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Originally Posted by The_Godfather

I just think in the long run this morph game we're playing is slowly degrading their genes.

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But you want to isolate a giant gene to breed unnatural giant snakes!

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Originally Posted by RamMac

But you want to isolate a giant gene to breed unnatural giant snakes!

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Yes I've thought of the double standard. I'm researching a way to acquire a couple WC despite the ban to strengthen the bloodline.

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Originally Posted by The_Godfather

Yes I've thought of the double standard. I'm researching a way to acquire a couple WC despite the ban to strengthen the bloodline.

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Well at least you're honest about it. Anyway, good luck with your breeding business.

I don't own giants, so take my opinion for what It's worth... (not much lol). I'd see if you can find someone local to you that has adults of both species that you can interact with.. See which one you like dealing with more and go with that.

Know that with any giant, it is advised that you have a second person when the snake hits 10' or more to help with all handling, etc. even if just moving cages, it's a good idea to have a second person there. I once saw a post and video by a retic keeper who was struck during cage cleaning, the retic happened to nick a vein and the guy was lucky to have a second person on hand to help contain the snake and then get him to the hospital.. He showed the aftermath on the video (bite with stitches and the floor of the area where he got bit) there was tons of blood on the floor and it is is a good possibility that he could have bled out without help. I'm not saying that is common, but it is something to consider with these guys.

Burmese tend to get pretty thick, so if you are wanting a thinner snake, then a retic would probably be better. I don't know much about the dwarf Burmese, but I think they tend to stay very small (smaller than "dwarf" retics).

I agree with other posters that security will be an issue.. If your kids are young, especially lower elementary or younger, than I would very much advise a locked cage and even a locked reptile room to keep it in, with the keys out of reach of the kids. Even if they are upper elementary age (and understand right from wrong and what could happen) I would still not allow them access to the cage keys.

What is the largest snake you have now (just curious)? Female BCC boas can get pretty darn large and are a good mix of active and relaxed. If you've never had a snake over ~6', an 8'-10' BCC might be a good choice.

I agree with pretty much everything you're saying, security will definitely be a major factor while designing their enclosures, as far as local keepers I'm definitely going to keep my eye out see if maybe someone wants to let me help clean cages one day or something. Right now I have two young boas, both BCI. Part of wanting a big python is both to diversify my collection but also, as I mentioned before regarding my obsession with size, I want to relieve stress I feel about their growth. It makes me crazy to think that it's going to be five years before they achieve any real size and I'm certainly not going to power feed them to try and speed it up, I figure if I have one animal that gets big relatively quickly it will satiate that part of my hobby and I can just let my boas grow nice and slow and stop stressing about it all the time.

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Originally Posted by The_Godfather

Yes I've thought of the double standard. I'm researching a way to acquire a couple WC despite the ban to strengthen the bloodline.

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Just saw your ISO on the retic classified group, should be interesting to see what you come up with. Re your costal; just out of curiosity, do you have a pic, whats her temperament like, and how much, just out of curiosity.

I'll pm you my cell #, sound cool?

I mean on some level I'll be breeding like I always wanted. But hell sometimes if you shoot for the stars and fail at least you made it to the moon, right?

Here's a pic I took for measuring the coastal. She has a significant appetite and is as docile as a ball python. She's even grown longer so she may hit the 10' mark. She'd make you very happy, I'm just focusing all efforts on other fronts.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...al-cages-merge

Another thing i'm trying to wrap my head around is retic patterning, they really do their name justice. Maybe i'm just more used to boas, but i am pretty good at scrutinizing them on looks, not expert, but i think i've developed a pretty keen eye for many of the subtleties of the patterns. But with tics i feel like i'm looking at a kaleidoscope, i can distinguish the obvious stuff, but i mean like comparing 2 normals and deciding which one is cleaner or prettier, i'm stumped at this point. Any tips? Not that looks will be the be-all end-all in my search, i'm just trying to expand my knowledge.
For example, i'm looking at a couple of purples on fauna right now, and they are single gene purples, but i cant tell if any are better looking than the others at this point.