Alright, you guys have me almost convinced!!

[Gio]

I'm so far from being an authority here, but I'm thinking with a female you may end up over 10'. My male is 37.5% SD and 43.75% dwarf. I've been told by Reptileexperts, Kris at Vital Exotics and another very knowledgeable friend that I should expect 7'-9' and possibly on the biggest end 10, maybe 11 feet.

More mainland = more chilled out snake so I've read and been told. The SD and dwarf add a bit of fire to their movement, though I don't think the likelihood of biting increases, just more jumpy. The tiger gene is a plus that I have going, as it is said to generally mellow out the animal.

I have heard various accounts about male VS female and I am comfortable with a male since I'm not breeding him, he probably won't have issues although I do have 2 different species of female pythons here so we'll see if those pheromones kick in at certain times of the year and make him edgy.

My fella shed last night and I had to clean his cage. He trashed it. Pooped in the water dish, P'd all over and stuck his shed to various items in the cage. He ate last night as well and today I got my first taste of some real defensive behavior. I used the hook and tried to establish some rapport but he struck at it repeatedly. If I moved, he'd follow me. He took several air strikes at me so I kept on with the hook and continued cleaning.

Normally I would have left him as his grumpiness after eating the night before was purely defensive and not a feeding response. He just wanted to digest without bother. However I had to clean and I didn't want his little, yet semi intimidating display to go unchecked.

Out he came and we spent a moment or two reestablishing trust.

My off track rant comes with good intentions though.

These are VERY different snakes, at least amongst the boas and pythons I'm used to, and I don't think anybody can overemphasize the precautions to take early on. If my guy was putting on this display at an age greater than 4.5 months and he had some size on him, I'd have been a tad nervous. This probably wouldn't have even occurred had I not needed to get some of the wreckage out of his cage.

I've also been assured retics will give you plenty of warning before they will actually bite you. I'm very much in the learning stage with this animal and we are figuring each other out. It is quite rewarding so far and I'd recommend the species to an interested, responsible keeper.

I think they (retics) are wonderful. I love the excitement and challenges that come with them but I will say make certain you get the right sized animal because I can see where a big one could be a handful.

Cody (Reptileexperts) has some really good video posts on Y-Tube. You can see the size difference between the dwarfs, SD's, males and females. He has certainly laid out a lot of information regarding the species and it has helped me a great deal with my comfort level rated to this species.

Keep us posted.

LOL! I was typing when you were typing.

Hope that helped. Get the male from Kris, he knows his stuff!