Safe handling practice for large snakes

[dave himself]

This isn't to catch anyone out or start any arguments, I'm just really curious to see what everyones point of view is, even if you don't have large snakes you can still have a point of view

[dannybgoode]

Two people minimum when the viv is open whatsoever, three if it's a proper monster. I've also seen plenty of photos of small children handling them on their own with the nearest adult what I consider just too far away. By all means let kids handle them but have someone right on guard.

The situation, even with a 'puppy dog tame ' Burm can change in a heartbeat.

I'd also keep all other animals out of sight completely.

Like anything most of it should be common sense. Unfortunately common sense seems to be being bred out of humans.

I've said before I'd love a giant but I don't have anyone to help with the handling. My wife is barely comfortable with Auntie Rachel at 1yo never mind a Burm or a Retic so there's just no point me even thinking about it.

People need to research more also. At least a trip to a zoo where they have a couple of giants. I went to Chester so recently and was talking to a couple at the Retic enclosure. Theft couldn't believe you could get one of Facebook for around £100.

[Minkness]

I believe in the 2 person rule as well. That alone keeps me from having any giants, even though I'd really love a hypo burn and an albino purple sunfire retic.

I hear tap/hook training is recomended, so I'd probably do that.

Personally I wouldn't let any 'small' children around the larger ones. Never really know when one might go into feed mode. I think I would also make sure that whatever room they are in, I'd keep behind lock and key JUST in case one somehow managed to get out of an enclosure. I have heard of giants opening normal doors, so I would make sure the door is locked when not going in and out.

Ummm....hmm....I think that's about it for me....and this is woth zero experience.

[riddick07]

I agree on the two people thing once they reach a larger size. I'm guessing around 8 or 9ft and solid is when I'll start wanting someone around when I handle mine. I'll feel more comfortable with 3 or 4 people if either of mine were to hit the larger end of the scale.

Lock and key is a definite. No birds or cats or other animals wandering around. I wouldn't mind little kids with my purple sunfire when she's big but my male doesn't handle activity or change as well and would be too defensive for me to consider it a good idea. He is low key usually but tenses if there's a lot of activity and I've had him strike out once or twice in obvious nervousness when too much is going on.

I've starting using the hook with mine to try and be on the safe side. I try to catch both their attention before I open the door and use the hook so they know I'm coming and aren't surprised.

I feed in the cage and I don't see the point of risking my limbs by dragging them out while the smell of food is around to feed them in another container. When the are bigger I'll probably use tongs with some length to feed them or I'll use some kind of plate to drop it in and close the door. Not like either of mine need me to wiggle food around for them to want to eat lol

When they are bigger I do plan on keeping a knife nearby and while I never plan on anyone having to use it and it's a last resort I'm not going to pretend it might not be needed. (Honestly if it is ever needed I feel like I would have probably made a huge mistake somewhere that caused the situation to happen.) I've also heard the water or alcohol thing but have no idea how well that works myself though I wouldn't mind trying....though I'm thinking the alcohol would make the whole cuts in my arm or wherever even worse haha

I think the worst part is people get a little too comfortable when they have a snake that isn't normally aggressive. They stop paying attention to the body language and miss the fact that the snake is getting uncomfortable or about to strike. With my male you can tell when he is getting nervous and I get the hook to try to snap him out of it and/or just put him away. I also have no plans to take out either of mine if they are in an obvious mood. No reason I can't come back later when they are more receptive to not chewing on my arm:p

[Pogie]

Wellllll, first off I don't have any large snakes so this is opinion only :)

Common sense first off. If it's big enough to eat someone make sure it never goes hungry rotfl.

Well that's my humble opinion!

Really though I think it all boils down to common sense. IF it can eat a dog/cat/kid what ever keep it away from them. I don't think any snake is "tame". But that's another subject lol.

Also a believer with the 2 (if not more) people handling it.
Respect the animal!
Always know where it is at all times. Be aware of what it's doing while holding it or letting it crawl around.
Never let one wrap around you.

