Riverrun (Poss Temp Name)

[bigsnakegirl785]

I just picked up a poss het purple albino female reticulated python at the local reptile show yesterday, I've been wanting one of these for 3-4 years now! The person who bred her wasn't there, but one of the vendors said that she may have been born around October. If I had to guess, she's probably right around 3.5', somewhere around 3'-3.5' at least, and she weighs 150 grams. So far she's been very laid back, inquisitive, and on the go. She seems to be just as aware and interested in her surroundings as Draco is, and crawled right up to me when I came to check up on her (just stood outside the tank, didn't bother her). I've got her set up in a temporary tank set up while I wait for her heat tape to ship in so I can get her set up in her tub, that way she'll have heat until the tape gets here.

She'll be in a tub until she gets some size to her, and then I'll move her into Bud's old 6' enclosure until she outgrows that. I'm thinking of naming her Riverrun unless I get a better name suggestion. Now to resist the temptation to handle her!

Here are some photos!
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0963_zpsmfujmids.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0963_zpsmfujmids.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0961_zpsopawwuf3.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0961_zpsopawwuf3.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0958_zpsc1fwyblm.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0958_zpsc1fwyblm.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0964_zpsibmoltd1.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0964_zpsibmoltd1.jpg.html)

[Ballchris]

great looking retic, I love mine best decision i have ever made lord voldemort is also very laid back sleeps a lot comes out goes around his tank and then goes back into his hide. I am really hoping for this extension on the ruling so I can get him a girlfriend and eventually get the whole thing overturned. Congrats on her though riverrun is a great name.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Thanks! She's very lovely so far, but it will take a few months to get to know her. :) I'm glad I was able to find her in town so I wouldn't have to worry about that, but it's a huge shame they were added and I'm also hoping it will get overturned. I'll be donating a bit and I've been trying to get my family members to donate, too. haha

[Tsubaki]

Beautiful! love her pattern!! looks a lot like a beautiful lady i used to own :D

[Albert Clark]

Fantastic! Wonderful pick up. bigsnakegirl number 2! Lol!

[dave himself]

Beautiful retic congratulations on your new pick up :)

[bigsnakegirl785]

Thanks everyone! It all still feels like a dream, I've wanted one for awhile. I can't stop looking at her. haha Luckily I've got a lot of work this week so I should be distracted enough to leave her be. :P

I went ahead and fed her today, I figured she's a retic she's gonna love her food, and it's been about a week since she ate. If she refused, I'd just offer again next week. I gave her two of Sanji's small fuzzy mice, which she'll get until next week when I will order the next shipment of rodents for everyone.

[Tsubaki]

Fuzzy mice are way to small for this snake, even as a small meal. Even adult mice would be too small. :)

[bigsnakegirl785]

Fuzzy mice are way to small for this snake, even as a small meal. Even adult mice would be too small. :)

Well, going off weight 14-17 grams is what she should be getting (which is right around 10% or so of her weight, giving a bit on each side of the spectrum - the fuzzies were 7-8 grams each so combined they were within that range), which is either a large fuzzy mouse or small adult mouse, depending on the source. The two fuzzies left a small, barely noticeable bulge.

[IW17]

Retics are one snake that can take more. Based on the size she looks in the pic I'd say small rats would be fine. They can handle way more than you'd think. Retics metabolism at that age is insane.

[bigsnakegirl785]

I'd always heard 10-15% of weight, and some went as large as 15-20%. I'm not wanting to overfeed her, so I'd rather not go with the absolute largest meal she can take. I'd like to grow her at a reasonable pace, feeding slightly conservatively, so I guess I'll stick to 15% then, which will put her at jumbo mice. I believe small rats are the equivalent?

I thought the jumbos would be too large for her. lol I have some stocked up for the bp, but they were 3x her girth so I didn't feel comfortable feeding them to her.

[millertime89]

Retics can take 25% of their body weight without much trouble. 30% is the max I've fed but that was only when I didn't have anything smaller. 15-20% is a weekly or biweekly meal for my snakes. Furthermore, the last thing you want is a retic that's hooked on mice (you would need to feed dozens each week as they get bigger) so you want to at least get her on rats as fast as possible. Myself and many other people feel that a retic should never be offered a mouse period unless it's a baby that hasn't started eating and you've tried everything else. At that size I would be feeding pups or weaned rats if not a very small small if nothing else is around.

[prairiepanda]

I'd always heard 10-15% of weight, and some went as large as 15-20%. I'm not wanting to overfeed her, so I'd rather not go with the absolute largest meal she can take. I'd like to grow her at a reasonable pace, feeding slightly conservatively, so I guess I'll stick to 15% then, which will put her at jumbo mice. I believe small rats are the equivalent?

I thought the jumbos would be too large for her. lol I have some stocked up for the bp, but they were 3x her girth so I didn't feel comfortable feeding them to her.

Looking at the girth of the snake next to your thumb, I would think rat pups would be plenty big enough. I can't imagine trying to cram a small rat in there :eek: I've never seen a jumbo mouse in person, but 3x her size would be quite a stretch. The rat pups I get are 21-30g, so 15 to 20% of your girl's weight. A bit more than you seem to want to do, but she'll catch up quickly in weight and it won't be long before those pups are the 10% you're after! That said, it does seem like with retics people usually feed more than that.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Retics can take 25% of their body weight without much trouble. 30% is the max I've fed but that was only when I didn't have anything smaller. 15-20% is a weekly or biweekly meal for my snakes. Furthermore, the last thing you want is a retic that's hooked on mice (you would need to feed dozens each week as they get bigger) so you want to at least get her on rats as fast as possible. Myself and many other people feel that a retic should never be offered a mouse period unless it's a baby that hasn't started eating and you've tried everything else. At that size I would be feeding pups or weaned rats if not a very small small if nothing else is around.

Well all I have right now is pinky, fuzzy, and jumbo mice or 4-8 oz rabbits, which I know for certain she will not be able to get down as those are bigger than she is and is for the 6' boa. I'm getting the next shipment on my paycheck next week, so I was just giving her mice for a couple of feedings until they got here. I don't want to give her too large of meals, so I think I'm going to stick to 15%, which should be plenty for her, and should be rats in the 20-25 gram range, give or take some grams. If getting stuck on mice is a legitimate concern, I can just hold off on her next feeding for a couple of days and feed her next Friday instead of Tuesday.

Looking at the girth of the snake next to your thumb, I would think rat pups would be plenty big enough. I can't imagine trying to cram a small rat in there :eek: I've never seen a jumbo mouse in person, but 3x her size would be quite a stretch. The rat pups I get are 21-30g, so 15 to 20% of your girl's weight. A bit more than you seem to want to do, but she'll catch up quickly in weight and it won't be long before those pups are the 10% you're after! That said, it does seem like with retics people usually feed more than that.

The jumbo mice I got in the initial shipment were 20-70 grams. I'm not sure what object I could compare them to, but the couple I have left are 4"-4.5" long without the tail.

[millertime89]

If getting stuck on mice is a legitimate concern, I can just hold off on her next feeding for a couple of days and feed her next Friday instead of Tuesday.

It is unfortunately. I know a few people personally that have had it happen I would wait if you haven't already.

The jumbo mice I got in the initial shipment were 20-70 grams. I'm not sure what object I could compare them to, but the couple I have left are 4"-4.5" long without the tail.

That is a huge range in weight! Holy cow!

[bigsnakegirl785]

Alright, I'll hold off on feeding her until the food gets here, either that or buy her an individual weaned rat from the pet store for her next meal.

And yeah I have no clue why there was such a discrepancy in the weights. The smallest ones were 20-25 grams, most of them were in the 55-60 gram range, but the heaviest may have weighed like 72 grams or so. Even the fuzzies I got were 4-9 grams, I'm not sure if that large of a difference is normal for buying in bulk or not.

[prairiepanda]

4-9g sounds reasonable. Even though the difference in size within that range can be an issue for small snakes sometimes, it's acceptable considering the sheer volume of feeders that are produced by the supplier. 20 to 70, however, is ridiculous. Usually that range would be broken up into around 3 different size options.

[bigsnakegirl785]

As a short update, she's just gone into shed and is in blue. So, she won't be fed until she sheds, at least. She's been coiled up in her humid hide since her shed cycle began, and was surprisingly calm when I took her out of it to re-wet her moss as it was quite dry. She didn't hiss or anything, just was a little twitchy, which is understandable.

And thanks prairiepanda. I'm not sure about 3 size ranges, but I guess it would be two at least. The largest mouse sizes they have listed on their site is jumbo mice 30-50 grams.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Here's a photo of her going into blue!
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1007_zpstkgh70ql.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1007_zpstkgh70ql.jpg.html)

And some of her outside before she went into shed.
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0986_zpsudjsrioj.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0986_zpsudjsrioj.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0990_zpsn8yxvxxo.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0990_zpsn8yxvxxo.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0988_zpsgxiyrynt.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0988_zpsgxiyrynt.jpg.html)

[bigsnakegirl785]

She shed several days ago, so here are some update photos!

Once she shed, she decided she didn't need to use her humid hide anymore and instead coiled up on top of it.
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/on%20top%20of%20her%20hide_zpsnv0zqmwv.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/on%20top%20of%20her%20hide_zpsnv0zqmwv.jpg.html)

Still holding out on a new camera, this phone camera is ok but the colors are really terrible.
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1039_zpsznik5vt0.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1039_zpsznik5vt0.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1040_zpssf2l2fzi.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1040_zpssf2l2fzi.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1035_zpsv0kosmbd.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1035_zpsv0kosmbd.jpg.html)

[millertime89]

Very pretty! Nice, bright colors!

[bigsnakegirl785]

Very pretty! Nice, bright colors!

She really does have some nice colors! She made every other normal retic at the expo look dull. Her colors even put the sunfire to shame, she was easily the prettiest retic at the show that day.

An attempt (and fail - curse you rain!!!) at capturing more of her colors.
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1060_zpswrsiht0i.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1060_zpswrsiht0i.jpg.html)

How she spends most of her time.
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1045_zpskydl2inl.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1045_zpskydl2inl.jpg.html)

The food has finally been shipped (I ordered last week but apparently Big Cheese only ships Mondays and Tuesdays), so hopefully it will arrive tomorrow or the next day. Riverrun is definitely going to be happy to finally get her rat.

[Albert Clark]

Looking lovely and posing for the fellas! Lol.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Well my shipment finally arrived earlier today so I went and fed everyone (except the BCI because he only ate a week ago). Riverrun was quite excited over the rat pup, bug eyes, heavy breathing, rearing her head in the air, the whole shebang. But she only hunted down the rat and coiled it when I heated the head. Took two tries, as the first time she struck she ended up not being able to find it and gave up, laying her head on her cool hide. I heated up the head again and that time she struck and almost immediately began to eat. Only snake I have that needs a hot spot.

[millertime89]

Well my shipment finally arrived earlier today so I went and fed everyone (except the BCI because he only ate a week ago). Riverrun was quite excited over the rat pup, bug eyes, heavy breathing, rearing her head in the air, the whole shebang. But she only hunted down the rat and coiled it when I heated the head. Took two tries, as the first time she struck she ended up not being able to find it and gave up, laying her head on her cool hide. I heated up the head again and that time she struck and almost immediately began to eat. Only snake I have that needs a hot spot.

My goldenchild needed that to start eating and my little SD seems to need it as well as that's the only time she'll take f/t (and not always then even). Different strokes for different folks(/snakes).

[bigsnakegirl785]

My goldenchild needed that to start eating and my little SD seems to need it as well as that's the only time she'll take f/t (and not always then even). Different strokes for different folks(/snakes).

She didn't need to with the mice, I guess with a rat she just needs to be enticed a little more. lol At least she ate, maybe as she eats more she won't need a hot spot anymore.

[millertime89]

She didn't need to with the mice, I guess with a rat she just needs to be enticed a little more. lol At least she ate, maybe as she eats more she won't need a hot spot anymore.

