Lol..Yeah dwarf retics are cool, but they are a tad more expenseevo than the normal ones I've found.
Hm..Yeah..if you're already getting him, you're going to have to deal with a gigantic snake eventually anyway. If you handle him often, and condition him to handling so that he's somewhat tame, you should have no problem with it. If you have the muscle mass and took time to handle and tame, big snakes usually aren't too bad.