him a PM but not sure if he is around or not. Thanks guys. And Gio where are you when I need you!!?? How is the little guy you got from Vital Exotics? That's one of the two people I've nailed it down to for a retic. Looking at white albino!!

I'm so far from being an authority here, but I'm thinking with a female you may end up over 10'. My male is 37.5% SD and 43.75% dwarf. I've been told by Reptileexperts, Kris at Vital Exotics and another very knowledgeable friend that I should expect 7'-9' and possibly on the biggest end 10, maybe 11 feet.

More mainland = more chilled out snake so I've read and been told. The SD and dwarf add a bit of fire to their movement, though I don't think the likelihood of biting increases, just more jumpy. The tiger gene is a plus that I have going, as it is said to generally mellow out the animal.

I have heard various accounts about male VS female and I am comfortable with a male since I'm not breeding him, he probably won't have issues although I do have 2 different species of female pythons here so we'll see if those pheromones kick in at certain times of the year and make him edgy.

My fella shed last night and I had to clean his cage. He trashed it. Pooped in the water dish, P'd all over and stuck his shed to various items in the cage. He ate last night as well and today I got my first taste of some real defensive behavior. I used the hook and tried to establish some rapport but he struck at it repeatedly. If I moved, he'd follow me. He took several air strikes at me so I kept on with the hook and continued cleaning.

Normally I would have left him as his grumpiness after eating the night before was purely defensive and not a feeding response. He just wanted to digest without bother. However I had to clean and I didn't want his little, yet semi intimidating display to go unchecked.

Out he came and we spent a moment or two reestablishing trust.

My off track rant comes with good intentions though.

These are VERY different snakes, at least amongst the boas and pythons I'm used to, and I don't think anybody can overemphasize the precautions to take early on. If my guy was putting on this display at an age greater than 4.5 months and he had some size on him, I'd have been a tad nervous. This probably wouldn't have even occurred had I not needed to get some of the wreckage out of his cage.

I've also been assured retics will give you plenty of warning before they will actually bite you. I'm very much in the learning stage with this animal and we are figuring each other out. It is quite rewarding so far and I'd recommend the species to an interested, responsible keeper.

I think they (retics) are wonderful. I love the excitement and challenges that come with them but I will say make certain you get the right sized animal because I can see where a big one could be a handful.

Cody (Reptileexperts) has some really good video posts on Y-Tube. You can see the size difference between the dwarfs, SD's, males and females. He has certainly laid out a lot of information regarding the species and it has helped me a great deal with my comfort level rated to this species.

Keep us posted.

LOL! I was typing when you were typing.

Hope that helped. Get the male from Kris, he knows his stuff!

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Yeah, I talked to kris at Vital Exotics today and expects the male ive been looking at to top out around 7' with normal feedings. Still waiting to hear from the gal on the Platinum Tiger I was looking at but its a higher % SD. Kris' are about 37% SD 31% D where as this platinum Tiger is 50% SD and 6% D but it is a female vs Kris' is a male. And I watched a bunch of Cody's videos and sent him a PM but not sure if he is around or not. Thanks guys. And Gio where are you when I need you!!?? How is the little guy you got from Vital Exotics? That's one of the two people I've nailed it down to for a retic. Looking at white albino!!

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Hey, which male are you looking at?

Is it the brother to mine? SD X Dwarf tiger?

Thanks Gio. Nah i'm looking at either the SD/D white albino or lavender albino. Cant decide which one. I just have a thing for morphs I guess lol. Kris told me they should top out around 5-7'. He said the dad was 5' and the mom was 8-9'.

Well I took the leap!! I placed my order for the 2016 male SD/D White Albino 50% het snow. Now hopefully it doesn't turn into a monster and eat my neighborhood lol. I blame you Gio and all the others who have been posting pics of tics and all the good talk about them!! This will make my final snake.....for now mwahaha :snake2:

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Well I took the leap!! I placed my order for the 2016 male SD/D White Albino 50% het snow. Now hopefully it doesn't turn into a monster and eat my neighborhood lol. I blame you Gio and all the others who have been posting pics of tics and all the good talk about them!! This will make my final snake.....for now mwahaha :snake2:

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Awesome man!!