That's what happened to my gc. :)

[bigsnakegirl785]

Good to hear! When she's digested a little of her meal, and if it isn't raining, I'll get her out to take some more pictures. There is almost no lighting at all in the apartment, and the living room doesn't have a light at all except a small desk lamp (apparently the people who built the apartment didn't feel like the common room required lighting).

[KyleKennedy]

Beautiful. Looks exactly like my mainland male.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Here are some more photos, I was finally able to take her out. It was warm enough, I actually wasn't sleeping for once (no seriously I sleep almost every non-school non-work hour away it sucks), and I had some time off after school before I had to go to work.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1079_zpsesb3zgkc.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1079_zpsesb3zgkc.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1082_zpsskohnm8p.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1082_zpsskohnm8p.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1084_zpsquarmlut.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1084_zpsquarmlut.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1069_zpsocifw5nu.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1069_zpsocifw5nu.jpg.html)

[reptiledude987]

Nice! I always love the outdoor pice the colours look so much better.

[bigsnakegirl785]

I took her out earlier today to try to get better photos, since I didn't take many yesterday, but then my phone ran out of memory. :/ So I only got a few more. Now that she's been outside a few times, she's actually began exploring. Before she'd just sit there, but now she just zooms around. She's a fast booger, and makes it of the yard like 15ft away in a matter of seconds. Luckily she also seems to have gotten used to my seemingly (to her) inopportune grabbing when she starts making it out my yard, and just lets me pick her up rather than getting defensive/floppy. She's also benefiting from the hook use getting her out of the tub, but still turns her head quickly to stare at my hand. She's all bluff so far.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1147_zpsdsaui1mb.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1147_zpsdsaui1mb.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1148_zpsf9efuxon.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1148_zpsf9efuxon.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1139_zpskurzx3tk.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1139_zpskurzx3tk.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1149_zpsq2ex27zd.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1149_zpsq2ex27zd.jpg.html)

Last I weighed her, she had reach 180 grams. Also, I think it's official that all my snakes have gone into shed since she shed. 6 snakes, and all of them in shed at around the same time.

[dave himself]

She's looking really well :)

[bigsnakegirl785]

She's looking really well :)

Thanks! Glad to see the nose rub went away with her shed and she hasn't done it since. Guess it was just stress from the ride to the show, it wasn't bad at all.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Well I weighed her 3 days after her last feeding, and poop, and then weighed her again the next day to see if anything changed. The first time I weighed her she was 191 grams, and the next day she was 194 grams, so I think it's safe to say she's around in that area. That's ~44 grams in just 5 weeks.

The last time I took her out and took photos, all she wanted to do was hide, so she wasn't out for long. I assume it's because she had eaten just 3 days ago, as she was still hugging the heat, and the next day she was exploring the entire yard and climbing on things.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1160_zpseixy6d8m.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1160_zpseixy6d8m.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1161_zps7kvz9z0l.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1161_zps7kvz9z0l.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1163_zpsqdflvpc0.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1163_zpsqdflvpc0.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1169_zpsuqg4vbpm.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1169_zpsuqg4vbpm.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1165_zpsdyebmb5v.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1165_zpsdyebmb5v.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1167_zps0m8cqgky.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1167_zps0m8cqgky.jpg.html)

[dave himself]

She really is a beautiful girl you have there, the little heart like markings in the centre of her dorsal spots are class looking :)

[bigsnakegirl785]

She really is a beautiful girl you have there, the little heart like markings in the centre of her dorsal spots are class looking :)

I didn't even notice! lol A few of them do look like tiny hearts, though. :)

[bigsnakegirl785]

Well I was mistaken with the last weight. I must not have had her humid hide in exactly in the middle of the scale, as she wasn't 194 grams the last time I weighed her, she was 184 grams when I weighed her again to double check in the container I usually use. She is now 194 grams, though! She's still steadily gaining more and more weight in body tone, as well as actual weight.

I had her out today, and let her explore our new bunk bed.

Without flash:
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1291_zpstaycfw4o.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1291_zpstaycfw4o.jpg.html)

With flash:
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1289_zpsil4yyph3.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1289_zpsil4yyph3.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1292_zpsqypy4alh.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1292_zpsqypy4alh.jpg.html)

[millertime89]

Reticulated tree python! I love it when they perch like that!

[bigsnakegirl785]

Reticulated tree python! I love it when they perch like that!

It was cool to see her scale the bed in seconds, but I didn't want to risk her getting hurt on the ceiling fan, so I had to keep pushing her away from it. She ended up giving up and just laying there, the poor girl. lol

[guyabano]

She's a cutie for sure. The outdoor pics are exceptional, really brings out her colors.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Well, recently 5/6 of my snakes went into shed. There's just Cloud due to shed now. So, everyone's been fed recently and River herself shed and ate 2 days ago. She left a big pile of poo in her tub, and was acting rather manic in her tub about the whole ordeal, so I took her out to clean it up and try to help her release some of that energy. When I notice her getting really excited, and trying to rub (which she rarely does), taking her out of the tub for a bit and handling her usually gets her to calm down and stop rubbing.

I also went ahead and weighed her and tried to get at least a rough length on her. She now weighs 220 grams, and is at least 3.5' or maybe even an inch or two longer.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1469_zpsybbxdqoi.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1469_zpsybbxdqoi.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1474_zpsfcvqwhld.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1474_zpsfcvqwhld.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1473_zpset98pvpl.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1473_zpset98pvpl.jpg.html)

I'll try to get some better, outdoor pics ASAP. But she's starting to really pick up on grow lately.

[Albert Clark]

Cool , healthy looking retic!

[bigsnakegirl785]

Cool , healthy looking retic!

Thank you!

Her sheds have been easier to keep from getting flaky than I thought it would be after seeing so many people struggle with it, so I'm hoping that I can keep her as well hydrated as an adult, even if I won't get whole sheds often. lol She's going to have to double up on rat pups soon, she's growing so fast. I think with my next shipment I'll split up her sizes, even if half of them will go to waste. I just wish that I had a snake large or small enough to eat the left overs. :/ She should last the next couple of months before I order the shipment, though.

[bigsnakegirl785]

She's really close to being big enough to be bumped up to weaned rats, but I didn't want to risk most of them being too large for her, so I decided to get rat pups again this time.

My fridge just completely failed on me last week, so I lost all of my snake food and we lost all of our food. So I ordered a new shipment yesterday, once we got our new fridge set up. If it's like last time I bought from Big Cheese, they should arrive next Thursday, so everyone but Cloud will be ~1-2 weeks late on their feedings.

In the meantime, here are some recent photos!
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1561_zps2uzxvp7l.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1561_zps2uzxvp7l.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1562_zps2rbrfaru.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1562_zps2rbrfaru.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1560_zpst7oxo0yh.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1560_zpst7oxo0yh.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1560_zpst7oxo0yh.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1560_zpst7oxo0yh.jpg.html)

I took her out one day, and all she wanted to do was hide, so I brought her back in. >.>
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1508_zpskvnhvwpo.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1508_zpskvnhvwpo.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1507_zpsryyf86b4.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_1507_zpsryyf86b4.jpg.html)

[dave himself]

She's a beautiful retic, and from the pics I'd say she could take weaners no problem :)

[bigsnakegirl785]

She's a beautiful retic, and from the pics I'd say she could take weaners no problem :)

I'd already made the shipment when I made that post. Maybe I can call them and ask them to change the rat pups out for weaned rats? The bigger weaned rats 40+ grams would be too big, but if at least half of them were smaller, she should grow into them by the time I have to order my next shipment.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Well she now weighs 293 grams and I was able to make the switch to weaned rats. I'm guessing she's closing in on 4' by now but I'm not able to measure her so not 100% sure.

No pictures right now as my laptop screen was shattered, but I'll post some when it's fixed.

[bigsnakegirl785]

River on top of her humid hide, I couldn't find anything smaller once she outgrew her old humid hide, but she should be able to use this for a few months before she outgrows it, too.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_2083_zps2071ghe4.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_2083_zps2071ghe4.jpg.html)

Here's a visual of her growth since I got her in April.

The day I got her April 4.
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0964_zpsibmoltd1.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0964_zpsibmoltd1.jpg.html)

From Sunday the 16th.
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_2038_zpsqvbplxhq.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_2038_zpsqvbplxhq.jpg.html)

I didn't mention in this thread, but last month she rubbed her head after a feeding. I didn't latch her tub as I was going to do something in her tub (don't remember what) and didn't want to have to unlatch her tub again after just a few hours since it's hard to open. Well, she managed to get up under the lid and pop her head out. I pushed her back in and latched the tub, deciding to save it for another day. Unfortunately, her near escape got her hopeful and she pushed on her tub and injured a few of her head scales. No skin came off and there were no scabs at the time, just a few scales that were raised but unbroken.

Well, over the past few days the thin covering on her scales has been flaking off and there's a part where some of the scale is missing and it's got a small scab. It doesn't look like she's been rubbing any more, it just looks like maybe it's further into a healing process, if that makes any sense? I'm just wondering if anyone thinks maybe her scales will heal up after a few sheds, or if she's going to be scarred, just from these pictures? The swelling or whatever has gone down by a lot, there's no puss or anything like that so generally it looks better, it's just the fact that now a small piece of her scales are missing and there's that scab there that has me wondering.

She shed last month before this incident, so she hasn't shed since rubbing her head, so I'm not sure how it's going to look when she does, but she's just about due for one so shouldn't be long. As said earlier, she doesn't appear to have rubbed at all since that incident so I think it was just the glance at freedom that caused it, although I do plan on getting her new enclosure in a few months just in case she has been rubbing still as she's getting pretty big for her tub. I'll buy the enclosure in a few weeks, but I hear it takes a month or two for AP to ship out their enclosures, so it will be 2-3 months or so before she gets her upgrade. That will be just temporary as I've got a 6'x2' to put her in, but I wanted to have her in a 4'x2' for a bit before moving her into it. Then her 4'x2' will go to Sanji.

Here are the photos of her rub.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_2093_zpsbkatohiw.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_2093_zpsbkatohiw.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_2091_zpssytpgwue.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_2091_zpssytpgwue.jpg.html)

[dave himself]

That little scab on her head will be fine I had a male a few years ago with the same mark and within two sheds it was completely gone here's a pic I just found of him
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j342/davy64/snakes/DSC00334.jpg (http://s1081.photobucket.com/user/davy64/media/snakes/DSC00334.jpg.html)

[bigsnakegirl785]

That's good to hear, it's going to be a long wait to wait for her next sheds. haha

[bigsnakegirl785]

Riverrun is also in shed! That makes 3 so far! Now all that lacks is finding out the garters are in shed. haha They're all due for sheds, so won't surprise me if they end up shedding soon, too.

The beginning of her shed cycle is most obvious around her rub wound, where it's turning cloudy. It's looking really good, so I have high hopes for her next few sheds.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/04/cb3e1ec581771a87009110069cf0337c.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/04/025a5b2e9c4db33acf83e6c2cb091b00.jpg

She's also really dark, showing very little of the orange that usually shows up in pictures.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/04/461df18165a0103c6ac6a7bc28be03d7.jpg

Unfortunately, her belly doesn't give off that tell-tale pinkish hue because it's off-white. -.- It looks pinkish in low-light but not in the sunlight.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/04/90d2247f09acc7d5e0796556ce55b0ec.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/04/c731c6e16129be5e8d990ddce60cc133.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/04/27b9cb2b87b39e146fbc8a4f2e7261c8.jpg

[dave himself]

She's a beautiful girl even in shed :)

[bigsnakegirl785]

Hmmm, so I'm starting to think that River is younger than the people I bought her from thought. When I bought her, they seemed to think her breeder hatched her out October 2014, making her about 11 months old now, but she's rather small for a nearly yearling retic, being around 4' in length.

She's been growing extremely rapidly in my care, but I don't think she'll reach the expected 5'-6' range within the next month.

