Quote Originally Posted by Sauzo View Post
Just buy a JCP that is feisty. Once you have been bitten daily by it for a week or 2, you pretty much get immune to snake bites lol. And so far Caesar is pretty cool. He is pretty laid back. He sat wrapped on my hand for a while this morning. After a while he got the explorer bug and started wanting to check everything out though lol.
I concur. I just had Wallace chill with me for over 30 minutes.

Once a retic settles in and you know their habits, they are very predictable snakes. My fella ALMOST seems to enjoy the interaction. I'm certain he is just tolerating it, but I feel the lack of defensiveness and ability to totally chill is a sign of a relaxed snake in my case.

If you look at tongue flicks and watch their sides for heavy breathing you can see if there is stress. Obviously posture plays a role as well. But if Sauzo and I are experiencing very similar signs from our animals, I'd venture to guess these guys from Vital Exotics settle in fairly quickly.

A very experienced friend of mine told me that a retic will give PLENTY of indication if it is going to bite.

They do have some teeth though LOL.

Same with scrubs and other semi arboreal and arboreal snakes.

The bottom line is I don't want to take from any adult snake.

If you want to see a brutal bite, I'll post some pictures of a bite I took from a dog during a protection training exercise that lasted a fraction of a second.

I had more trauma inflicted from that quarter second bite than any bite I ever taken from a snake. Had this dog actually wanted to bite me and was serious, I would have been in real trouble.

I'll save those pictures for another thread.

I want to focus on Sauzo's beautiful retic here, and recommend them to other EXPERIENCED keepers.