You and I have been doing a lot of the same things. Pro-Line cages around the same time. Boas around the same time, and now retics.

You have me edged out in the number of animals (snakes) but that's cool I like the fact you have the option to add more.

I checked out your animal on the site and it looks great.

They are not at all hard to keep, just study the Vital Exotics care sheet, and ask questions. I share the same size concerns that you have, and feel the 7-10 schedule (maintenance) for males will make for a reasonable animal size.

I think our SD and Dwarf pertenages are fairly close. I'll recheck the animal you are getting I think we have the same SD percentage but I think I have even more dwarf, but I also have tiger in the mix. Kris said 7-9' for mine, the mom was 10' dad was 5'. Cody thought 10' tops and another friend said he'd be surprised if I git 9'.

The big key IMO is the ultimate girth. If they are not overly thick things will be manageable.

Congrats!!

Thanks man. Exactly about the girth. I'm not too intimidated by length as much as the length WITH a huge girth lol.

As for edging you out, this is my last one haha. No way I can bring anything else home....at least for a year or two haha.

As for length and %, I think yours has more dwarf in it than mine. Mine is a 37.5% SD and 31% D. Kris said the albino should top out at 5-7'. Maybe the tiger adds some length overall to it? The mom was 8-9' and the dad was 5'. Kris told me right now, the albino is about 2' and it was born 5-18-16. He also said he handles "fine". Whatever that means lol. I'm pretty excited for this guy. It will be my first male lol. My jungle and bp are both females so I hope he doesn't go ballistic during breeding season haha. He is scheduled to be delivered her Tuesday morning. Maybe ill need to break down and just pick up a cheap point and shoot camera just to post some pics of everyone lol.

Haha and yeah we both bought boas about the same time, joined the same forums, bought cages and now retics lol. Next step is we will both come home with a new "unplanned" pet and both be sitting on the curb on suitcases hahaha.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Thanks man. Exactly about the girth. I'm not too intimidated by length as much as the length WITH a huge girth lol.

As for edging you out, this is my last one haha. No way I can bring anything else home....at least for a year or two haha.

As for length and %, I think yours has more dwarf in it than mine. Mine is a 37.5% SD and 31% D. Kris said the albino should top out at 5-7'. Maybe the tiger adds some length overall to it? The mom was 8-9' and the dad was 5'. Kris told me right now, the albino is about 2' and it was born 5-18-16. He also said he handles "fine". Whatever that means lol. I'm pretty excited for this guy. It will be my first male lol. My jungle and bp are both females so I hope he doesn't go ballistic during breeding season haha. He is scheduled to be delivered her Tuesday morning. Maybe ill need to break down and just pick up a cheap point and shoot camera just to post some pics of everyone lol.

Haha and yeah we both bought boas about the same time, joined the same forums, bought cages and now retics lol. Next step is we will both come home with a new "unplanned" pet and both be sitting on the curb on suitcases hahaha.

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Got mine on a Tuesday as well!

I'm pumped for you.

Mine is still under 2' but he is a June 1 2016 so only a bit younger than your guy.

Yeah grab a camera. I want to see this.

So am I!! The BP has been downgraded to the Constrictor NW cage lol. The retic is getting the T10 AP cage with shelf. This spring i'll get around to getting some new cages for the guys' who are in glass tanks atm lol.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

So am I!! The BP has been downgraded to the Constrictor NW cage lol. The retic is getting the T10 AP cage with shelf. This spring i'll get around to getting some new cages for the guys' who are in glass tanks atm lol.

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The countdown is on buddy!

Tomorrow around 09:30 or 10:30 you'll be having fun!

Actually it might be Wednesday lol. Guess Kris went to go check the snake for packing today and it has pushed and damaged his nose. So Kris is going to upgrade me to the White Albino Tiger male instead. So probably wont go out until tomorrow for a Wednesday arrival lol.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Actually it might be Wednesday lol. Guess Kris went to go check the snake for packing today and it has pushed and damaged his nose. So Kris is going to upgrade me to the White Albino Tiger male instead. So probably wont go out until tomorrow for a Wednesday arrival lol.

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OK sorry to hear you have another day to wait.