But it's also possible she could have been stunted. When I asked how they fed her, they said a fuzzy or hopper mouse every 2 weeks. So, if that feeding schedule was accurate, she was way underfed. She should have been eating rat pups at the time. Currently, she's eating weaned rats every 10-14 days, but she is already just about ready to move up to small rats, I'm sure she'll be big enough within the next month. Right now, large weaned rats are still 15% of her weight, so she'll be kept on them for awhile longer.

Is it possible that that feeding schedule could have put her 1'-2' under average yearling size? She's growing more and more rapidly as time goes on, so I think she'll reach 5'-6' not long after she turns a year, but she won't reach it within her first year if her hatch date was indeed last October.

[prairiepanda]

Yep, feeding is a major determining factor in a snake's growth rate. If they were feeding her tiny mice every 2 weeks, then she would definitely be much smaller than the "expected" size for a retic of her age. I'd say the age they gave you is accurate, and she's just fallen behind because of their feeding habits. To illustrate, my two pinesnakes are the same age. When I got them, the snow pine was quite a bit bigger than the black, but the black pine has been a better eater for me and within just a few months has outgrown the snow. The general expected sizes people tell you are based on ideal feeding conditions, so more or less food will change those numbers.

[bigsnakegirl785]

I just didn't expect her to be behind 1'-2' with how fast she's been growing in the ~5 months I've had her. But with the way she's growing I'm sure she'll catch up in no time! She'll probably be able to almost reach 5' with the way she's growing by her 1st birthday, but I'd like to get her up against a wall to get an accurate measurement here soon, as she could be a bit bigger or smaller than I'm guessing her to be.

[bigsnakegirl785]

She now weighs 355 grams, and her nose rub looks a lot better, just gotta wait for the discoloration to go away. :)

No pictures because it didn't get warm enough today. I'm hoping it will be warm enough this weekend, because I work all day tomorrow and I'm going to an all-day event on Friday. But the forecast isn't looking promising.

[bigsnakegirl785]

I measured her with SerpWidgets at 4'1", so she's about what I thought she was. She's just about ready to move up to small rats, but the larger weaned rats are still about 15% of her weight so I think she'll be fine on them for a little while longer. But I'm betting by the end of October she'll need to move up.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/20/89646f054ff8d5847b8dcd6c83de1c0e.jpg

Her rub looking way better.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/20/33fb43cde7d3218ccabe1dba907f7aee.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/20/628c11f63efa5061465de87ad069b9c3.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/20/2bb22ff7ec8a3783f97212d847455c09.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/20/2e33a831dee4161ec186f02e3a5e70d6.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/20/2045f1d6e160fa30b85fe9329078b501.jpg

[bigsnakegirl785]

River now barely fits in the tub I brought her home in, and I can barely snap it shut with her in it. She weighs 378 grams, and seems to be slightly picking up growth, at least in the weight department.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/23/54bef15c091487d084992cd70b7c3139.jpg

She was looking extra pretty that day, but then I accidentally startled her. lol I left her alone to sniff the air for too long, and when I walked over to her my "sudden appearance" put her straight into defense mode. I managed to not get bit, and gave her time to cool off before picking her up. So I think I'll be starting to bring her hook outside with me as well, so I can give her a poke/rub if I'm not bothering her much.

She was like a little angry ratsnake, head flattened in a triangle and all puffed up. She didn't poop on me or hiss or anything, but the poor girl was just so completely scared for a few seconds. If she's moving around outside, she doesn't have any problems with me just walking up and scooping her up, it's when she's intent on something and is left alone for an extended period of time she gets jumpy.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/23/5ce1efb38a4ede8ad035bd987f97b23a.jpg

I've also finally moved into my new place, so she now actually has floor space to crawl around on if I can't take her outside. I've also officially placed my order for 2 T12's and they should arrive sometime over the next couple of months.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/27/4e5f0e482249220053170982447dbcba.jpg

[dave himself]

She's a beautiful girl and I never let Jenny go into those little trance like modes for to long before I give her a little poke with my foot :D. I hope your move went smoothly and you get settled in quick :)

[bigsnakegirl785]

Yeah I know that now. haha Now I give her a quick poke/rub when she stops and she'll flick her eyes forward and go back to crawling, she's way different than my other snakes on that department. I never heard mention of behavior like this before, but I'm glad I found out while she was still small! Are Burms the same way?

So far the move is going smoothly for us, I'm just waiting on my bed and the trailer has some simple fixes that need to be made, although there's several to do. I'm also getting ready to see if any of the snakes I've moved already are ready to eat now (it's been ~4 days now). The only snakes left to be moved now are Draco and Cloud, and it might be awhile for Cloud because we need a truck to move his enclosure; it won't fit in my mom's Jeep or my Blazer at all and I'd rather not tie it on top with the bridge we have to go under.

[dave himself]

Yeah I know that now. haha Now I give her a quick poke/rub when she stops and she'll flick her eyes forward and go back to crawling, she's way different than my other snakes on that department. I never heard mention of behavior like this before, but I'm glad I found out while she was still small! Are Burms the same way?

So far the move is going smoothly for us, I'm just waiting on my bed and the trailer has some simple fixes that need to be made, although there's several to do. I'm also getting ready to see if any of the snakes I've moved already are ready to eat now (it's been ~4 days now). The only snakes left to be moved now are Draco and Cloud, and it might be awhile for Cloud because we need a truck to move his enclosure; it won't fit in my mom's Jeep or my Blazer at all and I'd rather not tie it on top with the bridge we have to go under.

:D I've never really thought about this before, but the burms take off like rockets when they're on the floor but if they're lying about on the sofas, then they get defensive hissing pretty loudly and inflating themselves. But they calm down as soon as you pick any part of them up. Jenny just swings her head round gives ya the look of doom and carries on her merry way. And I know what you mean about trying to move a big viv at the moment I'm try to get Jenny's new viv to my house which to be honest is a pain in the butt :angry:

[bigsnakegirl785]

Riverrun now weighs about 440 grams, and has officially been moved to small rats, this is her second meal with a small rat. Still waiting on those PVC enclosures! If they don't come until spring, I may have to skip the 4'x2' entirely and put her straight into her 6'x2'. I want to wait until she's 5'-6' before I move her to the 6'x2' so she takes up more room in it.

Here's a pic from today's feeding. :) Everybody got to be fed today because I'm a few days late on a few of their feedings due to sleeping the past 2 days away and everyone's due. The only ones not fed are Cloud and Bud, because Cloud still has 8 days before he's due and he's currently in shed, and Bud refused f/t. (Several are even rather early tbh, but I figured since so many were behind, I might as well feed everyone)

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/17/cf3d8e96e738ec28984569f8d1e38dde.jpg

[dave himself]

Congratulations on her moving up on to small rats :), she coming along nicely and looking well

[Tsubaki]

Looking good :) very pretty girl

[bigsnakegirl785]

Thanks everyone, she just keeps growing and growing like a young retic should. :D With the increase in prey size, her growth rate should experience another burst, so she should catch up quickly to where she needs to be. Haven't got a recent length on her, due to her not enjoying the concept of "sit still for 2 seconds so I can take a crummy pic for SerpWidgets" and how uncomfortable being on the ground can make her.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Despite all this weight she's gaining she doesn't seem to be growing much at all in length, most of her weight seems to be going to thickness now. :/ Measuring her on SerpWidgets shows she hasn't grown an inch since I measured her in September, and she definitely doesn't look it in person either, which is why I brought her up on SW in the first place. This seems weird to me because I have both bumped up her food size and upped her feeding frequency to every 7-10 days in the past 2 months.

Over the ~7 months I've had her she's grown pretty much 6" every 2-3 months and now her growth has stopped.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/20/f1c32479ed1021ea03f7a4962c62aeda.jpg

The photo I used to measure her with.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/20/51fd6017587b440b5089c6ee1b9cbc4b.jpg

Is it possible she's getting ready hit a huge growth spurt or something? At a year old I'd expect her to still be growing rapidly, but do retics grow in spurts rather than steadily during this time? Or could her being underfed by her breeders/owners have stunted her even worse than I thought?

[Tsubaki]

Not to nag, but if that last feeding picture is what she's been eating after she went up in size.. You might want to up it again, i feed my growing retics prey that are 1,5times thicker than their thickets part. At a year they can easily eat large rats, they can even take bigger. They do grow in spurts but they dont stop like that in my experience.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Not to nag, but if that last feeding picture is what she's been eating after she went up in size.. You might want to up it again, i feed my growing retics prey that are 1,5times thicker than their thickets part. At a year they can easily eat large rats, they can even take bigger. They do grow in spurts but they dont stop like that in my experience.

I'm feeding her based off of weight, 15-20%, then I find the size that falls within that and then I don't worry about the size, so she gets a variety of rat weights. It's also possible I grabbed a weaned rat instead of a small, the last time my fridge failed I had to dump all my rats/mice into the shipping box's dry ice, so I had to guess what was what when putting them back in their bags. They were thawing out when I left them in their respective bags. :/ I can go and weigh all the mid-sized rats I have and separate all the biggest ones, I didn't think it would make that big of a difference for her to get slightly smaller rats every once in awhile.

I did discuss in another post in this thread her previous owners were feeding her fuzzy mice every 2 weeks when she should have been eating rat pups, and I got her when she was already 6 months old, so she's a bit behind in growth. She's right around 4' right now, when she should be 5'-6'.

[Tsubaki]

I never weigh my prey, i just look for a fitting sized prey on sight and it has always worked wonders. At least the same size as their girth, but i prefer about 1,5. I'm thinking we're never going to agree on this subject, as i have already told you before in my opinion this animal was getting small meals. I'll accept that, to each their own, she looks fine. However your worries about her growth does makes me feel like wanting to repeat my previous statement. Xena was fed one mouse every 2 weeks for a year by the breeder (maintenance fed), and she was only slightly smaller at a year old than your girl is. She grew fairly slowly even after picking up the feeding pace, only now she is finally getting a decent spurt at 3,5 years old and that is with larger sized prey. Just to get an idea for myself i calculated the rabbit Xena had a few days ago. It was around 35% of her weight, the bulge was gone in 2 days and she ate it with greatest ease. I have raised a lot of retics, i never had a single fat or badly proportioned one. I feed my burmese carefully, my boa's even more so.. But retics, they fair well on large prey is my experience.. I fed my newborn dwarfs weanling rats, never had one that needed to eat mice (Perhaps SD newborns, i have not kept young SD's).

Again not looking to argue, do as you please with this info.:)

[bigsnakegirl785]

I never weigh my prey, i just look for a fitting sized prey on sight and it has always worked wonders. At least the same size as their girth, but i prefer about 1,5. I'm thinking we're never going to agree on this subject, as i have already told you before in my opinion this animal was getting small meals. I'll accept that, to each their own, she looks fine. However your worries about her growth does makes me feel like wanting to repeat my previous statement. Xena was fed one mouse every 2 weeks for a year by the breeder (maintenance fed), and she was only slightly smaller at a year old than your girl is. She grew fairly slowly even after picking up the feeding pace, only now she is finally getting a decent spurt at 3,5 years old and that is with larger sized prey. Just to get an idea for myself i calculated the rabbit Xena had a few days ago. It was around 35% of her weight, the bulge was gone in 2 days and she ate it with greatest ease. I have raised a lot of retics, i never had a single fat or badly proportioned one. I feed my burmese carefully, my boa's even more so.. But retics, they fair well on large prey is my experience.. I fed my newborn dwarfs weanling rats, never had one that needed to eat mice (Perhaps SD newborns, i have not kept young SD's).

Again not looking to argue, do as you please with this info.:)

I mean the meals leave like a football-sized bulge in her, I'm really terrible at guessing meal size vs. girth, which is why I'm using the weight method. She was growing rapidly before, if she was growing the same way she has been, she'd easily be 5' by now, but for some reason she hasn't grown any in 2 months, so that's 6"+ of length lost. :/ The next size up I have right now is one large rat, and that's going to be my adult BCI's last meal before I fast him, so she can't have it. lol I'd hate to feed multiples, but I may have to idk.

And you did bring this up before? I don't remember this, hmm.

