My First Retics - Purple Albino Motley + Purple Albino Golden Child (25% Kalatoas)

[Aedryan Methyus]

Well... I have decided to put a deposit down on a stunning pair of 2017 25% Kalatoa SD Retics...

Male Purple Motley Albino


Female Purple Albino Golden Child


According to the breeder, the Purple Motley boy's parents were a 7' - 8' female Lavender Motley Mainland crossed with a 50% Kalatoa SD Albino Golden Child male (not sure about the father's size). the Purple Albino Golden Child girl's parents were a 9' female 50% Kalatoa SD Tiger crossed with a 10' male Albino Golden Child Mainland. I'm just going to be extremely careful with prey sizes and feeding schedules throughout all of their stages of growth (and breeding cycles when the time comes) and hope that only 25% Kalatoa is enough SD blood to keep them from becoming 14' + giants... lol My goal will be to have them top out between 8' and 10'. Do you guys think I stand a pretty good chance?

Either way, I am definitely loving the odds that I will have with these beauties in the future! So, I think I made a pretty good choice...

[AbsoluteApril]

very pretty lil noodles! congrats!

Our 87.5% Kalatoa SD are 7' (male) and 10' (female) so I suspect yours will get larger than 10'. I could be wrong but just be prepared.

[Sauzo]

Hard to say about the size but i would guess they will be close to the parents size.

But like i said, anything is possible. If you go back and reread the comparison i did with mine and Gio's retics vs our complete left and right wing feeding schedules etc.

And if that is the Morph Market genetic calculator, i wouldnt trust it lol. They have changed it since i was messing with it and another member on the SD breeders group was messing with it too. It was showing that if you bred a lavender to a white, you got het lavender....there is no such thing as a het lavender lol. It's 100% visual if it is there. Kind of like hypo in boas but its recessive, not dominant like in boas.

They might have kind of fixed it though as they removed the option for 'white phase albino'. Now there is just the option for albino(white phase) which seems to be working. Still not sure i would trust that thing 100% lol.

And another example is Jacobs pure kalatoa female who is 9'

[Aedryan Methyus]

Thanks you guys. I'm really excited about these guys. Aside from hopefully producing some Moonglow Boas in the future, this pairing is definitely going to be my most exciting breeding project. BUT, could you guys please at least lie to me for the next 4 years and keep promising me that they aren't going to become 100 pound giants??? lol Seriously, though... If these guys had 50% Kalatoa parents that ranged from 7' - 9' that tells me that they will probably be larger than their parents since they're only 25%... I'm gambling on Jay brewer being right about controlling their size through prey size and feeding schedules. The breeder i'm getting them from said, "If you feed them a lot they could reach 10', but if you just feed them every 2 weeks then every 4 weeks when they are a couple years old they will only reach 6' - 7' and just a few pounds." Jay brewer says to keep Retics small, feed them small prey that is no larger than the fattest part of their body once every 7 days then cut them back to every 10 days. What do you guys think?

[jmcrook]

I'm going to hope your breeder was right for your sake in saying that you can keep them under 10'. Granted I did feed my kalatoa, Phyllis, every 5-7 days as a hatchling but she grew like a weed and, as sauzo said, she's around 9' now. Pure kalatoa from wild caught imported parents that were ~6' and ~7'. Here she is today in the corner of her T25 and in a 100qt tub from lowes that's about 35" long.

Close to the girth of my forearm. Granted I'm a small dude, 5' 4", but she's a beast of a super dwarf and 100% SD at that.


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[Aedryan Methyus]

Wow... I didn't know the pure Kalatoas got that big... What did I get myself into? lol One thing i'm a little confused about is, since crossing a 50% SD with a mainland produces 25% SDs and i'll be crossing a 25% with a 25%, will the offspring be 25% or 50%?

