She's Just That Cool

[Gio]

Love the beauty of Carpets. Is good to see him calm and amazing in his own right. Retics can be much more active for sure and stronger personalities. I have no experience with carpets yet but they look amazing. Did you have the stage where he wanted to bite you when you went in his enclosure? I hear young ones are more defensive that older ones (normal in most cases)? Keep up working with your retic though. I have found as they get older they do get easier to deal with or atleast that is my experience.

Best wishes.

Every snake in the collection has bitten me more than once sans the royal. The carpet was no exception, and I do think it is fairly common. That said I now acclimate new snakes with a branch to crawl on early in the handling sessions so the have some security other than my arms or hands.

Carpets cover all the bases in my opinion.

I've had my metic for 3 years and have found the older he gets, the more of a prick he becomes. He was handled a couple of times a week when he was younger and was wonderful. Once he matured, he got his testosterone and isn't trustable. There are 2 other guys here on the board that seem to have experienced the same thing, and one of those 2 had nightmare type experiences with both his male and female. Neither of them keep the species any longer and I don't blame them. I can handle mine, but the experience isn't at all relaxing, and I'm always prepared for the potential bite.

I find very, very, few people that decided to "jump" into retics having much to say 3 or 4 years down the road. The species are demanding and different from almost every other snake.

I'm planning on keeping the retic, but would never recommend the species to anybody that isn't 100% committed to their LONG TERM care and prepared to deal with their habits. Family members, friends and other pets need to be taken into consideration. The species is a lot of work.

I can get everything I need in carpet pythons and boa constrictors without the irritants that retics come with.

Pardon me for changing the subject of my own post completely.

Thanks for the nice comments about the carpet. $80 at an expo is all she cost me, but she's priceless in the collection.