She is steadily gaining weight, on average 40-50 grams every couple of weeks, but none of it is going to length, all of it is going to girth. If she's getting enough food to get wider and wider, shouldn't she be getting longer, too? I'm just really confused by it.

[Tsubaki]

Fuzzy mice are way to small for this snake, even as a small meal. Even adult mice would be too small. :)

As long as she is growing she should be fine, it is a bit of weird age to be only gaining width. But they do switch a bit between length/girth growth. If it leaves such a big bulge it's probably fine. I wouldn't worry about it and just enjoy this beautiful girl:)

[bigsnakegirl785]

As long as she is growing she should be fine, it is a bit of weird age to be only gaining width. But they do switch a bit between length/girth growth. If it leaves such a big bulge it's probably fine. I wouldn't worry about it and just enjoy this beautiful girl:)

Oh, that was literally one meal, to hold her over until my rodent shipment came in, since I didn't have rat pups on hand. I had no intentions in continuing to feed her those, and her very next meal was a rat pup. I was mainly thinking that the meal size of two fuzzies was equivalent to what she'd be getting with rats, not trying to argue a point to continue feeding them to her. Same when I was discussing the jumbo mice, they were't regular meals by any means, and she's only gotten rats since.

Yeah that's what I thought, too. I was expecting her to be 2-3 years and at least 10' before I started seeing this kind of growth, from what I've heard, but maybe in the next couple of months she'll explode in length to make up for it. lol

[Tsubaki]

She is a dwarf right?

[bigsnakegirl785]

She is a dwarf right?

As far as I know, no. She was sold to me as a standard-sized mainland and as far as I know she looks like one, I assume she has no dwarf or SD blood because they did say explicitly she was mainland.

[Tsubaki]

If she is a mainland she is very small, Xena was sold to me as a 'mainland (mixed blood)', they admitted to have been maintenance feeding, 1 mouse every 2 weeks for a year. Being past 3,5 years she is now 12ft (Having a massive spurt currently, grew nearly 2ft in a matter of weeks), which is about the same as a average dwarf at that age, and she has been fed well.. So i really think she has a fairly large % of dwarf blood in her, suspect she will end up on the large end of of dwarf size unless she keeps this spurt up for a year... I found a picture of her where she was around riverruns age, she was quite similar in size to her at the same age, but she was already being fed adult rats(it looks like a big meal, but it went down and digested rapidly).

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/Senna-Ichurin/Xena%2091_zpszgcpuyqe.jpg

On this picture, Zuko is about 1,5 years old, Xena is 3,5. Zuko is 100% mainland. He is already half her weight, and only 3ft shorter (the picture does distort as he is closer to the camera).
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/Senna-Ichurin/Zuko18_zpsnpsxiis5.jpg

[bigsnakegirl785]

If she is a mainland she is very small, Xena was sold to me as a 'mainland (mixed blood)', they admitted to have been maintenance feeding, 1 mouse every 2 weeks for a year. Being past 3,5 years she is now 12ft (Having a massive spurt currently, grew nearly 2ft in a matter of weeks), which is about the same as a average dwarf at that age, and she has been fed well.. So i really think she has a fairly large % of dwarf blood in her, suspect she will end up on the large end of of dwarf size unless she keeps this spurt up for a year... I found a picture of her where she was around riverruns age, she was quite similar in size to her at the same age, but she was already being fed adult rats(it looks like a big meal, but it went down and digested rapidly).

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/Senna-Ichurin/Xena%2091_zpszgcpuyqe.jpg

On this picture, Zuko is about 1,5 years old, Xena is 3,5. Zuko is 100% mainland. He is already half her weight, and only 3ft shorter (the picture does distort as he is closer to the camera).
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/Senna-Ichurin/Zuko18_zpsnpsxiis5.jpg

Hmmm all this time I was told to feed retics 15-20% of their weight so that's what I've been doing. If I had known she could take bigger meals I may have went ahead and gotten her on medium rats instead of weaned in my last shipment. I may double her up for the next few months until I need to get my next shipment and buy her large rats then. Other than 1 single large rat (which is going to Cloud) and several 7-8 oz rabbits the biggest food I have are small rats. I could start giving her a small rat and a weaned rat a week, so I can use up the last of the weaned rats and let the small rats last a little longer.

She has been growing well, she grew about a foot in 5-6 months, it's just this little stop in her growth that has me worried, she really should have at least reached 5' by now if she had been growing this time because before her growth stopped it had been speeding up. Considering retics average 5'-6' at a year when not power-fed and not pushed too hard, I though that that kind of growth would have been normal, since she should have reached 5' only a few months after she turned 1? But if you consider 2' of growth in a few weeks to be dwarf growth then idk.

When I say my girth vs meal size is off I mean it. lol That meal you fed Xena in that photo looks like it's 2.5-3x her girth to me as opposed to 1.5x. :/

[bigsnakegirl785]

This is her next to the large rat, that came in at 276 grams, which is just over 60% of her weight. I'm not really sure if this is an acceptable meal for her just yet....Maybe I should go with mediums until she gets another foot on her?

Size-wise it doesn't look too bad I suppose, but weight wise that seems like a really heavy meal.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_2730_zpsgjbf0ega.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_2730_zpsgjbf0ega.jpg.html)

(She had just pooped in her tub, which is why it's bare. I used the opportunity of the clear, clean tub, to sorta kinda in a way keep her contained just long enough to snap a photo.)

[Tsubaki]

Don't exactly consider 2ft in some weeks Dwarf growth, but up to a few weeks Xena was pretty small even for a dwarf. She is now a more normal size for a 'mainland/dwarf' mix. I secretly wish she keeps this growth up and proves my expectations wrong! That rat is slightly big, she can take it, if shes not used to it i would up in a few steps though. Up to you ofcourse.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Well I went ahead and doubled up her feeding yesterday, I tried to keep them smallish because doubling up really worries me when I do it. :( She took the first rat ravenously, and the second one she didn't really seem too interested in, but ate it anyways. I think I'll space her feeding out closer to 10 days considering she had a big meal.

Once she goes through her small and weaned rats, I'll go ahead and order some medium and large rats for her, going off weight 15-20% mediums are closer to what she needs right now anyways. Hopefully she doesn't outgrow mediums by the time I order them, though. lol Maybe the bump in food will kickstart her length growth again.

The first rat was somewhere in between 1x and 1.5 times her girth, closer to 1x than 1.5x, not anything huge.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/25/8c00c57009865df494eaf0b34d3b7b8d.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/25/1edfd9539c97dc7c13d1125da6676e3e.jpg

And then I also picked out the smallest weaned I could find.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/25/454778c8ffaabe81247eb1f54192c803.jpg

Since I bumped her up to just one small, she hasn't had that "jump at whatever moves and hope it's food" habit she usually has, but she got it back after I doubled up, the poor hungry girl. :suspicious:

[Tsubaki]

Ooh that is such a bad habit haha, Zuko does it too... i walked past earlier and slammed his dumb face into the glass.. i hope she'll start growing noticeably again soon :)

[bigsnakegirl785]

Ooh that is such a bad habit haha, Zuko does it too... i walked past earlier and slammed his dumb face into the glass.. i hope she'll start growing noticeably again soon :)

lol She doesn't go so far as to strike at movement, but she does get all excited. You can see her pupils go from slits to big huge saucers, that tongue starts flicking, she starts breathing rapidly, and follows movement while inching closer to it. Fortunately, she seems to ask questions first before striking as she quickly calms down once she sees there's no food, although she'll still react to sudden movement. Once she knows there's no chance of food she kinda just looks down and either crawls off or sets her head down on the ground. From there, if I'm bringing her out I give her a rub or two with the hook and then grab her up. She seems to not need the hook cue, but I'm not gonna chance it once she's older, especially if she starts to strike first as she ages. haha

[bigsnakegirl785]

Looks like doubing up kickstarted her growth again!!! She's definitely grown some, and is about 1'-1.5' shorter than Cloud's enclosure (which is 6'), and bringing her up on SerpWidgets showed her to be 4'6". Could have sworn she'd reached 5' but 4.5' seems reasonable still. She also weighs 556 grams. :D

With this new kick in growth, she's become rather gangly again and lost a bit of that girth she was putting on. Still not skinny, but looks a bit deflated. haha

No pics as she shed yesterday and is about to eat. :)

[Tsubaki]

Woooo! :D Congrats!

[bigsnakegirl785]

I think now that she's finished off her weaned rats and is eating 2 small rats, I'm going to start spacing her feedings out again. I took her out today, and she's gotten girthy again after the past couple of meals, and seemed to get out of breath rather easily. I checked her mouth, and it's clear, no mucus or irritation, and she only makes noises when she's moving around. Instead of being constantly on the go without stop, she had to take multiple breaks and just sit there every few minutes, as if to catch her breath.

I think if I space her out and I can get my mom to help me put these cages together when she's got a day off, it will help her out a lot. She's long outgrown her tub, and doesn't have any way to climb atm. Even taking her out every day wouldn't really give her the exercise she needs, so I'm hoping my mom will help me put the cages together this Sunday when we get back from visiting my grandma and if I don't get called in to work.

I took some pics today, but I'm lazy and they're really crappy so I'll post them later. lol

[Tsubaki]

Most of my retics became a bit noisy as they grew bigger and also calmed down, a lot of giants do. :)

[bigsnakegirl785]

Most of my retics became a bit noisy as they grew bigger and also calmed down, a lot of giants do. :)

Oh yeah, I know they do, it's just that she's only 4.5' and on top of that she took multiple pit stops to rest, which she's never done before unless she was outside and smelled something. I didn't think retics started getting noisy until they got 7'-8' at least, if not bigger.

She hasn't really calmed down any at all, she's still busy and on the go. It's just one moment she'll be crawling around at Mach 5 and the next she'll just stop in mid-crawl and sit there breathing heavily for a few moments. No pupil dilation or reaction to movement so I don't think it's her spazzing out, then she'll shoot off again. Outside of the little breaks she took, she acted like she normally does.

If I don't space her out now, I will be spacing her out to 10-14 days when she turns 2 anyways. I just figured with how much food she's taking in, it wouldn't hurt to space her feedings out by a few days.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Weird I haven't put recent photos up here, coulda sworn I had!

So River has grown tons, she absolutely dwarves her size from November, not bad for going 2 months with zero growth.

She got her first medium rat today, but she won't be on mediums for long, maybe a couple of feedings. When she reaches 1,200 grams I'll be moving her up to larges since that will be when the smallest listed weight on Big Cheese will be 15% of her weight, and after that I'll be feeding her based off girth rather than weight. Either that, or wait until she reaches jumbo rats, not totally sure when you stop weight-based feedings with retics. Last weight I got on her was 733 grams, but she could easily have reached or exceeded 900 grams by now. When she's on large rats, I'll also start mixing in rabbits with her diet, my father gives me a pretty steady supply.

So her tub is really messy here because she peed and dumped her water, but this shows just how much she's grown. The heat panels are in, her EcoEarth and water dish is in place, now all I need to do is install the panels. Since I don't want the screws to go through the top of the enclosure, I'll be seeing if my mom's friend has some really short screws, otherwise we'll be stopping by Lowe's or something to pick some up. Then she'll be moved right in! (She's getting cramped in there.)

That little hide is more to try to keep her plant in place than anything now, because she does not fit in there anymore. I've got some new hides coming in the mail that should fit her for a few days before she outgrows them. :P

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0232_zpsgoa2hny3.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0232_zpsgoa2hny3.jpg.html)

In shed, from end of January.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0050_zpsxalj4qcv.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0050_zpsxalj4qcv.jpg.html)

Eating her medium rat.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0359_zps3nknqxh7.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0359_zps3nknqxh7.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0360_zpsb36jx00e.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0360_zpsb36jx00e.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0362_zps7xp47dwm.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0362_zps7xp47dwm.jpg.html)

[Herpo]

She's beautiful, looks very charismatic!

[macandchz]

absolutely love the colors!