Let's see some pictures of what you're getting :P

I live in the dark ages atm but you can check Vital Exotics and look at the SD/D white albino Tiger male. That's what i'll be getting since I don't have the snake yet as it wont ship until tomorrow for a Wednesday arrival.

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Originally Posted by Gio

OK sorry to hear you have another day to wait.

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Yeah it does suck but I guess it works out. I'll be getting a white albino tiger now which looks pretty awesome.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Yeah it does suck but I guess it works out. I'll be getting a white albino tiger now which looks pretty awesome.

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I had been eyeing that snake for a while but given the SD % wasn't real sure about the adult size. Guess I'll just live vicariously through you haha! Post plenty of pics when it gets here and congrats!


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Lol yeah. Well I talked to Kris and he said with normal feedings, it should top out around 5-7'. The mom was 8-9' and the dad was 5'.

And we have liftoff!!!! He has officially been shipped and the countdown starts :)

Super stoked for you! Post pics!


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Well he has arrived and he is freakin awesome. His orange stripe extends from his head all the way down to his tail, just awesome. He was so laid back too. I opened the bag and he just poked his head out and crawled onto me and started exploring. Now I need to get a cheap camera assuming I'm not shutdown with buying one as I think I've reached my limit for the month will 3 snakes lol.

Congrats on your latest acquisition Sauzo! :)

Thanks Reinz. I'm pretty well tapped on my snake allotment now haha so you wont be seeing any new acquisitions for at least a year...or more lol.

@Gio-Hey I know your little man is about the same size as mine. What do you feed your guy? My little man is about 2.5' and a little thicker than a stick of pepperoni. I sent Kris an email as the other one I was going to get was eating small rats or adult mice but I'm not sure about this guy. And I don't see how he could eat a small rat. I mean a small rat would be over double his width lol. Would look like he ate a football and i'd probably have to roll him onto the flexwatt lol.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Thanks Reinz. I'm pretty well tapped on my snake allotment now haha so you wont be seeing any new acquisitions for at least a year...or more lol.

@Gio-Hey I know your little man is about the same size as mine. What do you feed your guy? My little man is about 2.5' and a little thicker than a stick of pepperoni. I sent Kris an email as the other one I was going to get was eating small rats or adult mice but I'm not sure about this guy. And I don't see how he could eat a small rat. I mean a small rat would be over double his width lol. Would look like he ate a football and i'd probably have to roll him onto the flexwatt lol.

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Hey I'm using my cell phone so I'm going to skip capitalization and punctuation just so I can answer you quick small rats are fine they do leave a bulge I am feeding one every seven days the first go-round I gave him one the day he arrived took it no problem then gave him one for days later took that no problem shed out and then I gave him one seven days later now I am doing every 7 to 10 day Congrats man I'm totally stoked for you

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Originally Posted by Gio

Hey I'm using my cell phone so I'm going to skip capitalization and punctuation just so I can answer you quick small rats are fine they do leave a bulge I am feeding one every seven days the first go-round I gave him one the day he arrived took it no problem then gave him one for days later took that no problem shed out and then I gave him one seven days later now I am doing every 7 to 10 day Congrats man I'm totally stoked for you

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Thanks man. Really? He ate a small rat? I'm kind of worried about a small rat for this guy. Seems like it would be huge lol. maybe i'll try a weaned rat first and see how that looks in him and then adjust as needed. And i'm pretty stoked too. The picture of the snake on Vitals website doesn't look like my male. He is freakin gorgeous! Kris said he was going to pick a nice one for me as the white albino had the nose issue and stuff. He came through with flying colors on him. A thick orange line from his head to his tail. Looks like a racing stripe haha.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Thanks man. Really? He ate a small rat? I'm kind of worried about a small rat for this guy. Seems like it would be huge lol. maybe i'll try a weaned rat first and see how that looks in him and then adjust as needed. And i'm pretty stoked too. The picture of the snake on Vitals website doesn't look like my male. He is freakin gorgeous! Kris said he was going to pick a nice one for me as the white albino had the nose issue and stuff. He came through with flying colors on him. A thick orange line from his head to his tail. Looks like a racing stripe haha.

