I found that my female retic had a very fast metabolism when young, I would feed multiple rats every few days and within 2-3 days she looked anorexic. I fed pretty heavy until she reached about 8 months old, her metabolism slowed down and she finally kept the weight on. I think by feeding her what she needed when young her personality improved, she is really a sweetheart.
When she was young if I waited a week or more before feeding she would get super food aggressive. Now I feed her a jumbo rat once a week, I actually skipped the last couple weeks and you couldn't even tell by her body condition or temperament. I know a lot of people disagree with feeding that heavy as a young retic but it has worked wonders for me. I totally feed only by body condition, if they are super skinny they get more food, if they get too fat I'll hold back the food for weeks or months if needed. I'd say she is about 35-40 pounds now and about two years old.
I keep both of my retics on coconut husk in ARS boa tubs and I find they are no more work than my ball pythons. I check on them every day and spot clean as needed and change out the substrate once a month. I enjoy them very much and they have the job of using up all my old breeder rats that are too big for my ball pythons LOL.
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