My retic

[Sapphire7]

~* Warnign in Advance, this may be long*~
Hey all. Im not sure if everyone knows me. Or knows what type of snakes I have. I currently move at cannot find my camera so... I will have to show pics of my vivs when I can. Sorry about that. Okay well I have 1 male Bp which is little over 5ft long and almost 6yrs of age. I also have a corn snake with is over 10 yrs old and almost 6 ft long. Also a male. My retic is 14ft long and only a couple yrs old. Male. (All my snakes seem to be male, huh?) And last but not least I have a RTB, female!!! lol She is a bit over 8ft long and 9yr old. I've had burmese and other snakes in my past but these are my snakes I've had for a few yrs. I've raised the retic and Bp since they were hachlings but the other two I got within 3yrs ago. I would never buy an adult retic because for some reason I believe they get comfortable with their human handler and if suddenly sold while quite large I've noticed the larger the snake that is sold the more problems that may occur (from what I've observed with other species of snake) Now to the point. After I moved the enclosure my snake was in had to be taken down and dismantled. And now he is in a 200gallon tank (quite small for his length) which is the only enclosure he has for now. I am thinking of possible ideas but I as wondering from all you retic owners what are your vivs like? I want all my snakes to have planty vivs. Which all my snake do. But right now my retic's tank just isnt big enough for plants and all the usual makings. I was thinking of having a 9ft viv thats 4ft-5ft wide and height would be all the way up to the ceiling in my Garage. Which is 14-16ft tall? lol Yes this is the only area that I would be able to get that size of enclosure to fit in. But I was thinking of having a few fake trees in there a few hides and all. Any ideas?

[Sapphire7]

Also I know the risks of winter making my garage be cold and car exhaust will hurt my snake. That is why my care stays outside, lol. My retic Billy is soo sweet!!! I just want what will make him happy

[Sapphire7]

Actually in fact. Once I figure out how to make my garage stay warm throughout winter I will have all my snakes besides my Bp in the garage ( I have to say my Bp is the most friendliest to me and I feel comfortable with him inside, and he is such a dog!)

[Sapphire7]

lol. As I typed this I took my big baby out and let him slithered around the house. He is so friendly. But feeding day is in 4 days. (Odd how I dont feed all my snakes on the same day. But if I did. I'd be one lonely person during those few days with chilling with my snakes)

[_BoidFinatic_]

Are you pretty handy? You could make a custom cage of any size/shape to fit your retic's needs. I build cages for most of my snakes. My burm hasn't outgrown his custom 3'x1.5'x2' yet, but I am preparing to build another. If you look in my gallery, I have a few photos of a 2'x2'x4' cage that I built a few weeks ago. It will permanently house my almost full-grown male Central American BCI (3' long). BTW, he is highly arboreal. Rarely goes on the ground, hence the dimensions of the cage.

[Sapphire7]

Hmm. You just gave me an Idea. I may not be very handy, and have to get my bf to do it. My reitc "Billy"'s last enclosure was 6ft long 4ft wide and a few feet high. But my hubby and I both agree that we need a bit of a bigger enclosure to house our giant. I want a glass enclosure because it looks nice any idea like for that? I was thinking of a hand made gladd enclosure thats 9ft, 4-5ft wide and up to ceiling high but not sure if that'd work. So it'd probably only be 6ft high, and that were the 3 heating lamps will go on on one half of the side of the giant tank. But since the heating lamps will be 6ft off the groudn it may not be enough heat to heat all the way to the bototm so I may have to ad a heater to my garage. Hmm.... Well I have all day to think of it tomorrow. My snake wontbe growing too much in a week so hopefully by at least next saturday I'll have something down.

[_BoidFinatic_]

For the glass, you can use a thick acrylic or plexiglass (pretty much the same thing with different names). Home Depot or the similar may not carry glass in the size you need, so you may need to go to a more specialized store. As for the height in the cage, it may not be easy to have a tall one. The great thing about tall cages is that they hold humidity very well. The bad part is that they require more heating equipment to heat up the added volume which may not even be necessary for a large retic (I doubt that he climbs). You want a cage that has substantial height of course, so build a cage that has the right ground requirements (9'x5' when added gets you 14', fine for your retic) and have the height be what is aesthetically pleasing to you. I would say that 6' tall looks good. Just use spot incandescents. Day and night. I know that a lot of brands sell day spot bulbs (even the ones at Home Depot are fine), but I only know of ESU Reptile having night spot incandescents in blue, which is what I favor. You could buy Zoo Med or Exo-Terra infrared spot bulbs though and have them on all day and night what ever you prefer. Buy a few bulbs and hoods if necessary.

[_BoidFinatic_]

Okay well I have 1 male Bp which is little over 5ft long and almost 6yrs of age. I also have a corn snake with is over 10 yrs old and almost 6 ft long. Also a male. My retic is 14ft long and only a couple yrs old. Male. (All my snakes seem to be male, huh?)

All of my snakes are males. It is just a coincidence .

[Sapphire7]

All of my snakes are males. It is just a coincidence .

lol. Well I do have one female. She is my RTB, such a sweetie. I sometimes get confused when people say they’re afraid of snake I just cannot see me being afraid of snake. When people say they’re afraid of snakes I say I have a 14ft retic and they look at me wide eyed like as though the devil is right behind me. Lol. But seriously who can be afraid of a 1ft newborn corn??? Hey thanks for all the info. I think this will cost me a big budget out of my wallet. Lol. Shhhhh. Well let’s just keep this between us. If my hubby found out he’d want to keep Billy in the tank instead.

[Kara]

I think that trying to plant a retic enclosure is an exercise in futility, unless you're planning to build a full-out zoo style enclosure. Retics are just too high-impact on their cages to make planting/naturalistic environments feasible for the amateur hobbyist.

Just my $.02

K~