Hi there,

Based on the topic title, I'm referring to my favorite retic who would permit barehanded handling/picking up from the cage and is docile enough to permit little children to handle her freely. During feeding however, she's so "tame" that if it weren't for her horrible aim, I might as well feed her by hand.

I previously posted this pic in a local forum (don't worry; I post as blacklion720 in that forum ) to show how gentle that retic is.



Notes and Observations:

1) I believe she was a WC specimen; I "rescued" her from a place that crammed her and 50 other cagemates in a 50 gallon tank and I believe they were prepping her up for slaughter (I'm not a fan of snake meat, but in some parts of the Philippines, it's considered to be a delicacy, best enjoyed with beer/liquor).

2) After a week under my care, I had her examined by the vet and based on initial observations so far, she's "clean". She did give her antibiotics to help fight internal parasites tho. Yeah, sue me. I failed to get the brand .

3) On her second night in her new home (mine...hehehe), she eagerly ate a live mouse. Numbers 1 - 3 occurred 3 years ago.

4) Until her 2nd year of her stay, she was fed weekly appropriately sized rodent(s). Then from her 2nd year onwards, I decreased the frequency to 1 feeding/2 weeks (reading that disturbing post from nightflight gave me nightmares that make me shudder even today). Shed phases are excluded.

5) This was most noticed from her 2nd year onwards; Whenever she'd feed, I can see her strikes are not "enthusiastic" for a retic. AKA, with the way she strikes at her prey, a retic enthusiast might label her as "wimp" or "wuss".

6) My ball python male has a MUCH stronger feeding response that this retic.

7) However, she is far from sickly/lethargic; you can still feel strength and she does not "limp about" during handling.

8) She once messed up her face so bad due to cage pushing, regardless of how recently she fed. Cage pushing dramatically decreased as I increased handling sessions from 3x/week to 2x/day (weekends included)!

9) I once got tagged due to a SFE (I was texting my ex while feeding her...my bad). She did hold on but when I tapped her nose with my other hand, she released the food item and my fingers.


Questions:

1) Anybody else experienced this with their own retics/"notoriously nasty" snakes?

2) Is this a good reason for me to warrant a visit to the vet again?

Thanks

Appendix:

This is the link I was referring to that gave me enough reason to NOT overfeed my pets

http://community.livejournal.com/herpers/1595022.html