What is your snake thinking?

[Gio]

now i’m thinking that it could’ve been the SD background insomuch as a lot of SD localities aren’t multiple generations captive like mainlands because 1 thing I’ve noticed with my collection is that I’ve had to really work with my dwarf burms to get them to tame down whereas my mainland burm has been immediately easy going and much easier to bond with - which of course retics and burms are different but still - am def curious about about the impact of the SD background in your situation

Not just something SD's engage in. My animal was Dwarf x SD x Mainland. He was roughly 43% Dwarf and 37% SD. The rest was mainland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKnBVWZ8hA4

Many don't understand the difference between combative behavior and feeding behavior.

This guy (in the video) actually has the same hook I used for mine.

The hook doesn't shut off the combative response. My earlier photos show that.

You can make your own conclusions about the video. The poster is obviously trying to show an example of what "might" occur when you work with the species. My situation was different from the video in some ways but similar in others.



Another misconception is the amount of sexual dimorphism that exists in the species.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PIm46enf88

I had a long conversation with Nick Mutton about snake male combat. His conclusion, and it was based on field work, not hearsay, was that males can be every bit as large as females in the wild.

In captivity it is not seen as often because breeders, especially the ones involved in a giant species don't benefit at all from larger males and they try to get their females larger and ready for breeding. I won't mention names but there is a well know retic breeder that has grossly over sized and over fed female retics.

Again, the retic species is not for the novice keeper. You can look at the retic forum here and see the early "successes" people had and then things go silent from those same people. I'm admittedly one of them.

Every animal is different, every keeper has their own techniques and hopefully knows their animal.

I could have worked with my animal and maybe after time, things would have settled, although the current breeder he was placed with has passed on info that he still continues to be an aggressive jerk. He is what he is.
It just wasn't for me and I have 3 others in the family to consider as well.

The simple fact is, you won't always know what your snake is thinking or reacting to.

With a smaller species you can get away with some mistakes.

With a larger species especially a reticulated python, you may not get away with a mistake.