Dwarf/Super Dwarf Retic Questions!

[Konotashi]

I've always been fascinated and admired reticulated pythons' beauty, but thought I'd never be able to own one, simply due to their size. Then I discovered the existence of D/SD retics, and my dream of possibly owning one lives!

I just have a few questions. Since they're long snakes, rather than just massive beasts (like Burms or anacondas), approximately how much would a retic weigh at 6 feet? 12 feet? They're not a robust snake, so I can't really compare them to other snakes of the same length....

Also, when a D/SD retic reaches maturity (size-wise), what do you feed them? Small rabbits, or several large rats? They don't look like they'd be able to eat very large prey - they're just LONG.

As far as what I've read, everything else about the dwarfs seems to be the same as with the normals, aside from size.
Any pointers you guys could give me would be a huge bonus, though!

Thank you in advance!

[Tfpets]

My dwarf is just over 6 feet now and he weighs less than my largest female ball. Not sure on exact numbers, but he's certainly not the thinnest retic I've seen at his length. I might need to break out the scale soon! At this point he is on large rats weekly. I would imagine he will get to multiple large rats at some point and possibly small rabbits. My burm is about 10 feet and about 45 lbs right now. She has been on rabbits since she was 6 feet long. The way the retic is going, I don't think he will ever weigh as much as the burm does now, even if he gets to 12 feet. Although if I fed him as much as he would like, he might get to 100 lbs!

[reptileexperts]

Made this video for such questions! Super Dwarfs stay fairly slim and do not get over the 15kg spectrum as breeding females for 50% crosses, and usually stay at or below 10kg for breeding sized pure line females. Dwarf can and do get rather large and robust, just like their mainland counter parts, but it also depends on how you raise them. My biggest Dwarf is around 2,5-2,7m and eating 1kg rabbits weekly. She's currently fairly trim, and getting moved to a Vision 600 at the end of this week., so she'll add a lot more size to her rather quick over the next couple of months.

In contrast, my 6 year old male tiger 50% SD is 3 meters and weighs around 7kg respecitvely. Again though my pure Anery SD male who is hitting 2 years in age is sub 2m (roughly 5 ft) and weighs less than 1kg! He stays in a CB70 tub and pounds large rats weekly without showing any more signs of growth.

There is a size catagory and morph that can fit most. But the smaller the size, and the rarer the SD morph, the more you will pay - think around 1,200 for a 50% SD Albino male this season white phase, and 5k for a Purple phase 62.5% SD het Anery (snow), and upwards of 8-9k for a SD Snow (Albino Anery) retic.

However, you can get Tiger 50% SD's for relatively cheap now - 450, and super tigers a lot cheaper than say even a year ago - 900 usd. But those are in quite a demand and I believe have sold out from the main supplier in the US this season (Travis Kubes Pythons)

My 50% sd Adult eats a 1kg rabbit once a month, and a XXL Rat once a week. My Dwarf Girl eats a 1kg rabbit weekly, and my other retics are currently feeding on Jumbo Rat (except my Dwarf Goldenchild who is on Small rats, and my new Super Tiger Super Dwarf who is barely eating 2 rat pups a week).

[Konotashi]

About 10 ft and less than 20 lbs? That's way lighter than I expected, haha. My main worry was that I'd get a dwarf (because I'm leaning more toward dwarf than super dwarf), and if it got to be 12 feet or more, I didn't want to have a 100+ lb. snake. But if that's it, then I could handle that! (I will admit, I likely way overestimated the weight for any snake species - I'm really bad at estimating stuff like that, LOL).
My reasoning/logic behind that is that I want to be able to handle all of my snakes by myself and carry it without having to have help to simply move/transport it.

I really like the tigers, suntigers, and purple albinos. I LOVE the snows, but those are close to $10k right now. Maybe for my graduation present, depending on what prices look like in about 3 years from now, I may ask for a dwarf retic instead of a RTB. ('Cause most lipstick junglows are already cheaper than the retics I like).

ETA: Watching the videos, I love how 'disruptive' they are. Haha. They seem like a handful (in a good way). LOVE IT.

[snakesRkewl]

I just held a super dwarf at my buddy Brian Breikss(Simple man on this forum) house this weekend and going by her small size I doubt she could eat a large rat and I doubt he's feeding her that large. She's no more than about 4-5 lbs and 6 feet long.
His male is smaller and flightier but the female is so chill I held her for awhile and man was it kewl!

[Pyrate81]

Cool video. Cool looking snakes in the vid as well. Almost makes me want to get a retic.

[reptileexperts]

Just remember they Are still very fast very smart snakes. Even super dwarf retics require great care and respect.


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[Mike41793]

How are they smart?

[reptileexperts]

Escape artist. They are quick to condition with food. And almost always look you in the eyes.


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[Konotashi]

How slim are they supposed to be? I know they're supposed to be thin, but how do you know when they're too thin or if they're overweight?

And I'll have some type of locks on all of my cages. My sister had a king snake whose name SHOULD have been Houdini!! She spent more time escaped than in a cage! (Not exaggerating, either). I don't want to deal with that, EVER. Especially with a retic - dwarf or not.