Some photos of my new albino dwarf reticulated python!

[cchardwick]

She still kind of freaks me out a little bit, it's like getting a new dog and not knowing how it was treated as a puppy. You never know if it's going to cuddle or bite you until you really spend some time with it and build some confidence. Will probably take me a couple months at least to be totally comfortable with her. I think she also needs to build confidence in me as well. But so far there has been no aggression at all, THANK GOODNESS! Not sure what I would do if she ever bit me or snapped at me or hissed... I usually try to read my snakes really well before I take them out. If they are all coiled up and don't move when I open the tub I leave them alone. If they pop their head up I'll take them out to play. And if I see them pacing back and forth through the window in the tub I take them out for sure.

[Eric Alan]

Fantastic cichlid aquarium! I had a 225G back in the day that I wanted to do pretty much your exact setup - background and all. Got a place with more info on it so I can live vicariously through you?

[Megg]

I took out Lucy today and brought her up to the living room. I put her on the back of my leather couch in front of the fish tank and she just sat there for about 10 minutes totally motionless while we watched her and took a bunch of photos, it was pretty wild! I've never seen a snake just sit still, I was wondering if we were watching her or if she was watching us LOL.

Wow, that photo deserves a frame and a place on the wall!! 😱😊😍

[cchardwick]

Wow, that photo deserves a frame and a place on the wall!! ������

Thanks! I do have some pretty awesome animals! I'm also finding that this snake has an incredible metabolism. I fed her a medium rat and three adult mice this weekend. After the first day she had a bump, the second she just looked 'plump'. Now on the third day she looks really super skinny! I'm going to give her another rat tomorrow, I'm thinking I may need to feed her twice a week until her metabolism slows down a bit.

I took her out again tonight and played with her in the basement for about 10 minutes. I took our confidence limit to the next level, I let her rest her head on my bare arm quite a bit, she still gives my arm that look like it may be tasty LOL. She was a bit head shy at first, but tonight I've been touching her under her chin. She kind of freaked out at first but after a couple minutes she seemed OK with it. Just trying to slowly desensitize her so I can play with her head when she gets bigger and doesn't freak out. Still no aggression at all! She also poops a lot, and when she pees it stinks up the snake room LOL. I've never had a snake that had pee that smelled so bad.

[cchardwick]

Here's another photo, this is me looking at Lucy looking back at me. I'm smiling in the photo but I'm actually thinking, "You're not going to bite me, are you?". And Lucy is thinking, "You're not going to hurt me, are you?" LOLOLOL

[o.r hill]

"I usually try to read my snakes really well before I take them out. If they are all coiled up and don't move when I open the tub I leave them alone. If they pop their head up I'll take them out to play. And if I see them pacing back and forth through the window in the tub I take them out for sure.”

I have read that more zoos are using behavioral enrichment for their charges, including reptiles. Part of that is letting them make choices like you are doing here about whether she wants to interact or not. Beautiful albino that you have.

[EDR]

Been meaning to stop by to say cool pickup cchardwick. I seriously considered a SD retic but decided not too. Cause everytime i handle the columbian red tail i realize he's big enough lol. Also good luck with her. All ill say is when she gets older be careful when feeding. I've seen some really nasty mistaken feed bites to people calves and forearms.

[cchardwick]

Here's an update... When I weighed Lucy my albino retic 16 days ago she weighed 1027 grams. When I weighed her today she weighed 1238 grams and tomorrow is feeding day. That's 211 grams in 16 days!

That's nearly half a pound in just over two weeks WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BYW, My Australian Woma python decided she wanted to ball up for two weeks and not come out to play. Finally she shed and went to the bathroom, now she is a sweetheart again LOL. Reading them really well before messing with them is totally working for me.

[cchardwick]

Well I just fed all my snakes and the biggest frozen thawed rat that I had was just a bit bigger than a XL mouse. Not really big enough for Lucy. And I don't have any rats the right size, I'm trying to raise up some new breeders so I'm keeping all my babies until they get big enough to sex. She will eat the males once they grow a bit bigger and I put them in the freezer, and the females will be my new breeders to increase my rat supply. So I decided to try to feed her one of my jumbo African Soft Fur rats. I choose a big fat male, one of the originals that I got from my colony of ASFs, probably as big as they get. He was looking really old and had a bunch of warts on his tail, probably near the end of his life, so I gassed him with CO2 (fresh killed). She didn't strike it right away, maybe because I handled her a couple hours before? So I just laid it in her tub right next to her. After about 10 minutes I peeked in the tub and sure enough she was eating it! I should have weighed it, it was pretty big, probably at least 200+ grams. She is going to grow like a rocket after that one LOL. That one may actually hold her over for a whole week!

[Tigerhawk]

You seem to be having a ball with Your new python. I hope I can find a nice drawf like yours some day.