I myself won't ever have a snake that large. Because I'm sure I couldn't handle it, that's my common sense kicking in there....I really don't know what else and I'm sure there are lots of things to know before keeping larger snakes.

[psychocircus]

Have a routine.

Have a strategy so your snake is always aware if it is coming out of the cage vs. being fed.

Use the buddy system.

Don't drink and snake.

If a child is handling the snake in any manner, an adult should have hands on the snake also.

Keep all scents of potential prey out of the area and of yourself.

Never let your guard down, even on the tamest of snakes.

Extra secure cages; double check every time.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Wellllll, first off I don't have any large snakes so this is opinion only :)

Common sense first off. If it's big enough to eat someone make sure it never goes hungry rotfl.

Well that's my humble opinion!

Really though I think it all boils down to common sense. IF it can eat a dog/cat/kid what ever keep it away from them. I don't think any snake is "tame". But that's another subject lol.

Also a believer with the 2 (if not more) people handling it.
Respect the animal!
Always know where it is at all times. Be aware of what it's doing while holding it or letting it crawl around.
Never let one wrap around you.

I myself won't ever have a snake that large. Because I'm sure I couldn't handle it, that's my common sense kicking in there....I really don't know what else and I'm sure there are lots of things to know before keeping larger snakes.

There has never been a recorded snake large enough to eat a full-grown average-sized adult human. It's estimated a snake would have to be at minimum 27'-28', and we have yet to have a confirmed snake of that size. A child, probably, infant definitely. For some reason people worry way more about the snake eating them than killing them, which they 100% have to ability to do so. Says a whole lot about the human psyche tbh.

As others said, have a buddy system. I'd like to have 2 people when River hits 8'-10' (check), and have a friend come over and help us with her when she gets bigger than that. Unless we find another roommate. lol

Don't drink or do drugs and handle the snake of course, of course.

I like to have a double-door system in the enclosure in the form of sliding glass doors. This gives you a buffer to react in the case that the snake is moody or in feed mode. You open from the opposite end and get the hook in, and even if they come at you, having to go around that corner will slow them down and possibly throw their aim off. Plus, it's easier to get them in without them getting back out if all you have to do is slide one side closed rather than lift the entire front up.

I never handle my retic when prey scent is in the air, and wait at least 24 hours so the smell dissipates. She is always fed in the enclosure, people have died and been sent to the hospital when feeding their giants out of the enclosure. Doing so is extremely irresponsible not only to your safety but the safety of any other person or free-roaming pet in the house.

[Pogie]

There has never been a recorded snake large enough to eat a full-grown average-sized adult human. It's estimated a snake would have to be at minimum 27'-28', and we have yet to have a confirmed snake of that size. A child, probably, infant definitely. For some reason people worry way more about the snake eating them than killing them, which they 100% have to ability to do so. Says a whole lot about the human psyche tbh.

As others said, have a buddy system. I'd like to have 2 people when River hits 8'-10' (check), and have a friend come over and help us with her when she gets bigger than that. Unless we find another roommate. lol

Don't drink or do drugs and handle the snake of course, of course.

I like to have a double-door system in the enclosure in the form of sliding glass doors. This gives you a buffer to react in the case that the snake is moody or in feed mode. You open from the opposite end and get the hook in, and even if they come at you, having to go around that corner will slow them down and possibly throw their aim off. Plus, it's easier to get them in without them getting back out if all you have to do is slide one side closed rather than lift the entire front up.

I never handle my retic when prey scent is in the air, and wait at least 24 hours so the smell dissipates. She is always fed in the enclosure, people have died and been sent to the hospital when feeding their giants out of the enclosure. Doing so is extremely irresponsible not only to your safety but the safety of any other person or free-roaming pet in the house.


I was joking lol

[Ian of Oldham]

Totally bang on the money what everybody has said.