[EL Ziggy]

Pretty little beastie. :)

[bigsnakegirl785]

So River has been officially moved into her T12, right now all she's got is that plant but I've got some hides coming in the mail, they're just taking their sweet time. I know she'll quickly outgrow them, but they can go to Bud or one of the other snakes when they grow into them when she's done. The hides should be here Tues, and retics aren't that shy. I may cut up some of this cardboard temporarily if she shows signs of needing to hide, but she's never really used hides all that often, even when she fit in her old ones.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0381_zpskgynwro9.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0381_zpskgynwro9.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0382_zpsnvmfytrg.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0382_zpsnvmfytrg.jpg.html)

[Herpo]

She is so beautiful! And her colours are such a stark contrast to the substrate she is just so stunning! Wow!

[Tsubaki]

Beautiful!! an out of all the retics i've had, a lot of them never used any hides at all.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Beautiful!! an out of all the retics i've had, a lot of them never used any hides at all.

Yeah, she still used them on occasion, and often hides inside/under her plant, so I figured I might as well offer it, even if the majority of the time she doesn't use them.

My mice woke me up this morning, so I went in to check on River and found her utilizing her basking shelf. :) She was quite excited by my presence and slowly creeped up on me from the opposite side of the enclosure and stretched out toward me. I'd already used the hook on her, so she was thinking before striking, and when she reached the front of the cage her pupils instantly constricted and she kinda hung her head down like in the last photo. She realized I definitely wasn't hiding food anywhere, and pulled back. She's a hopeful snake, but luckily she thinks before she strikes.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0386_zps9kj6azj9.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0386_zps9kj6azj9.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0388_zpsvduu9z4y.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0388_zpsvduu9z4y.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0390_zps3avy0e6r.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0390_zps3avy0e6r.jpg.html)

[Herpo]

She is definetly charismatic!

[bigsnakegirl785]

Well it turns out LLL ended up not having the smaller hides I wanted in stock so all I got were Cloud's big ones, so I'll have to see if Reptile Basics has some in stock. I went with LLL because, according to their descriptions, they have taller hides than Reptile Basics. I was getting hides for both River and Bud, but it may be another week or two before they come in.

[dave himself]

She's looking grand and she'll probably outgrow the hides within months ;)

[bigsnakegirl785]

She's looking grand and she'll probably outgrow the hides within months ;)

Yeah but I've got 3-5 others waiting in line to take 'em, so no harm in it.

[bigsnakegirl785]

River eating her first meal in her new enclosure! I'll be weighing her after she voids this meal to see if she's ready to move up. Last weight I took of her was 733 grams, and that was awhile ago, so I'd be surprised if she wasn't at least 1,000 grams by now.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0410_zpsqlggm7zz.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0410_zpsqlggm7zz.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0412_zpsfaacswqy.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0412_zpsfaacswqy.jpg.html)

[bigsnakegirl785]

Well River shed yesterday and weighed in at 1,001 grams today, so she's getting her first large rat. I'll be giving her a couple large rats before I start her on the rabbits I've got. They're slightly too large for Cloud, so I'd like him to take the rest of the large rats. There's one more rabbit small enough for Cloud, the other three are for River.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0555_zpsihk1wk3b.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0555_zpsihk1wk3b.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0556_zpsmwgjexze.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0556_zpsmwgjexze.jpg.html)

Edit to add photos. I managed to make it back to the room before she finished her rat.

These were taken with the door closed.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0558_zps7cpvs5nk.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0558_zps7cpvs5nk.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0562_zpssujtcmgp.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0562_zpssujtcmgp.jpg.html)

Once I was sure the rat was far enough down she wouldn't spit it out, I gently opened her door to snap a couple of better pics and closed it again as she was making it past the legs.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0566_zpsitms9fqc.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0566_zpsitms9fqc.jpg.html)

Zooming in:

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0567_zpshxkwasvj.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0567_zpshxkwasvj.jpg.html)

[Tsubaki]

She looks amazing!

[bigsnakegirl785]

She looks amazing!

Thanks! She's really coming along, and it seems each time I take her out she's bigger. After she digests a bit, I'm going to let her stretch along Cloud's enclosure and see how close to 6' she is now. I can't get her to stretch out and stay still, so I won't be able to get an exact measurement. Maybe I should buy some string and see if I can get someone to help me run a string down her back. She's rather wriggly though, so that may not work out.

[Tsubaki]

Try a snake measuring app? works quite well until they get past 10ft haha (By then it becomes hard to get them in one picture right without standing on a ladder) Otherwise, the good old string is always a viable option :)

[bigsnakegirl785]

Try a snake measuring app? works quite well until they get past 10ft haha (By then it becomes hard to get them in one picture right without standing on a ladder) Otherwise, the good old string is always a viable option :)

It doesn't work so well with her any more. :/ I have to bring the camera so high up off the ground that it creates a visual distortion like a fish's eye and throws her size off. I experience the same thing with Cloud, I know for a fact he's 6'3" because I measured him myself, but SerpWidgets says he's not even 5.5'.

Not to mention she doesn't sit still enough. By the time the shutter clicks, half her body is outside the frame. I could try using a step ladder, but I'll have to get one first. I need one anyways because I've finally got both my 6' enclosures in one place and I can't even see into the top enclosure. haha Maybe getting off the ground a little more will give the camera more leeway to capture her before she's gone. But she's a fast thing.

[Tsubaki]

haha yeah sounds familiar, well that still leaves the string!

[bigsnakegirl785]

lol Yeah, at least Cloud's enclosure can serve to give me a rough estimate for now.

I've finally got both my 6' enclosures in one place again, so once River hits about 7' she can go in there, then whenever I can get an 8' cage put together hopefully that will be her permanent home.

Here's her bulge from today. Still overly hopeful for food. *rolls eyes*

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0577_zpsi7kdxgdp.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0577_zpsi7kdxgdp.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0579_zpsi8s2y3pe.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0579_zpsi8s2y3pe.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0578_zpss8xqckdg.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0578_zpss8xqckdg.jpg.html)

[Tsubaki]

Hahaha yes, very familiar... Food is love, Food is life... And a strong belief their stomach goes on forever.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Well looks like River is 6'! She stretches along one long and one short side of her 4'x2' PVC perfectly.

[bigsnakegirl785]

The hides finally came in! River immediately had to check them out, and proudly plopped her head on top of it when she was satisfied.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0670_zpsxcgpddvo.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0670_zpsxcgpddvo.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0671_zpsher7chgt.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0671_zpsher7chgt.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0672_zpss8wsdsiy.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0672_zpss8wsdsiy.jpg.html)

She's getting quite big! It's hard to believe she's grown another 1.5' since December/January. It's incredibly difficult to take one-handed photos of her now, because the camera can't focus too well on her, I take it it's because I can't quite pull my arm back far enough. When I get my Canon, it will have a swivel screen and it will be easier to just put it on a tripod and either time it or get one of those squeeze things. I have people who could help me, but they're not exactly photographers, so I prefer to do it myself.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0625_zpsnxt8xzcb.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0625_zpsnxt8xzcb.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0632_zpshbh38g8z.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0632_zpshbh38g8z.jpg.html)

[bigsnakegirl785]

Here are a few outdoor photos. I was kinda worried about letting her on the ground by herself, since I'm in a new area I'm not sure how the neighbors would react if she got defensive again, but they tolerate the sight of the snakes overall it seems. She's so big now, I'll have part of her balled up in my hand, and her head's on the ground before I know it. haha I'm going to take baby steps getting her used to the outdoors, since she's had very little exposure to it in her life most likely. Always got my trusty snake hook to remind her that I'm there, too. :) Once she puts on a few more feet, I'll have to start having a buddy come outside with me, but I shouldn't need help actually lugging her out there for awhile yet.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0691_zpsqylngw1k.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0691_zpsqylngw1k.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0690_zpsuh0hp5mt.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0690_zpsuh0hp5mt.jpg.html)

And her giving me that "I felt vibrations but there's no food, wat do?" face.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0696_zpsuw3ivolj.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/DSC_0696_zpsuw3ivolj.jpg.html)

Most of the normal reticulated python bellies I've seen online have been that dark gray color, or at the very least white with the little splotches of gray/black bars. But River's belly is mostly clean of pattern and turning yellower and yellower as she ages, with more and more of that grayness disappearing. Is the yellow belly a locality-specific trait, just some random phenotype, or is her belly turning yellow because she's a sunfire sibling (if memory serves me right)?

[Sylphie]

She's stunning as always! And that face is just too cute, haha! :D Great work you're doing with her, congrats! :)

[IW17]

You need to let someone else snap some pictures! I finally had to give the camera to my girlfriend and put my ugly mug in the pictures too lol.

[Tsubaki]

Beautiful as always, my selayars always had clean yellow bellies. A lot of sunfire lines have had selayars involved at some point, the part the sunfire mutation has most effect on (the darker yellow back markings) is a lot more present on that locality than on others. She definitely has that look going on.. :)

[bigsnakegirl785]

You need to let someone else snap some pictures! I finally had to give the camera to my girlfriend and put my ugly mug in the pictures too lol.

I may do that if they can at least figure out how to focus the lens....But, I'm getting a Canon with a swivel screen either before or after the Atlanta Repticon. Most likely after, because I want to be sure I've got plenty of money. lol I've got the money right now, but I'd have something like $500 left and that's not a lot of money to go on out of state.

Beautiful as always, my selayars always had clean yellow bellies. A lot of sunfire lines have had selayars involved at some point, the part the sunfire mutation has most effect on (the darker yellow back markings) is a lot more present on that locality than on others. She definitely has that look going on.. :)

That may be it, then. She's getting yellow all over! Her sides used to be pumpkin orange, but as you can see, they've gone yellow. Still a pretty color, and the rest of her colors have gotten nicer as well. :)

[dave himself]

She's a beautiful girl no doubt about it :)

[bigsnakegirl785]

Thanks Dave! I think I did good considering the pickings I see with retics in this area. The Lacey Act lawsuit is looking really good so far, so I'm praying it continues working in our favor and the Lacey Act won't have power over whether or not we can transport the listed snakes across state borders. It would be a shame to leave her behind when I move out of state, or end up having to stay here to keep her.

Idk what she was doing here, but she looked silly. I opened the door, and she just kinda leaned her head backwards at me instead of turning her head.

The Canon is really hard to focus, and takes a long time to do it on the auto setting, so unfortunately her head came out blurry, but I took what I could so I could at least document her antics.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0818_zpsiwtpzwci.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0818_zpsiwtpzwci.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0819_zpsbisbqajk.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0819_zpsbisbqajk.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0821_zpsuwkomjql.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_0821_zpsuwkomjql.jpg.html)

[Tsubaki]

Haha that's great when they do that :D Zuko and Hiro do that! She's looking great, very colorful.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Haha that's great when they do that :D Zuko and Hiro do that! She's looking great, very colorful.

This is the first time she's done it, she was being rather silly.

I took her out today because she took a dump behind her hide, and when I took her out of the bucket to place her back in her enclosure she kept distrustfully looking back at me out of the corner of her eye. lol She was in a twitchy mood and not interested in much, so I'm leaving her alone for today.

[IW17]

She really is one of the nicest wild type retics I've seen. Beautiful colors and markings.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Well, about two weeks ago I gave River her first x-small rabbit! The last of the rabbits I have are bigger than I'm comfortable feeding to Cloud if I don't have to. They're 7-9 ounces, and with rabbits those few ounces have a marked difference in size. Although I haven't weighed her since her last shed, she's over 1,000 grams, and only needed to be maybe 1,500 grams for the smallest rabbit I had to be 20% of her weight. She's putting on several hundred grams every few weeks now, too.