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Yes, smalls and that is what Kris recommended. You will be amazed at the metabolism of these guys. Huge lump goes down over night and 2 days later its all but gone. I was skeptical about the size but a retic friend told me that was the right size as well. It sounds like your dude is a tab bit longer than mine. I think my boy is under 2 feet still. The lump of a small will be large but these aren't boas. They can take a larger meal like carpets, but digest much faster and because of that they need to eat more frequently.

That said, it is important not to overdo it. At this stage a meal that is big for them isn't going to have much influence on growth. I think I'll keep with smalls for a long while and then move up to medium sized rats and the quail equivalent. According to Kris and Cody, our males will eventually be maintenance fed large rats every 7-10 days or the quail equivalent.

I think staying within those parameters will set us up for lean and not overly large animals.

http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/y...a/IMG_3616.jpg


This is how thick Wallace is. I'm guessing you have a similar build on your guy.

http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/y...a/IMG_3566.jpg


NOW,,,,,, GET YOURSELF A CHEAP CAMERA and join the fun LOL!

Well good news is he ate a weaned rat no problem other than being kind of retarded and trying to eat the ass about 5 times before finally finding the head under his body lol. Now hes curled up behind his hide with his head laying on top of the hide staring out the front of the cage lol. Seems hes not impressed with RBI hides. He prefers to sit curled up behind them and use them pillows. And yes Gio, I know I need a dang camera lol. Need to try and scrounge up the cash for one. I blew WAY too much the past month on snakes and Herpstats and other accessories :D

And honestly, yours looks bigger Gio. Mine might be older and possibly longer(don't know since I don't see yours stretched) but he is definitely thinner. Mines more streamline. Might just be the black making yours look thicker but I always thought white made you look fat and black was slimming lol.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Well good news is he ate a weaned rat no problem other than being kind of retarded and trying to eat the ass about 5 times before finally finding the head under his body lol. Now hes curled up behind his hide with his head laying on top of the hide staring out the front of the cage lol. Seems hes not impressed with RBI hides. He prefers to sit curled up behind them and use them pillows. And yes Gio, I know I need a dang camera lol. Need to try and scrounge up the cash for one. I blew WAY too much the past month on snakes and Herpstats and other accessories :D

And honestly, yours looks bigger Gio. Mine might be older and possibly longer(don't know since I don't see yours stretched) but he is definitely thinner. Mines more streamline. Might just be the black making yours look thicker but I always thought white made you look fat and black was slimming lol.

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Mine will occasionally get ADD and forget she's trying to eat and get way distracted with her surroundings even with the rat coiled up. Almost never uses a hide and also prefers to go snoopy style and lay on top of the warm hide. She's actually used both hides the last few days though. She's an interesting critter for sure


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Originally Posted by jmcrook

My SD is only 8 months old so I can't speak from the perspective of having an adult snake but she is around 5' now and is amazing. Her parents were wild caught Kalatoa 5'dad and 6' mom and I'm guessing mine will end up around 6-7', maybe even 8' at her growth rate. I would guess with close to 50% mainland blood the one you're looking at stands a chance to get larger than 10'. I would ask reptile experts on here. He's also got a bunch of great SD related videos up on YouTube.
I will say that my retic is very fast and very curious. A little cage defensive when first getting her out but she's a puppy dog out of her enclosure. Always on the go and super enjoyable to work with. Definitely keeps me on my toes


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If your retic is 5' at 8 months that's about average growth for mainlands. I'd expect an SD to be 3'-4' at that age. My mainland girl was 4'-4.5' at a year, but was drastically underfed for the first 6 months of her life (a single fuzzy mouse every 2 weeks). She's 2 years old and 7' now, we'll have to see where she ends up on the scale. Retics don't stop growing at a year, and being so close to 6' already, it's doubtful that her growth will stop at just 6'-7'. They normally hit adult sizes at a 3-4 years on the average feeding schedule, and at 5-7 years on a conservative feeding schedule from what I've seen.

As far as my experience with my female mainland, she's been an absolute dream. I would put her docility on par with my boa constrictors, but she has the activity and awareness of my garters. I would honestly say the garters and her are very comparable on the "intelligence" level. She comes right up at me any time I walk into the room unless she's sleeping (and she has to be in a deep sleep too) or in shed. I touch her with the hook and she immediately backs off. Still is a little curious, but not quite so quick to the trigger. Then I can pull her out, sometimes she gives a little fight, but usually crawls out with me. As she's gotten bigger, she's becoming more and more twitchy, though, and actually bucks me off if she's shedding.