0.1.1 Royals 1.0 Corn 1.o Boa 1.o Carpet and a mad Cat.

[Sublimeballs]

I'm not around the forum much anymore but I can't pass up contributing to this.

I keep pure jampea retic (amongst several other retics) which are widely considered to have the strongest feed response of all retics. I've hook trained mine; all I have to do for my female is let her tongue flick the handle of my snake room hook and no more feed mode( takes alot more than once with my male, he lounges at you until you get your hands on him). With this method I've never had issues even if it's someone else's feeding day and the room smells of rabbits (my experiences, dont try it because I do it). I cant stress enough to people curious about keeping giants that a feed mode bite is what's most likely to occur and most dangerous when it comes to retics (never owned any other giants other than a yellow annie). This is when the most care, effort, and protocol is required. Males in breeding mode follows up second.

I personally have clear safety/escape/bite protocol posted within sight of my giants cages, which are under lock and key in a locked snake room. I always have my GF on standby if there's any cleaning or feeding to be done(more comment on this to come). I have a big bottle of rubbing alcohol in the snake room incase of a bite (pour some in a snakes mouth and nose and it gives up really quick) and a large knife for the not unthinkable situation of me vs my animal.... sucks to think about but.

For me the routine goes:
Illuminate the cage and assess where the snake is and current mood (anyone who's kept retics knows what I mean)
Open the side of the cage that creates the most work for the snake to bite me
present the handle of the snake hook, snake turns away, open cage completely and gently grab somewhere on the upper 1/2 of the animal
if it's a bigger animal place the back half over one sholder (NEVER BOTH OR AROUND YOUR NECK)
Have a cintainer/spare cage to put in while cleaning
putting them back i direct their heads and they climb in their cages themselves.

I'm a firm believer in the 2 set of hands on the snake when it reaches a certain size. However, I cant put that size into feet because everyone and every snake is different. An 8 foot super dwarf doesn't need 2 people while a 10 foot adult jampea can require 2. It takes experience and an honest assessment of one capabilities to know your limit. Which can cause issues in the giant world as it attracts alot of egos and non serious keepers. So 8-10 foot is a good range to say. These animals are strong from a "small" size so never push it.

DISCLAIMER: Giant pythons can be unpredictable, this is MY opinion, dont trust you life to my words. Many will read into this wrong. These animals do not love you or have a bond with you. Don't confuse my use of the word "trust".

I'm also a firm believer in "trust" building with reptiles. I never man handle, grab behind the head, force them in anyway, etc... just calm confident handeling; and its done wonders for eliminating defensive bites across all my collection (except my childrens.... she was evil from the egg).

[dave himself]

DISCLAIMER. I am NOT an EXPERT I am just you're average muppet who has been keeping large snakes for a few years now. This system works for us but it may not work for you and our guidelines may be slightly different

First and foremost is the 2 person rule this is never broken under any circumstance

Second is one snake at a time. We've had an occasion where are normal burmese female Daisy as been out of the viv and got spooked for no reason. Trying to get one large python back into its viv while it's having a bad day without worrying what the heck the other one is doing is a blessing believe me ;)

Third no handling with the smell of food in the room. Our 2 burms and retic are tap/hook trained and respond to it very well but when there's the smell of food in the room all bets are off and anything that comes through the viv doors is being bitten and wrapped. This is a fact and one we are well aware of

Four No other animals in the room. This is an absolute must in my opinion for 2 reasons
The first reason being.If it's a small dog or cat it's dead sorry but that's the way it is
Second. The large snake that you just lifted out of the viv has the potential to do serious harm not only to you but to the second handler and needs all your attention and the respect it deserves

Five never let children near the head. We've let the local kids in to see and handle our snakes but never near the heads, this takes away any chance of bite, after all people we are dealing with snakes here and have to use our common sense. Either Lisa or myself always have control of the head in these situations and the kids are kept at the mid or lower part of the snake