Despite the rabbit ending up leaving a bulge about the size of what she gets from a large rat, she seemed to have trouble getting the rabbit down. She was twisting and turning and pushing against the walls, but once she got past the head and shoulders it went down a lot easier. Despite that, she got it down quickly, within 20-30 minutes or less.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1459/26468551175_4b086c9e44_h.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1452/26442619796_74a2af3bd4_h.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1607/26468552155_470435e3b2_h.jpg

She also went into shed soon after eating. I could tell because she didn't come shooting out of her hide to watch me from the front of her cage when I walked in. At most, she stuck her head out and watched me from her hide, until all she stuck out was her nose, and then didn't come out at all. Then, I lifted her hide to find her in blue last week. :)

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1505/25926885634_be7f01ebfb_h.jpg

[Tsubaki]

Their first rabbit is always a fun moment! The big heads takes some getting used too, at some point they'll go down as fast as rats. She's looking beautiful, even in shed!

[bigsnakegirl785]

Their first rabbit is always a fun moment! The big heads takes some getting used too, at some point they'll go down as fast as rats. She's looking beautiful, even in shed!

She was definitely excited about the rabbit! Moreso than I've seen her get excited about rats. lol She actually struck the glass when I went to close her door! Usually she will only strike when the food is right in front of her face.

She had her second one earlier this week, I've been spacing her feedings out to every 2 weeks on rabbits, they seem to take longer for snakes to digest. They're denser than rats, and leaner.

Here are a few photos of her post-shed and pre-fed. She didn't want to go in her enclosure at first, but once her head touched the basking shelf she decided she no longer wanted to climb on top of Bud's enclosure, and scooted down to the opposite side of the cage, under her heat panel. Eventually, she moved down onto the ground and went into her cold hide.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1521/26702854315_9063383023_h.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1715/26636827361_8cec4e03e2_h.jpg

[bigsnakegirl785]

She's getting bigger by the day it seems! She has to be at least 7' by now...I need to weigh her and try to at least get a picture for SerpWidgets to get a guesstimate of her length. It's hard to get her to stretch out along the 6' cages, but she's definitely easily longer than they are. She appears able to double up along the length of her enclosure, with her tail touching her nose, but she hasn't perfectly lain up against it like that so she may actually be short of double the length of her 4'x2'.

Despite how big she looks next to her hides, she can still fit in them, but there's no more room left anymore. lol In another month or two, she won't fit at all.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7503/28060529222_5116667b06_b.jpg

She's also just as messy as ever. I scrubbed those hides clean last night, and she's already dirtied them again.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7489/27548776174_b2938a5796_b.jpg

I just got more rabbits in, so she'll be put back on rabbits. I do have some jumbo rats as well, so I'll probably give one to her every other feeding until they're gone.

I'm hoping to get a Herpstat 6 by end of August or September, so I can move her into the 6' enclosure.

[dave himself]

She's a beautiful girl no doubt about it :). If Jenny is anything to go by her growth rate will go through the roof now you have her on rabbits and just a word of caution. A few weeks ago we had a jumbo rat left over from feeding Wilson and decided to give it to Jenny, she took it off us but then decide not to eat it and it was her pillow. We had a bit of trouble getting it back off her. Hopefully your girl will turn out to be a garbage disposal unit ;) and will readily switch between prey items

[Ian of Oldham]

Fantastic colors great pick up welldone

[bigsnakegirl785]

She's a beautiful girl no doubt about it :). If Jenny is anything to go by her growth rate will go through the roof now you have her on rabbits and just a word of caution. A few weeks ago we had a jumbo rat left over from feeding Wilson and decided to give it to Jenny, she took it off us but then decide not to eat it and it was her pillow. We had a bit of trouble getting it back off her. Hopefully your girl will turn out to be a garbage disposal unit ;) and will readily switch between prey items

So far she switches between rats and rabbits quite easily. When I ran out of rabbits, she took her rats without argument. She does like her rabbits a lot more, but so far she hasn't turned down a rat.

Here she is on her basking shelf. Does anyone have experience cleaning retic pee off of AP cage shelves? I've scrubbed it 2 or 3 times with soap and water, but when it dries the spots just show back up again. I don't want to use a stronger solution unless I know it won't hurt the plastic.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8898/28083796602_8c86e8e5e1_b.jpg

[dave himself]

So far she switches between rats and rabbits quite easily. When I ran out of rabbits, she took her rats without argument. She does like her rabbits a lot more, but so far she hasn't turned down a rat.

Here she is on her basking shelf. Does anyone have experience cleaning retic pee off of AP cage shelves? I've scrubbed it 2 or 3 times with soap and water, but when it dries the spots just show back up again. I don't want to use a stronger solution unless I know it won't hurt the plastic.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8898/28083796602_8c86e8e5e1_b.jpg

Glad to hear she switching for you with no problems our female burm Daisy does this for us. And you could try kitchen antibacterial cleaner watered down about 3 to 1 soliton I've used it on plastic tubs for years with no damage to them and no health issues to the snakes, just make sure it's the bleach free one :)

[Ian of Oldham]

Some fantastic shot the colours are great love it when I can get my lot out doors

[bigsnakegirl785]

Glad to hear she switching for you with no problems our female burm Daisy does this for us. And you could try kitchen antibacterial cleaner watered down about 3 to 1 soliton I've used it on plastic tubs for years with no damage to them and no health issues to the snakes, just make sure it's the bleach free one :)

Yeah, it will make life easier if she stays flexible. I want to give her a varied diet as an adult, so hopefully she doesn't get picky as she gets older. I'll see about getting some Lysol, that's the most common brand we've got here, unless I can find something that isn't pre-mixed.

I weighed her today, and she came to 2,025 grams. According to SerpWidgets, she's not even 6.5' yet (6.3'). Which seems odd, but not too surprising. She's definitely longer than the 6' cages, both ends of her easily wrap around the corners even without being fully stretched out, and looks huge in her 4'x2', so I just assumed she was closing in on 7'. Then again, SerpWidgets has proven to only be a rough guesstimate of length in my experience, so who knows how close to her length it is. I'll just say 6.5' for now, since there's a few inches for a margin of error at the very least.

So that means she's eating jumbo rats and x-small rabbits now. Not sure if I should be giving her full 1 lb rabbits, so she's getting 8-11 ounce rabbits rather than Cloud's 4-6 ounce rabbits, and the occasional 8 ouncer that I didn't want to chance with him. Rabbits are a bit bulkier than rats of the same weight.

Also, check out her tail, it's so long. It's a good 3/4 of the length of my forearm.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8726/28180225971_dcec8ce34b_b.jpg

[dave himself]

Yeah, it will make life easier if she stays flexible. I want to give her a varied diet as an adult, so hopefully she doesn't get picky as she gets older. I'll see about getting some Lysol, that's the most common brand we've got here, unless I can find something that isn't pre-mixed.

I weighed her today, and she came to 2,025 grams. According to SerpWidgets, she's not even 6.5' yet (6.3'). Which seems odd, but not too surprising. She's definitely longer than the 6' cages, both ends of her easily wrap around the corners even without being fully stretched out, and looks huge in her 4'x2', so I just assumed she was closing in on 7'. Then again, SerpWidgets has proven to only be a rough guesstimate of length in my experience, so who knows how close to her length it is. I'll just say 6.5' for now, since there's a few inches for a margin of error at the very least.

So that means she's eating jumbo rats and x-small rabbits now. Not sure if I should be giving her full 1 lb rabbits, so she's getting 8-11 ounce rabbits rather than Cloud's 4-6 ounce rabbits, and the occasional 8 ouncer that I didn't want to chance with him. Rabbits are a bit bulkier than rats of the same weight.

Also, check out her tail, it's so long. It's a good 3/4 of the length of my forearm.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8726/28180225971_dcec8ce34b_b.jpg

We just guess what Jenny is and that big tail is what makes them a pain in butt to get them out of their vivs. Jenny tries to bring her log out of hers like a snuggle blanket every time she's coming out:angry:. I would try your girl with the 1lb rabbits, if it leaves a good size lump in her just allow for more time between feedings :)

[bigsnakegirl785]

We just guess what Jenny is and that big tail is what makes them a pain in butt to get them out of their vivs. Jenny tries to bring her log out of hers like a snuggle blanket every time she's coming out:angry:. I would try your girl with the 1lb rabbits, if it leaves a good size lump in her just allow for more time between feedings :)

The ones I'm feeding her now already leave a good-sized lump, she's not a thick girl (she's getting thicker, and longer though). Right now I only have one full 1 lb rabbit, but I think my father just had a new litter so I'll let them grow up a bit. I'm glad she's off the larges, though, so they can go to Cloud. The lump didn't even last a day, and no poop butt. She's getting a jumbo a little early, at 10 days rather than 14, then a rabbit, etc.

She's growing fast, so I'd be surprised if she's still small enough for rats by the end of fall. She had a slow start, but has exploded lately. I don't think she'll stay a small girl, but we'll see. She's already going to be 2, so it all depends on when her growth naturally plateaus. From what I see in other owners with similarly-fed retics, they eventually hit another growth spurt, so as long as she's getting plenty of food she should be fine.

Luckily she doesn't really grab with her tail, just shoots straight out with her head. She goes in the enclosure almost as fast as I can pull her out. lol She doesn't destruct her cage as much as she did in the tub, but she's got bedding to hold everything in place and the decorations are heavier. Surprised she doesn't fling the bedding off to the side or something, but she's well behaved. As long as she isn't a poop painter, I don't mind.

[dave himself]

The ones I'm feeding her now already leave a good-sized lump, she's not a thick girl (she's getting thicker, and longer though). Right now I only have one full 1 lb rabbit, but I think my father just had a new litter so I'll let them grow up a bit. I'm glad she's off the larges, though, so they can go to Cloud. The lump didn't even last a day, and no poop butt. She's getting a jumbo a little early, at 10 days rather than 14, then a rabbit, etc.

She's growing fast, so I'd be surprised if she's still small enough for rats by the end of fall. She had a slow start, but has exploded lately. I don't think she'll stay a small girl, but we'll see. She's already going to be 2, so it all depends on when her growth naturally plateaus. From what I see in other owners with similarly-fed retics, they eventually hit another growth spurt, so as long as she's getting plenty of food she should be fine.

Luckily she doesn't really grab with her tail, just shoots straight out with her head. She goes in the enclosure almost as fast as I can pull her out. lol She doesn't destruct her cage as much as she did in the tub, but she's got bedding to hold everything in place and the decorations are heavier. Surprised she doesn't fling the bedding off to the side or something, but she's well behaved. As long as she isn't a poop painter, I don't mind.


Jenny is well behaved but very food orientated she comes flying out of the viv looking for food everytime until she's tapped then she just calms right do. We also switch the size of her rabbits from medium to XL and just adjust the time in between feeding to fit. I don't like to give her large meals every time and I think it does her no harm feeding her this way :)

[dave himself]

Oh forgot to mention about the growth spurt thing, Yeah that's freaky. They seem to stay the same size for a while then they seem to grow overnight definitely weird :)

[bigsnakegirl785]

I didn't end up giving her the 1 lb rabbit it was just so huge next to her...she's put on even more size and has been taking jumbo rats with ease, so I decided now was the time to try her on it. I only have a single 1 lb rabbit the rest are 8 oz or less or 2 lbs, so hopefully she grows into the 2 lbs quickly because Cloud won't be eating the 1 lb rabbits let alone the 2 lb. haha

In other news, I've been starting to hear her whistling really loudly lately. At first I figured it was a shed, and she shed soon after. The whistling stopped for about a week and started back up again. Her mouth looks good but it looks like her nostrils are a bit cracked and I feel that's the source of her whistling. I'm probably going to keep her humidity up a little more than I have been, it's been cold at night so I've had to start using the space heater again, and that's drying everyone's enclosures out faster.

I took the basking shelf out and gave it a good scrubbing, so hopefully at least some of the stains are out when it dries...

I'm also going to try to get a video of her eating the 1 lb rabbit, since I haven't been able to take a general video.

With some new additions coming in a few months, she's going to have to be moved up soon. Gonna have to settle for a Herpstat 2 rather than a 6 for the time being, what with paying on the two snakes.

[bigsnakegirl785]

I tried to take the video but I fed her in the middle of the night a few hours before work when I was woke up by the dryer and wanted to get that final 2.5 hours of sleep. haha

I did take some photos when I got home to make up for it.

