Quote Originally Posted by reptileexperts View Post
I'm not going to bother reading your post from here on out. Don't take offense - but show me a little respect and perhaps you can get some in return. Please explain to me your knowledge of the species and growth rates based on evolution biology? Do you have a degree to back up your call outs of misinformation? I'm not going to throw my degrees at you, nor the fact that I'm more read and versed in this stuff than most. Yeah I know about Gaspers 16' pure Jamp female, I also know of Bob clarks 12' 50% SD crosses, even the 14' ones. Get a pure SD and it's a different story. You've seen my post and pictures? great. I do keep small because I work with dwarf and super dwarf retics and crosses. My largest is currently 13', and 3 others are 10', regardless of what your mission is here acting as Jay's little fan boy, take it else where.
Why would I show you any respect, when you come in and show one of the biggest names in the industry no respect- based on your VAST knowledge of owning a small handful of tiny retics that are SD/D crosses, yet you somehow think you are in any league to argue with some of the biggest names in the business.

Based on what? Owning a few animals and doing some google reading? In that case I could be a tractor expert!

Pure SD can get some decent size if you feed it heavy enough, so can crosses, so can XYZ. That doesn't mean it should, that doesn't mean it should be fed like it should.

Tell me, do you honestly think a retic in the wild eats similar to the animals we keep in captivity? Are you that Naive? Have you ever seen pictures straight out of the skinning factories, of animals caught IN THE WILD? Smaller retics turn up often, in the 10-14' range, this seems about average for a mature adult in the wild. Will they eventually grow much larger, sure, is it common? nope, huge retics are a rarity in the wild, and they need a lot of factors lining up to grow to a monster size- one that is EASILY achievable in a captive setting.

I will not argue that retics can not be healthy being on the smaller side, but they are not evolved to be that way. They are evolved on the mainland (which is still an island mind you) to be top predators and reach good size. Yeah, I've read numerous scientific papers on growth studies, diet, and retics vs the locals. I've put my mind where my mouth is and studied this stuff because it is something that drives my actual passion for this hobby. Sorry, is 10 not enough? It is for me. . . I have more to life than sitting around cleaning urine all day which is pretty much what I do when I'm home with the 10 I have.

Now please, if you feel the need to insult me, go right ahead. But don't expect me to take into consideration anything you have to say in regards to this matter.
I insult you because you know nothing, you admit- your animals are not mainland animals, but here you are speaking on mainland animals. Here you are claiming knowledge of an animal you don't have vast experience in- because... "you've read some papers etc"

Yet somehow you feel you know more than someone who has based his living and his life raising mainland retics on a large scale, who has an impressive collection, someone who knows his stuff pretty darn well.

A mainland female if you want it big can hit 18-20ft, a mainland male, if you feed heavy enough- an average of 14-16ft for a massive male. Of course, sometimes animals are the exception to this and get larger, but it certainly is not commonplace.

A mainland female, if you feed it on average 14-16ft, a male, 10-14ft.

A mainland female, if you want to keep it manageable: 12-14ft, males 8-10ft, and there is NOTHING wrong with them being this size, frankly from all the animals pulled from the wild I've seen, and pictures directly from the field, this seems about average for an adult retic- and it's pretty common practice to keep males that size anyway.

I'm not advocating you starve the animal to keep it tiny, but you certainly don't have to shoot for an massive snake just because it's a retic.