That's all my head can think of for now I'm afraid :)

[Jim Smith]

I am not a large snake keeper, so I may not be qualified to respond to this question. That said, here goes. I would never let any child around a large snake, period. We all know just how incredibly powerful these animals are, and a large constrictor could inflict fatal injuries to a child in just a few seconds, far faster than any handler could respond to remove the snake from the child. Even a bite from on of these large snakes could be very serious or even fatal, especially if the bite was on the neck or face. I really like the idea of having a separator where you can isolate the snake in an area in its enclosure if you are cleaning. I only keep medium sized colubrids and even then it can be tough focusing on the task at hand and the snake at the same time. Of course, my snakes are only trying to slip out of their enclosures, and not stalking me, but I think you get the idea. I agree with Dave on the two-person rule at ALL times, and if at all possible, both of the people should be knowledgeable enough and strong enough to assist immediately if needed. I watched a program where a young healthy very strong man (weight lifter) had a large scrub python (about 4.5 meters long) that he occasionally let roam the house when he was cleaning its enclosure. When he went to find it to return it to its enclosure, he bent down to look under the couch, the snake struck. It grabbed him by the face, and wrapped around his neck and upper chest, pinning his arms at his side. Needless to say, the man was killed by his pet snake. As I said, I am not a large snake keeper, but I suspect that a very large Retic or Burmese are considerably larger and stronger than a scrub python and thus even more difficult to restrain if they decide to attack. As much as I enjoy my snakes, I would never keep any animals that pose a serious danger to me or any of my family members. I have no problems with other people keeping super-sized snakes or venomous snakes, but I do think that a formal training course coupled with a mentoring program should be required to permit keeping any of these beautiful creatures. Just my two-cetns worth.

[macandchz]

great advice from everyone. i just had my picture taken with 1 of the giants. they seem so nice and sweet that you forget that they can change their temperment very quickly.

[sattva]

Some great advice here... I will definitely incorporate the knife and alcohol... I am not to worried right now, my guys still small... 4'&1/2 to 5' ... I am hoping he won't get over 10 feet...His father is only 10 feet so I am keeping my fingers crossed... He's is not your typical retic from what I have been reading... He's very calm, curious, doesn't freak when I pick him up, doesn't bit me... He is just way cool... I am using the tap hook method, it's working great; at least while he is small...

My new Jungle carpet and my Taiwanese beauty snake although not the monsters like the retics and burmese are, I can not really use a hook on them... They just get to squirrely for me to handle; So I will take a roll of paper towels and push their head away and pick them up with the other hand...
So as far as the two person rule goes, I am all for it! Does two old people with bad backs count? My 67 year old wife is my backup... Luckily she is not afraid of them... I have told her that if it ever happens you unwind from the tail out...

[dannybgoode]

I just hope some would be giant owners who do not know what they're getting into read this and think really carefully whether they really want to take on the commitment.

It terrifies me that I can go on Facebook and buy a Retic, Burm, anaconda-whatever with no checks, no questions.

Just daft really.

I'm not necessarily advocating licensing or similar but retics in particular are being over bred to a massive degree. Who's going to buy all these snakes?

[SerpentineDream]

I see way too many photos of people with large snakes draped around their necks or shoulders. This to me seems like a tragedy waiting to happen. Sure, the snake may be chilling out at the moment, but it only takes an instant for the situation to change and then your neck is suddenly in coils.

[sattva]

I just hope some would be giant owners who do not know what they're getting into read this and think really carefully whether they really want to take on the commitment.

It terrifies me that I can go on Facebook and buy a Retic, Burm, anaconda-whatever with no checks, no questions.

Just daft really.

I'm not necessarily advocating licensing or similar but retics in particular are being over bred to a massive degree. Who's going to buy all these snakes?
There is no doubt about, this is not for everybody! This has to be taken very serious.
Me personally! They don't scare me! I'm 65 with nothing to do but take care of my 3 amigos... And if I die by one I will have a good laugh with god...