She had a lot of trouble with the rabbit, I really don't know what is about rabbits that gives her such a hard time, the rabbit barely left a larger bulge than her jumbos. Maybe it's the thick fur?

When I first offered it to her, for the first time since getting her, she almost didn't even want to take it. When she did it was more of a second thought "well ok guess that'll do" sort of thing, so I thought maybe it was too big for her. I spent like an hour trying to get her off the rabbit, but she wouldn't let it go so I let her have it once she got past the front legs. Figured she could obviously get it down if she got that far, and if she couldn't she'd pull it out and leave it somewhere.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8344/29240262710_4f21555771_b.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7524/28904783564_d924a764bf_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8087/28904784574_bba2ce6e3a_b.jpg

As you can see, I finally managed to get the stains out of the shelf (unless I accidentally put it in the upside down). I did miss a spot on the edge but I can easily get that later.

[dannybgoode]

Gorgeous snake BSG. Coming on really nicely...

[Tsubaki]

It's not that weird for a rabbit to take a bit longer to go down than a rat, rats joints/limbs 'fold' a lot easier (That's why they can squeeze through tiny holes). An equally sized rabbit is a same sized meal, but a bigger sized bite. It's a bit gross, but try it yourself next time you defrost one.. You can make a rat a lot thinner than a rabbit even when they're the same weight :)

On another note, she looks great! Very colourful :D

[bigsnakegirl785]

It's not that weird for a rabbit to take a bit longer to go down than a rat, rats joints/limbs 'fold' a lot easier (That's why they can squeeze through tiny holes). An equally sized rabbit is a same sized meal, but a bigger sized bite. It's a bit gross, but try it yourself next time you defrost one.. You can make a rat a lot thinner than a rabbit even when they're the same weight :)

On another note, she looks great! Very colourful :D

My jumbos aren't as big as that 1 lb rabbit was, even in weight. The biggest jumbo I had was like 300 grams I think, the rabbit was 500 something, but it didn't leave a much bigger bulge than the rats did, just was more difficult to get down. lol She'll continue to get the jumbos until she's big enough for the 2 lb rabbits I have, or if my father gets more babies soon. She may get some of the bigger rabbits under 1 lb, too, since Cloud won't be getting the 8-9 oz rabbits.

[dave himself]

She's looking really good BSG

[bigsnakegirl785]

She went into shed a few days after eating. I went in to try to get a video of her and when I put my hand on her back to drag her off her shelf, she bucked me off and was being extra twitchy. I pulled her out and her belly was pink and she was clouding over.

Also she's looking huge in her enclosure nowadays, I'm going to wait until the jungle girl is paid off (whichever one is available) to get her 6'x2' up and running. If the ghost male is indeed 4'-4.5' like the seller says, then he will be fine in a quarantine tub set up.

http://67.media.tumblr.com/ab3ba2d06fb3a2553a2caa0316104daa/tumblr_odf9fele8W1sjttato2_1280.jpg

http://66.media.tumblr.com/12a81431c5ff8f5edbd22bf8958eea39/tumblr_odf9fele8W1sjttato1_1280.jpg

I should weigh her and attempt another SerpWidgets photo after she sheds.

[Tsubaki]

She looks great! Does she buck a lot?

[bigsnakegirl785]

She looks great! Does she buck a lot?

Nope, only while in shed, she's a sweetheart. She doesn't so much as huff or hiss, she comes out nicely if I insist, but is a little more irritable while in shed. Not by much, though. She is a tad twitchy outside of shed now that's she's gaining some size (which seems normal for retics), but she doesn't buck and you can barely feel her twitching.

[bigsnakegirl785]

She shed this morning and was looking positively radiant! She's no longer the bright baby requiring sunglasses to look at, but she is turning into a very light, contrasted adult slowly but surely. Kinda miss her pumpkin orange though. :P

http://67.media.tumblr.com/a69e3be5bf979dfc8983ea8640ad48f5/tumblr_odrrg9k8k41sjttato2_1280.jpg

http://66.media.tumblr.com/6edcf8bee1714acd401450a495bbe845/tumblr_odrrg9k8k41sjttato1_1280.jpg

No handling her for awhile, though, as I have a rabbit thawing for Cloud, and she'll be eating in a day or two.

[dannybgoode]

Got to love a retics eyes. That orange is to die for. You're bringing her on nicely bsg-I enjoy your updates.

[Tsubaki]

I personally LOVE the adult look, she looks Amazing!! She looks like a retic i used to own, here's a picture of her (just a link, no need to distract from that beauty of yours) Here you go (http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj100/Senna-Ichurin/21_zpsybfztrvj.jpg)

[bigsnakegirl785]

They do look really similar! The only major difference is she has yellow in her back patterns and River has an almost lavender look. Still, who knows what River will look like in a few sheds?

[Tsubaki]

Nope, only while in shed, she's a sweetheart. She doesn't so much as huff or hiss, she comes out nicely if I insist, but is a little more irritable while in shed. Not by much, though. She is a tad twitchy outside of shed now that's she's gaining some size (which seems normal for retics), but she doesn't buck and you can barely feel her twitching.

Hadn't replied to this yet because i kept forgetting to upload the video.. This is Xena on a good day, on a bad day she also tries to bite my face :D i should enter her in a rodeo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYvQUGcaQkk

[bigsnakegirl785]

lol She's not quite that bad even in shed, but she is getting twitchier as she gets bigger. Outside of shed, she just kinda twitches and runs away but doesn't buck. Some days she comes out without a fight, too, even crawls out on her own.

I'm still meaning to take a video, but it's hard now that the weather is too cold to take her outside. :/ I'll try to get around to it at some point, the only downfall is the indoor videos are heavily yellow or orange. Not really too bothered to get lights right now but I may get around to it if I plan on taking more videos than I usually do.

[savvylr]

Super pretty girl! A like seeing other people's retics, but I will probably never have one. Larger snakes kinda freak me out, haha, but they are beautiful!

[bigsnakegirl785]

Super pretty girl! A like seeing other people's retics, but I will probably never have one. Larger snakes kinda freak me out, haha, but they are beautiful!

Thanks! I like the big snakes. Big cats (household cats of course tigers, lions, cougars, etc. are a can of worms I'm not willing to open haha), big dogs, etc.

She's turning out to be smaller than I expected, which I won't complain about too much, but she's still got a few years ahead of her at least to hit some more growth spurts.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Well River is officially over 7'! SerpWidgets said she was 7'1.5". Next is to weigh her. She's still a bit chunky from those bigger rabbits, but if she's growing again she may slim out again as she gains some more length.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Also didn't realize I didn't post these here, but here are some photos of me trying to show her size.

Unfortunately, she really badly darkened up vs those post-shed pics, didn't expect her to darken so extremely. :( She's still that dark, too.

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_2135_zps2qhgnutc.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_2135_zps2qhgnutc.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_2132_zps7njmr3sp.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_2132_zps7njmr3sp.jpg.html)

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p600/dtr_2009_/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_2133_zpsmptxs7au.jpg (http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/dtr_2009_/media/My%20Snakes/Riverrun/IMG_2133_zpsmptxs7au.jpg.html)

[Tsubaki]

She still looks amazing though! I love both dark and lighter retics :D

[bigsnakegirl785]

She still looks amazing though! I love both dark and lighter retics :D

Yeah now she only has two background colors: dark silver and yellow. Used to have like 3 or 4 different colors. lol

[bigsnakegirl785]

I gave her a bedding change today, and all she wanted to do was sniff the bedding. I even picked her up and tried to hold her but she went right back in to keep sniffing, and she usually tries to get out. lol

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5504/30504371480_fdeed57d69_h.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5632/30804861045_a82e92afbe_h.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5772/30804861895_2718b058b5_h.jpg

"I'm watching you."

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5688/30169734063_ad1bc97749_h.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5653/30169731783_e1fc9b1168_h.jpg

[dannybgoode]

Beautiful photos. She's a stunner that's for sure. See my post on the thread re viv enrichment on odour enrichment - they do like to explore new smells. And she saved you the job of wrestling her back in!

[dave himself]

She's a beautiful girl BSG

[david26]

She is beautiful I cant wait till my girl starts to get some size on her do I all I can to not give in and start power feeding

[bigsnakegirl785]

Beautiful photos. She's a stunner that's for sure. See my post on the thread re viv enrichment on odour enrichment - they do like to explore new smells. And she saved you the job of wrestling her back in!

She's not normally all that difficult to get in - I just have to constantly push her head back in so I don't squash it in the door. lol But I had the door wide open and she went right past it.

As per usual - she pooped a few hours later. :rolleyes:

She is beautiful I cant wait till my girl starts to get some size on her do I all I can to not give in and start power feeding

Give them a few months and they grow a lot, even without powerfeeding. My River is a slow grower, and I can still literally watch her grow. She looks bigger each time I take her out!

[bigsnakegirl785]

I've officially got a Herpstat 4 in, now all I have to do is get the bedding for her enclosure and see how everything runs. The two 6' enclosures used to be attached to posts with an 8" gap between them, but the posts got ruined and they're now sitting almost directly on top of each other. I put two of the posts laying flat across the top of the bottom enclosure with the top one sandwiched on top, but that's maybe an inch gap. I want to test run it for a little bit to make sure that's not going to overheat the top enclosure or make too much condensation like it did with the T12's before I put her in there officially.

The two VE-100's will go to the T12's and the Herpstat 2 will go in the quarantine room to power two of the snakes on heat tape. The T12's will have to be separated since Dominika will be using one of them temporarily, and she'll need to go into the quarantine room while Bud remains in the other T12 in the main room. That will leave me with two Hydrofarms as back ups (and I'll be glad not to depend on them anymore haha - eventually everyone will be run on Herpstats).

[dannybgoode]

Sounds a great set up bsg. One of the viv builders here in the UK is doing a black Friday sale and assuming my mums house sells on Friday I'm putting in an order for 3 large vivs for my charges.

Always nice to have the comfort of a decent stat as well :)

[SWDK]

What's a typical meal for Jenny?

[bigsnakegirl785]

What's a typical meal for Jenny?

I think you posted in the wrong thread, SWDK, Jenny is Dave's Burm. lol

[dannybgoode]

I think you posted in the wrong thread, SWDK, Jenny is Dave's Burm. lol

Jenny is Dave's retic, Daisy is his burm:)

[bigsnakegirl785]

Jenny is Dave's retic, Daisy is his burm:)

lol Got them mixed up then. Even had the thread open...must have read "Burm" somewhere and then got mixed up.

[dannybgoode]

I only know because I am in love with Daisy (in a purely human/snake platonic way of course :) ).

[MartinD]

I only know because I am in love with Daisy (in a purely human/snake platonic way of course :) ).

I can imagine you walking around singing "When you're in love with a beautiful woma"

[dannybgoode]

I can imagine you walking around singing "When you're in love with a beautiful woma"

:D - yes I could see myself doing that!

[bigsnakegirl785]

River is in shed as well, her last feeding all she got was a regular large rat because forgetful me forgot her last half pound rabbit out all day and I wasn't going to chance it. I have no more jumbos and she's not quite large enough for the 2 lb rabbits. I gave her the largest large left, though, which was maybe 20 grams short of the smallest jumbo I had.

Also, funnily enough I thought she'd outgrown her hides months ago but she's currently comfortably holed up in one. Every inch of her fits in there with room to move around, too. So she's 7'-7.5' and still fits in a medium-sized RBI hide. So much for only fitting 700 gram ball pythons. bahaha Even my ball python is nearly twice that weight and the hides are large on him.

Edit to add photos (there I go again). She's completely opaque now.

http://67.media.tumblr.com/174b3fb9776b653958482ddf6baf9deb/tumblr_oh8lpemgOe1sjttato2_1280.jpg

I took her out because her bedding got a thin coat of mold over it and I wanted to clean it out. I'll have to start fluffing up fresh bedding, I forgot in the T12's they don't dry out as easily when first put in. After that, I can control how wet it is.

http://66.media.tumblr.com/bdce201281e328dc3680e8eacb36fcab/tumblr_oh8lpemgOe1sjttato4_1280.jpg

[bigsnakegirl785]

Well I've officially got River's enclosure set up with heat and bedding. A little later than I wanted because I've been working full time the past month vs my normal ~30 hours, but it's ready now! :P I removed the two VE-100's from Cloud's enclosure and set up the Herpstat 4 to power the 2 CHEs and 2 RHPs in both enclosures.