She's not quick to bite, though, I've held her and propped open her mouth several times without her attempting to bite me and with little resistance once she expended some energy - she's like the Energizer bunny, always go go go. She's only gotten defensive with me 2 or 3 times. One time was when I was popping open a container I had her in to weigh her. The vibrations from the lid popping off surprised her and she stiffened out, flattening her head when I took it off. I figured, just reach in and grab her and she'd see she was fine. Nailed me on the finger, but then immediately calmed down. The other time I remember was when I had her outside. She was sniffing at the air, periscoping and looking around. I figured I'd let her do her thing since she was sitting still for once, but that apparently was a bad idea because when I moved she went on the defensive. I tried bringing my hand slowly at her from ground level to give her a gentle stroke to let her know it was me, but she struck at me and started moving off away from me with her head flattened out like a ratsnake and body all puffed up, with her head and belly off the ground, moving sideways and staring at me. It was actually kinda comical but I didn't want her shooting off and getting overly stressed, and at 4' at the time it let me know this wasn't something I'd want to deal with as an adult. lol Once she made it past me, she lowered her head and slowly slithered off. I was able to touch her and pick her up without her turning on me, and held her in my hands as she sighed and huffed all the pent-up air out of her lungs. I haven't had any defensive displays in at least a year now, though.

Overall, very docile but extremely active snake. She will reach and climb onto anything nearby, and never sits still for a single instant unless she tires herself out. Then she sits there wheezing just long enough to go back to action, but she never gives herself enough time to catch her breath so she stops and starts until I put her up. I'm her human jungle gym (for as long as she's small enough anyways lol).

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Thanks Reinz. I'm pretty well tapped on my snake allotment now haha so you wont be seeing any new acquisitions for at least a year...or more lol.

@Gio-Hey I know your little man is about the same size as mine. What do you feed your guy? My little man is about 2.5' and a little thicker than a stick of pepperoni. I sent Kris an email as the other one I was going to get was eating small rats or adult mice but I'm not sure about this guy. And I don't see how he could eat a small rat. I mean a small rat would be over double his width lol. Would look like he ate a football and i'd probably have to roll him onto the flexwatt lol.

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I'd probably personally do weaned rats, but he should be able to take a small rat. These guys digest bigger meals just as easily as regular-sized meals, so they're really hard to pinpoint what size meal they should eat (I generally go by 15-20% of their weight for babies and now I'm just feeding whatever jumbo+ sized rat I have or my smaller rabbits). My girl is pushing 7', normally eats a 1/2 lb jumbo rat or 8 oz+ rabbit, but can take a 1 lb rabbit no problem and you wouldn't know she ate 3 days later. I try not to feed her such large meals all the time, though. I've been feeding her every other week since she started eating large rats.

I was feeding her bigger meals for a bit, but she started to get kinda uninterested in food, so I've stepped her back down in prey size and she's back to pounding her food. I gave her a rabbit a month or two ago, her favorite meal of all time, and it took several minutes of real convincing to get her to actually take it. And these are meals she'll hit the glass for, too, she won't do that for a rat.

That's like my BP. When she was eating medium rats, she would be sporatic with feeding. Then she got scared of medium rats lol. She goes gung ho for small rats though and those keep her regular with a weekly feeding or possibly 2 weeks.

As for the retic, i'll probably just stick to weaned rats like you said since I plan on feeding him every week just like my JCP. Will make for an easier schedule for me to sorta remember, everyone 2-3 weeks except the retic and JCP who get food every week. And yeah this little guy was a champ today. I opened the bag and he was happy to come out and sit on me and check me and everything out. No defense or flinch or anything. Then within 2 hours he was going gung ho for the F/T weaned rat. He actually checked out the shelf in his T10 and as jmcrook says, he likes to snoopy on top of his hides. He was born 5-18-16 and is 2.5'. I was floored though how he packed in that rat being a little thicker than a peperoni stick lol. And once he came out of retard mode and figured out eating ass first wasn't working and found the head, he had that rat down in about 1 min lol.