[trailblazer295]

So this is a no no?

Girl swims with huge Burmese Python | Local News - WMTW Home (http://www.wmtw.com/news/girl-swims-with-her-huge-burmese-python/40870312?utm_source=Social&utm_medium=FBPAGE&utm_campaign=WMTW-TV&Content%20Type=Story)

[dave himself]

So this is a no no?

Girl swims with huge Burmese Python | Local News - WMTW Home (http://www.wmtw.com/news/girl-swims-with-her-huge-burmese-python/40870312?utm_source=Social&utm_medium=FBPAGE&utm_campaign=WMTW-TV&Content%20Type=Story)

Just my opinion but to me that's a very foolish thing to do. You would little to no control over the snake

[trailblazer295]

Just my opinion but to me that's a very foolish thing to do. You would little to no control over the snake

My comment was intended as a joke. I'm not a large snake owner but I know that's foolish.

[dave himself]

I just hope some would be giant owners who do not know what they're getting into read this and think really carefully whether they really want to take on the commitment.

It terrifies me that I can go on Facebook and buy a Retic, Burm, anaconda-whatever with no checks, no questions.

Just daft really.

I'm not necessarily advocating licensing or similar but retics in particular are being over bred to a massive degree. Who's going to buy all these snakes?

If you think that's crazy Danny check out what it's like in the south of Ireland no licence needed for anything not even hots. If you can get to the Hamm show in Germany you can have a cobra for your first snake if your mad enough and there's not a thing the law can do about it :(

[dannybgoode]

I saw the video of the Burm swimming. Madness but people think it's cool.

@dave. That is bonkers! Darwin award winners abound though. I don't know what the answer is when it comes to giants. The morph craze in particular seems to be pushing the Retic thing and at some point the market is going to implode and there's going to be a ton of very large snakes around that no one wants to home.

Makes the beardie problem seem like nothing!

Trouble is so few sellers vet the buyers. Thing that attracted me to the reptile store I go to is they make it really difficult for you to buy a giant but they're so much in the minority.

[Ian of Oldham]

Just stop breeding to sale

[dave himself]

My comment was intended as a joke. I'm not a large snake owner but I know that's foolish.

Sorry mate now I feel foolish ::(

[dave himself]

I saw the video of the Burm swimming. Madness but people think it's cool.

@dave. That is bonkers! Darwin award winners abound though. I don't know what the answer is when it comes to giants. The morph craze in particular seems to be pushing the Retic thing and at some point the market is going to implode and there's going to be a ton of very large snakes around that no one wants to home.

Makes the beardie problem seem like nothing!

Trouble is so few sellers vet the buyers. Thing that attracted me to the reptile store I go to is they make it really difficult for you to buy a giant but they're so much in the minority.


We vet everyone who comes into the shop I help out who wants to buy any large snake and just flat out refuse anyone who hasn't got a clue. But once the snake leaves the shop it's out of your control and they can do whatever they want

[dave himself]

Just stop breeding to sale


Sadly mate that's not the way the world works. Normal female retics are selling for £80 that's a snake that has the potential of hitting 18ft and I'm not sure if the seller vets the buyers or not

[trailblazer295]

Sorry mate now I feel foolish ::(

Don't worry man, hard with text to pick up the tone. Cheers


Sadly mate that's not the way the world works. Normal female retics are selling for £80 that's a snake that has the potential of hitting 18ft and I'm not sure if the seller vets the buyers or not

No snakes are that cheap here but don't think the market for retics here is big enough. No breeders I'm aware of so any retics are expensive.

Though I've seen a lot of fish sold for cheap red tail catfish (3000g aquarium, couple hundred lbs) silver arowana (5ft and couple hundred gallon min tank) sadly these fish usually die. Unfortunately in the pet trade you can buy anything if you have the cash in your pocket. Even in a province where HOTS are illegal you can buy them if you know where to go and have the cash.

I'd never own giants or hots but keep the pics of your giants coming. Cheers.

[bigsnakegirl785]

I see way too many photos of people with large snakes draped around their necks or shoulders. This to me seems like a tragedy waiting to happen. Sure, the snake may be chilling out at the moment, but it only takes an instant for the situation to change and then your neck is suddenly in coils.

When they get that big, you don't have a choice but to put them on your shoulders if you want to move them around. Around your neck, not so good, but good luck picking up 80 lbs of wiggling zooming snake just in your arms. As far as the neck, it's not a smart idea for even a 4' snake, they could easily cut off the blood flow to your brain even if they couldn't suffocate you. Just make sure the snake is on one shoulder. With such large snakes as adults, I would try not to drape them across the back of your shoulders, since they could still get to your jugular, but it's fine for smaller ones.

I saw the video of the Burm swimming. Madness but people think it's cool.

@dave. That is bonkers! Darwin award winners abound though. I don't know what the answer is when it comes to giants. The morph craze in particular seems to be pushing the Retic thing and at some point the market is going to implode and there's going to be a ton of very large snakes around that no one wants to home.

Makes the beardie problem seem like nothing!

Trouble is so few sellers vet the buyers. Thing that attracted me to the reptile store I go to is they make it really difficult for you to buy a giant but they're so much in the minority.

I'm kinda hoping the morph and breeding craze moves towards the super dwarves, a pure or high content SD is 100% manageable by even one person, and there are morphs being bred into them all the time.

When I bought River, I was asked questions about my other snakes and my experience/research, but that's about it. She was being maintenance fed (one fuzzy mouse every 2 weeks, she was 6 months and still only 3'), too, so not too sure how much of a role model they are, but I feel at the very least you should try to get a feel for the person's knowledge before letting go of a giant.

[Sublimeballs]

There is no doubt about, this is not for everybody! This has to be taken very serious.
Me personally! They don't scare me! I'm 65 with nothing to do but take care of my 3 amigos... And if I die by one I will have a good laugh with god...

Everyone else overlooked this.... maybe it's because I've been involved in the fight to keep my rights to keep these amazing creatures but this statement bothers me. It's nothing to do with fear of the animals, they command respect... you'll see. There should be no lapse in proper safe handeling procedures because they don't scare you or you have no fear of dying by one. To put it bluntly, if you die the people trying to take my right to own these animals in a safe way from me have more ammo to use against me. And this may be completely out of context and not pertain at all to you, but someone will read this and they need know that's not the right mindset with these animals. I work with venomous snake both in captivity and the wild and it's, in my experience, easier to work with hots safely (not the top tier hots) than a male retic in breeding mode, or a tic having a bad day, or any anaconda over 9 feet.

[Sublimeballs]

When they get that big, you don't have a choice but to put them on your shoulders if you want to move them around. Around your neck, not so good, but good luck picking up 80 lbs of wiggling zooming snake just in your arms. As far as the neck, it's not a smart idea for even a 4' snake, they could easily cut off the blood flow to your brain even if they couldn't suffocate you. Just make sure the snake is on one shoulder. With such large snakes as adults, I would try not to drape them across the back of your shoulders, since they could still get to your jugular, but it's fine for smaller ones.



I'm kinda hoping the morph and breeding craze moves towards the super dwarves, a pure or high content SD is 100% manageable by even one person, and there are morphs being bred into them all the time.

When I bought River, I was asked questions about my other snakes and my experience/research, but that's about it. She was being maintenance fed (one fuzzy mouse every 2 weeks, she was 6 months and still only 3'), too, so not too sure how much of a role model they are, but I feel at the very least you should try to get a feel for the person's knowledge before letting go of a giant.


I think they ment around both shoulder as opposed to the much needed over the shoulder method. There used to be a thread displaying the differences for the prospective buyer.