[Sauzo]

Thanks you guys. I'm really excited about these guys. Aside from hopefully producing some Moonglow Boas in the future, this pairing is definitely going to be my most exciting breeding project. BUT, could you guys please at least lie to me for the next 4 years and keep promising me that they aren't going to become 100 pound giants??? lol Seriously, though... If these guys had 50% Kalatoa parents that ranged from 7' - 9' that tells me that they will probably be larger than their parents since they're only 25%... I'm gambling on Jay brewer being right about controlling their size through prey size and feeding schedules. The breeder i'm getting them from said, "If you feed them a lot they could reach 10', but if you just feed them every 2 weeks then every 4 weeks when they are a couple years old they will only reach 6' - 7' and just a few pounds." Jay brewer says to keep Retics small, feed them small prey that is no larger than the fattest part of their body once every 7 days then cut them back to every 10 days. What do you guys think?

People will tell you all day long that the amount of feeding will control the snake growth. This is only true if the snake cooperates. Some retics will push violently when they want food. So you will have no choice but to feed them or take them to the vet every other week to deal with broken teeth, split lips, scrapes etc.

Some dont push, some do. Phyllis and Caesar are/were BIG pushers and Jacob will agree with this, they both have done a fair amount of damage to themselves. Gene and Wallace are not pushers so for them, the long feeding schedule will probably work.

Like mentioned above, plan for a 10' snake and you wont end up with a bad surprise and only a good surprise maybe.

[jmcrook]

Wow... I didn't know the pure Kalatoas got that big... What did I get myself into? lol One thing i'm a little confused about is, since crossing a 50% SD with a mainland produces 25% SDs and i'll be crossing a 25% with a 25%, will the offspring be 25% or 50%?

Add parent percentages together and divide by two. Offspring get half of either parent's percent, so your prospective offspring will be 25% SD.
In the wild they stay smaller because their food supply is less steady, they live on islands where migratory birds make up a large portion of their diet. Feast and famine. In captivity they are spoiled with food and have the potential to get larger. A breeder buddy of mine has pure SD females, 7 years old, around 8-9' at least and weigh a sturdy 20lbs. Even pure SD females are by no means a small snake. Just small in comparison to their mainland counterparts


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[Sauzo]

And like i mentioned, you cant just say 'this snake will be X size'. There is too many factors which cant be calculated. Feeding and schedule can be, the types of genes you use can be. But at the end of the day, it is up to mother nature as to what genes the snake in question utilizes the most. You got for high percent SD and dwarf to stack the deck in your favor but again, it is a roll of mother natures wheel at the end. And people say 'oh, get a dwarf, they stay small'. Bzzzt, wrong. Dwarfs can get 13-14'. They are smaller than mainlands but they arent a corn snake. Like i said, plan for a 10' snake and you shouldnt be in for any rude awakenings...of course i could be wrong lol.

[Aedryan Methyus]

At the moment the only space I have available are 28 qt. and 41 qt. racks... I'm thinking these guys will probably be alright in the 28 qt. rack for a few months then in the 41 qt. rack for at least another few months. What do you guys think? Once they outgrow the 41 qt. rack I won't have much of a choice other than to bump them right up into 6' x 3' enclosures, I guess... Funny thing is, when I was talking to the breeder and telling him how 6' x 3' enclosures are the largest size I want to get into, he acted like I was crazy for thinking I would need anything that big. He said, "No no no... You won't need anything that big for these guys. I keep most of mine in 4' x 2' enclosures"... There is no doubt that these guys won't be any smaller than 8' to 10' long (i'm guessing they'll end up more like 10' - 12') and there is no way I would ever keep even an 8' snake in a 4' x 2' enclosure...

People will tell you all day long that the amount of feeding will control the snake growth. This is only true if the snake cooperates. Some retics will push violently when they want food. So you will have no choice but to feed them or take them to the vet every other week to deal with broken teeth, split lips, scrapes etc.

Some dont push, some do. Phyllis and Caesar are/were BIG pushers and Jacob will agree with this, they both have done a fair amount of damage to themselves. Gene and Wallace are not pushers so for them, the long feeding schedule will probably work.

Like mentioned above, plan for a 10' snake and you wont end up with a bad surprise and only a good surprise maybe.

Yes, I have read a lot about how Retics will push. That is where I can definitely see there being a problem with trying to control their size with smaller prey sizes and longer periods in between feedings. I'm going to place my bet right now and wager that this female will end up being around 12' and the male around 10'. 12' wouldn't be too bad for a Retic, just so I can keep her more on the thin side...