The next step is moving River into the 6' enclosure, removing the Herpstat 2 from the T12's, and moving one of the T12's to the quarantine room w/ the Herpstat 2. The Herpstat 2 will power the T12 with Dominika in it and one of the tubs in the quarantine room, while one of the VE-100's will power the T12 with Bud in it and the other will either go to Nymeria's heat lamp or power one of the flexwatt tubs. Not sure yet. That will leave 2 Hydrofarms as back ups.

I also need to buy a step ladder, I'm too short to reach into the top enclosure. -.-

[bigsnakegirl785]

River ventured out to say hello. :) She was hoping for food, but alas I was empty-handed.

And here I thought she'd outgrown her hides. She still fits in them perfectly, doesn't even lift them off the ground. Won't be much longer before she does though, I don't think there's any leftover space in there.

http://i.imgur.com/Kf591a9.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/1aJRM9X.jpg

[Tsubaki]

Beautiful!! Love her face :D

[bigsnakegirl785]

A few days ago I borrowed the snake room's space heater to heat the bathroom to take a shower and River's temps fell a bit and she climbed onto her CHE cage. :/ First and only time I've caught her on it since putting her in there, and she hasn't been on it since this happened. Her scales are looking a bit rough, though I think they should clear up just fine after a shed. If she shows any signs of an infection I'll take her to the vet but she should be ok, there's no open wounds or anything, just a few scales with the top layer ripped off.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cache.php?img=http%3A%2F%2Fuploads.tapatalk-cdn.com%2F20161230%2Fd8cdd7bf4b3b003ac47f543992c7a fc4.jpg

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cache.php?img=http%3A%2F%2Fuploads.tapatalk-cdn.com%2F20161230%2Ff17c2eb3b19d5d602ad4f597cc8a4 a60.jpg

[dave himself]

I hope she's ok BSG, keep us posted on how she's doing

[SWDK]

Lucky the heat shield was there to help add protection. Hope nothing serious comes of her scale injury.

[bigsnakegirl785]

She's pretty much nonstop soaking, I guess because her scales are uncomfortable, but I'll keep an eye on her.

Luckily the bulb's cage doesn't have any sharp edges, so all it did was pull a few scales and not slice her up.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Hmm apparently I just skipped over the photos of River in her 6'x2'...so here they are. Several weeks old but here nonetheless. :P

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/345/32062489255_a2ddd6e27d_h.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/600/32062490285_c605909f65_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/530/32062491315_bc29d87f56_h.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/734/32023470196_519a01ea1a_h.jpg

Also, River measured in at 7'8" on SerpWidgets. :D Looks like her growth hit another spurt: she's been getting a jumbo rat or 1/2 rabbit every two weeks. Her last feeding was a colossal rat, still feeding every two weeks. When this next litter of rabbits are born, I may bump her back up to 1 lb rabbits. It took her like 7 months to go from 6' to 7', and now she's grown 8" in 3 months. That's 1.5x her growth over that 7 month period. Man, her growth is the weirdest I've experienced. She'll not grow for months, and then all of a sudden burst in length with little change to her diet.

Also YES SHE STILL FITS IN THOSE HIDES. Honestly, at this point I'm curious to see at what point she can no longer fit.

[dave himself]

She's absolutely beautiful BSG and I believe about the hides. Jenny can fit down the back of our sofa and you want to see how small a gap that is :D

[EL Ziggy]

She's gorgeous BSG. I really like the last picture.

[SnoopySnake]

She is looking fantastic-getting big!!

[MartinD]

She is one lovable snake

[bigsnakegirl785]

Thanks everyone! She's probably nowhere near her adult size yet but she's getting a lot closer!

[bigsnakegirl785]

Well she's already in shed again. She's been soaking in her water dish again for a day or two, and her belly is quite pink. There are still some streaks on her scales, but there's half the amount and the ones there are much smaller. Hopefully after this shed she'll be all cleaned up.

She came reaching out towards the camera to see what was going on.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/4e14df43e5ff30359582ac8476fd8ab5/tumblr_okd1duEK8h1sjttato1_1280.jpg

And when she touched the lens she freaked out, jumping back, splashing water everywhere and getting it in her nose - causing her to sneeze loudly. Then sat here like this. She bucked me when I touched her and crawled out of her water dish to make laps around her enclosure so I left her alone after verifying she was in shed.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/5b8bc3ef97d06cd4d05762a200064f40/tumblr_okd1duEK8h1sjttato2_1280.jpg

[Tsubaki]

That curious gaze is so familiar :D

[dave himself]

She's looking well BSG even in shed

[bigsnakegirl785]

That curious gaze is so familiar :D

lol She made it extremely difficult to photograph her face. Every time the camera moved she stretched out closer, until she touched it and scared herself. :rolleyes: Retics are adorably curious snakes.

[bigsnakegirl785]

River continues to soak in her water dish because I've been having a hard time keeping her enclosure humid. It's a mixture of the fact I still have to occasionally run the space heater, and the EcoEarth in her enclosure is unusually large-grained. So it's been drying out extremely quickly even when the heater is off, and doesn't seem to be able to hold as much as usual in the first place. I bought Cloud's bedding at the same time, but it's got the classic smooth dirt-feel to it and it's been holding humidity a lot better now that I'm able to turn the heater off most days. But River's continues to lag behind.

I have a third set of blocks I never expanded that I'm going to try mixing in with River's and see if that helps. The constant soaking is not treating her scales well.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/f86f0eb7de3f6bd05af7ba433b044db2/tumblr_ole84cIqFf1sjttato1_1280.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/2851d1fede4a87830a248f05dfb8e2d4/tumblr_ole84cIqFf1sjttato2_1280.jpg

Oh yeah and almost forgot these pics. I got her out to dampen her bedding. She's got such strong silver coloring.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/35936f52afe9f69c771e640b04828362/tumblr_ole9z38yl81sjttato2_1280.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/6e6b56af2566e6408b1650c2d553628c/tumblr_ole9z38yl81sjttato1_1280.jpg

[Tsubaki]

A big glob of Moss could help, gives off moisture better than just earth. Worth a try maybe, good luck!

[bigsnakegirl785]

A big glob of Moss could help, gives off moisture better than just earth. Worth a try maybe, good luck!

If adding a better batch of EcoEarth or a bedding replacement doesn't work I'll see about putting a humid hide in there. She's made great use of one in the past, mostly in shed, though.

Also, I ordered another hide for her, I *think* it's the same size as what she's got now as well as a few hides for some of the smaller snakes. Surely these hides won't last much longer, but at least it's something to offer more cover. I'm still trying to figure out where/how to get very very large fake plants to decorate with, but I may have figured out a solution to adding a shelf in there for her and Cloud. If I do that, I should be able to take the CHE's out since they'd just be able to bask under the RHP if they got cold rather than me expending extra energy trying to heat the cages to 90F all the way to the floor 3' down.

It's become a running joke of mine to see how long she can fit in these hides. I think I first introduced her current hides at 5.5' long, and she's now 8' long and still fits in them without so much as lifting a corner.

[bigsnakegirl785]

This one was taken before I picked up the piece of urate. I think the little bits of urates are probably the most irritating part, the pee and poop isn't so bad. lol

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2570/32183075734_4a0250f17a_h.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2589/32183077624_fd121bac6a_h.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3728/32183076224_d7dc60f405_h.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2429/32183076724_9a4461c682_h.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2073/32183077184_763ec274d2_h.jpg

She's in shed yet again. I thought she'd recovered enough that her shedding would go back to normal, but apparently not. None of the scrapes look new, but I'm currently planning on adding a shelf so I can take the CHE out. So if she actually is still climbing on it she won't be able to.

[afsgr88]

What a great looking girl!

[bigsnakegirl785]

Her shed cycles had evened out there for a bit, but she's already shedding again. Maybe because I was late on her feeding, she ate a rabbit 2 weeks ago and is in shed now. She's still about 8', but hopefully now that I've got snake food again and she'll be eating she'll pick back up on growth. I've given up trying to keep a snake food freezer here because the dang fridges/freezers keep failing, so I'm keeping the snake food at a nearby friend's house. Hopefully no more failures *knocks on wood*.

Her last shed was stuck, so I had to soak her, but I've added another set of EcoEarth blocks to her bedding so hopefully this one goes smoother. She still compulsively soaks, so idk what's up with that.

This was taken beginning of the year, she was hoping for some food as usual. haha

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4193/33657012253_2579aaadec_h.jpg

Hanging out behind her hide, before I took her out to dampen her bedding again and change her water.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4168/34493074605_93ab3196cc_h.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4172/33683088783_22af01022d_h.jpg

Then when I turned my back it was straight to her water dish. A few hours later she was soaking in it.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4165/34493079695_cdd34c348a_h.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4178/33683092113_b8b0e951cb_h.jpg

You got a little something there...

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4179/34493081285_a5bfe1880d_h.jpg

[dannybgoode]

Looking good BSG. She's a very lovely retic and food to hear her shedding has improved.

[bigsnakegirl785]

A week or two ago I took River outside, and she was way more well-behaved than I anticipated. With how big she is, it was impossible to keep her off the ground, but she didn't seem to be bothered by my presence and didn't get defensive like that one time. I did make sure to keep contact with her anyways.

Her last shed was whole, but I'm still having a hard time getting rid of her dry scales. Hopefully after a couple of good sheds that will go away.

I did have another freezer failure a month or two back, so all of the snakes are pretty behind on feedings (between finding a new freezer and waiting for the food to be shipped), and River seems to be the most affected as far as growth rate goes. The younger boas are noticeably growing on just 2 or 3 meals since I ordered the most recent rodent shipment, but River is a bit lean atm and doesn't appear to have gained much length. I'm giving her rabbits, and may go to weekly for a short time to make up for that.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4219/34669681351_dd4248fd2b_h.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4156/34669682261_fafc2480ed_h.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4243/34669679951_ea7c4c8cd4_h.jpg

And River and I.

http://68.media.tumblr.com/a9d55a375587b5197face77c22cbfe60/tumblr_oq1j46krzA1sjttato3_1280.jpg

http://68.media.tumblr.com/3a72fab0e9385d7e6e791a1052beb74e/tumblr_oq1j46krzA1sjttato2_1280.jpg

http://68.media.tumblr.com/c3122f11119c000295ed382f1521056e/tumblr_oq1j46krzA1sjttato1_1280.jpg

[dannybgoode]

Looks well. I think she looks good lean-she's far from skinny and retics in the wild are generally quite a bit leaner than in captivity. I'd keep to her usual feeding schedule for a few more feeds and if you're still not happy push her a long at that point. I wouldn't rush to do it now.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Yeah I wasn't planning on doing weekly unless she doesn't seem to bounce back after a few meals, she's still on her usual 2-3 week schedule as of right now.

[ThirteenRavens]

She is gorgeous! I love retics...always have since I first saw a super tiger many many years ago on Animal Planet lol. I couldn't own one though...way too much snake. I would consider a SD though at some point *maybe....*.

Also...love the beanie :D

[bigsnakegirl785]

She is gorgeous! I love retics...always have since I first saw a super tiger many many years ago on Animal Planet lol. I couldn't own one though...way too much snake. I would consider a SD though at some point *maybe....*.

Also...love the beanie :D

I'm lucky enough that the person I'm currently living with is willing to help me with her. I could be proved wrong, but I don't think she'll end up as big as some. I'd be surprised if she exceeded 14', but that definitely wouldn't cause me to rehome her in and of itself.

Thanks! Idk where it is rn though...I really hope I left it at the SO's. o.o

[dave himself]

She's looking really well BSG, her colours are stunning in natural light :Wow: