So this happened

Beautiful Retic :)

Would you consider swapping to Orchid bark ??

It looks far more natural than the stuff you have down plus it holds as much ( or little ) humidity as you want AND the darker colour makes Albinos even MORE amazing looking !
Here's mine https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...9d2ece1f1a.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...81a3d2eed1.jpg
Poor phone pix sadly ..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Thanks JMcrook, appreciate the insight. Ill hold off on his next meal for another day or two to keep him in the 6-7 day range and give me more handling time. He's not super fond of me getting him out of the enclosure, though he has only struck once or twice. I just want to help him grow out of that asap if i can. Other than that handling has been going great, he loves to explore and even lets me touch his head/neck without much fuss. Im hoping with consistency he will be as tame and predictable as my boas in regards to handling. Again, thanks for the input!

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

Beautiful Retic :)

Would you consider swapping to Orchid bark ??

It looks far more natural than the stuff you have down plus it holds as much ( or little ) humidity as you want AND the darker colour makes Albinos even MORE amazing looking !
Here's mine https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...9d2ece1f1a.jpg
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...81a3d2eed1.jpg
Poor phone pix sadly ..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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Thanks! Yeah ill have to check it out, humidity on the hot side could definitely go up a tad and that does look really nice. What brand do you use and is it fairly dust free? Currently i just have aspen shreds down as i had a bunch already, But i was planning on laying down an exact cut of corrugate paper down and placing substrate on top at least while he's smaller.
That retic looks awesome! If the bark helps the color pop im definitel going to give it a shot at least, the aspen does kind of take away from my guy

I used Reptichips for a while and honestly, it holds humidity really well, too much actually but my snakes all seem to like aspen more. I went back to it as i've used to for years.

As for feeding, Caesar at that size was eating medium rats i believe. He was/is a garbage can though and eats anything. You can also try quail and chicks. Caesar LOVED quail. Now at around 7', he eats a jumbo rat or 2XL guinea pig every 10-14 days. He was eating every 3-7 days until he got to about a year old. During the baby times, he pushed like no tomorrow unless he was kept fed. Now he only pushes in the evening when he wakes up and wants attention. Then i have to slide a door open and stand there and pet him a while while he checks me out and hangs out lol. He is by far the most 'needy' snake i have haha. And here are their set ups. I just use aspen like i said and offer 2 jumbo RB hides in AP T25s. You can see Caesar in the top cage sleeping in his hide haha. Rosey is down on the bottom there looking out the front.
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...5bfddd0f_h.jpg

When I switched from aspen to cypress mulch, I was amazed! It holds moisture much better, as well as odors. Cypress is amazing at odor control, and I bet orchid is the same. When I used aspen, the smell of poo or pee was horrendous, but now that I switched to cypress mulch, I can't even tell sometimes and I have to poke around to make sure they didn't urinate anywhere.
Of course, humidity control is much better as well.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

I used Reptichips for a while and honestly, it holds humidity really well, too much actually but my snakes all seem to like aspen more. I went back to it as i've used to for years.

As for feeding, Caesar at that size was eating medium rats i believe. He was/is a garbage can though and eats anything. You can also try quail and chicks. Caesar LOVED quail. Now at around 7', he eats a jumbo rat or 2XL guinea pig every 10-14 days. He was eating every 3-7 days until he got to about a year old. During the baby times, he pushed like no tomorrow unless he was kept fed. Now he only pushes in the evening when he wakes up and wants attention. Then i have to slide a door open and stand there and pet him a while while he checks me out and hangs out lol. He is by far the most 'needy' snake i have haha. And here are their set ups. I just use aspen like i said and offer 2 jumbo RB hides in AP T25s. You can see Caesar in the top cage sleeping in his hide haha. Rosey is down on the bottom there looking out the front.
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...5bfddd0f_h.jpg

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As far as your snakes liking aspen more, did having them on the bark reduce their activity or likeliness to be roaming? I know my boas and blood absolutely love the aspen which is why i use it, half the time they don't even bother with their hides because the feel secure enough just in the aspen shreds. Do you have any feeding pictures from when he was about 4 ft by any chance, to get a visual size comparison? Or even know about that the weights on your mediums were? It seems like theres sometimes some variability in what people consider certain sizes, i'm wondering if my rat supplier isnt off a bit because what he sells as mediums seem pretty dang big and i could'nt picture my tic getting one down.
Also im fairly familiar with your setups, they look great and i hope all my snakes would behave the way Caesar does haha

btw, I personally think Retics are the most beautiful snakes on earth! I just don't have the space to keep one currently, the ones pictured in this thread are SPLENDID!:snake::gj:

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Originally Posted by Godzilla78

When I switched from aspen to cypress mulch, I was amazed! It holds moisture much better, as well as odors. Cypress is amazing at odor control, and I bet orchid is the same. When I used aspen, the smell of poo or pee was horrendous, but now that I switched to cypress mulch, I can't even tell sometimes and I have to poke around to make sure they didn't urinate anywhere.
Of course, humidity control is much better as well.

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Thats funny because i actually like the smell of the aspen better. To me it doesnt hold the poo/pee smell once you spot clean it. It's easy to see where to spot clean and it seems to soak it up better than Reptichips. Problem i ran into with Reptichips is it smelled like a swamp after a couple weeks and for a retic, it was made even worse by the amount of pee. I couldnt really see exactly where to spot clean unless it had urate in it and being the Reptichips were bigger chunks, the liquid would easily seep down to the cage floor and spread. The aspen seems to soak it up quicker with very little spread so i just use my hand like a crane and scoop up the wet/discolored spot and its good. No more smell.

Cypress works well to but from i have been told, once cypress dries out, it is next to impossible to get it to reabsorb water so you cant let it ever dry completely out. And as for aspen molding like so many people say, i have yet to see it happen and i mist the aspen once a week. I think it depends on the cage. I dont have issues with humidity with aspen as long as i mist it once a week. In fact it's easier to control for me than Reptichips as that stuff would peg the humidity and create so much, i had water on the sides and roof of the cage for days. Then it would dry out and be too dry. And then trying to find poops in it was a chore as my snakes always buried their poops in the stuff or it just sank down between the pieces.

Reptichips still is good stuff but for me, it was a lot more work to deal with than aspen and with either i didnt have a low humidity issue which is why i went back to aspen. Easier for me to deal with plus i dont have to prep it to use it, just throw it in the cages, mist it down initially and im good to go.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Godzilla78

When I switched from aspen to cypress mulch, I was amazed! It holds moisture much better, as well as odors. Cypress is amazing at odor control, and I bet orchid is the same. When I used aspen, the smell of poo or pee was horrendous, but now that I switched to cypress mulch, I can't even tell sometimes and I have to poke around to make sure they didn't urinate anywhere.
Of course, humidity control is much better as well.

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I was using cypress mulch with my blood for some time and i did love it, the only issue i had was how wet it was. I would have to dry it out in the oven for quite some time otherwise it was just far too wet. It seems like its extremely easy to get the humidity in the boaphiles to skyrocket, which is why i have continued using aspen but i agree aspen doesnt do much as for as odor control. I think i'm going to try a few different things pretty soon here to see what works best for me as far as both aesthetics, functionality and if possible what it seems like the snake takes to best.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Godzilla78

btw, I personally think Retics are the most beautiful snakes on earth! I just don't have the space to keep one currently, the ones pictured in this thread are SPLENDID!:snake::gj:

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Retics are awesome and have such personality. Caesar is a total 'needy' snake that loves attention. This is is his first bath and he sat there with his head on the rim of the tub while i washed him down with a wet paper towel. He looked up at me and yawned which i didnt catch on the camera as i had a handful of wet paper towel lol.
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...77333f1d_h.jpg