6 Month Old Retic

[Gilligan]

I just got a new retic yesterday. He's about six months old, according to breeder. He's really little though compared to the pictures and videos I've seen of retics his age, and just seems thin in general. I of course haven't fed him yet to see how well he's eating. Should I be worried? He seems great and healthy with an awesome temperament otherwise.

I will post pictures soon, I'm on my phone at the moment.

[bcr229]

Babies can be thin, they tend to grow long their first 18-24 months and then start filling out.

Do you know when he last ate?

[JoshSloane]

I agree. Retic babies can be pretty thin. How is his temperament? Let him settle in a few days, and then if he seems to be comfortable in the new enclosure you can go ahead and feed him a small meal. Posting some pictures would help us determine his health.

[Gilligan]

I do not know when he last ate. I was told he was on rat pups. His temperament is excellent thus far. Very calm, curious, and active. In the bit that I've had him now, I look at his cage often and see him moving around, nosing around the edges of the cage like he wants out. Most of my other snakes just hide or lay around. In the bit that I did hold him, he just calmly hung out, and would crawl around a little on me.

This is him on my forearm in a puffy coat. I'm a average-smaller sized woman.

[Gilligan]

Seeing the "ridges" or "edges" just...freaks me out.

Weighed him, my kitchen scale says 247 grams.

[reptileexperts]

247 grams is pretty small for a 6 month old mainland. They recover pretty quick though. Some breeders will maintenance feed their young they intend on selling, so they will essentially give them a good start out of the egg, then after a few months they tend to slow food intake down because its more feasible to house them smaller till they sell, and cheaper to raise them on less food, obviously. Is it the right thing to do? Debatable for sure. Is it ethical? Again, debatable. As long as a retic does as intended and maintains its growth, it should be fine.

Hit it hard with food, maybe one feeding every 4-5 days after it gets settled and puts a little more weight on (start every 7 days right now for 4 weeks). They are sturdy animals, and recover mass quickly. But as others have said, they tend to add more length than girth for the first 2 years.

[Gilligan]

Thank you everyone. I appreciate the support and insight. I was wondering if the breeder may just have fed less to save money.

I will follow those feeding guidelines and see how he does.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

[Tigerhawk]

He looks nice. How is he doing now?

[distaff]

Beautiful!

[Gilligan]

So far, so good. He eats FT rats well. Temperament continues to appear very docile, calm, comfortable and curious. He is so different than my other snakes. The other day, he managed to take all of the paper towels in the tub and put it in a big wad in the water. Never had a snake do that before.