You're not kidding about SD stuff. My pure kalatoas are comically small, those things are bottomless pits aswell....

[dave himself]

Don't worry man, hard with text to pick up the tone. Cheers




No snakes are that cheap here but don't think the market for retics here is big enough. No breeders I'm aware of so any retics are expensive.

Though I've seen a lot of fish sold for cheap red tail catfish (3000g aquarium, couple hundred lbs) silver arowana (5ft and couple hundred gallon min tank) sadly these fish usually die. Unfortunately in the pet trade you can buy anything if you have the cash in your pocket. Even in a province where HOTS are illegal you can buy them if you know where to go and have the cash.

I'd never own giants or hots but keep the pics of your giants coming. Cheers.

Thanks buddy and I know exactly what you mean we had a case over here about 10 years ago when a 15 year old lad came on to one of the Irish reptile forums, posting pics of his hatchling purple tiger female retic. Luckily one of the Mods off the site lived not to far from him and she went round and explained just what mummy and daddy had bought for their son. But just think someone sold a kid who up to that point only experience was a dwarf boa, a mainland retic :(

[DrSimonsSays]

My hubby and I have an 11 foot or so beautiful Burmese morph sold as a "jigsaw". He is close to 40 lbs. We have him out of the cage in our bedroom for much of the day, and we are both in contact with him at least 4-6 hours every day. I'm pretty sure he thinks he is human. Definitely the 2 person rule, but only when he is on the floor in front of his cage--as that is where we always feed him (on a towel).
Ours is about 95% potty trained. He has only gone in his cage when left in there while we were on a vacation.
When he needs to go, he pushes the door to our bathroom area open and crawls into the spa tub. We fill it with water, and watch his tail. Once it starts to flatten out and go up, I grab the butt and hold it over a large cup (he doesn't like ANY urine or feces in his bath water, he'll jump outta fast as an 11ft snake can) then he just goes in the cup. Sometimes I help express out the pellets by massaging his underbelly. Then LOTS of positive reinforcement, of course. If he hasn't urinated for a week, we'll put him in the tub, and he knows what we expect of him. After one "accident" on our Tempurpedic, that is all we wanted.
I'm thinking that potty training might only be possible on bigger snakes that are VERY well socialized; regardless, we are very happy to have a OCD clean snake!

[dave himself]

My hubby and I have an 11 foot or so beautiful Burmese morph sold as a "jigsaw". He is close to 40 lbs. We have him out of the cage in our bedroom for much of the day, and we are both in contact with him at least 4-6 hours every day. I'm pretty sure he thinks he is human. Definitely the 2 person rule, but only when he is on the floor in front of his cage--as that is where we always feed him (on a towel).
Ours is about 95% potty trained. He has only gone in his cage when left in there while we were on a vacation.
When he needs to go, he pushes the door to our bathroom area open and crawls into the spa tub. We fill it with water, and watch his tail. Once it starts to flatten out and go up, I grab the butt and hold it over a large cup (he doesn't like ANY urine or feces in his bath water, he'll jump outta fast as an 11ft snake can) then he just goes in the cup. Sometimes I help express out the pellets by massaging his underbelly. Then LOTS of positive reinforcement, of course. If he hasn't urinated for a week, we'll put him in the tub, and he knows what we expect of him. After one "accident" on our Tempurpedic, that is all we wanted.
I'm thinking that potty training might only be possible on bigger snakes that are VERY well socialized; regardless, we are very happy to have a OCD clean snake!

:D got any pics of your snake mate

[Minkness]

Omg that be AMAAAAZING to have a potty trained snake! Lol.

I have one that almost always goes in his water. I prefer this since it's way easier to dump and clean his water dish than to clean his cage.

Alsoooo, my leopard geckos all go in one corner, so I use a paper towel in that corner and just remove it when needed lol. All of my leos do this too.

So cool to hear about your dedication to such a large animal and how they, and you, have benifited from the unusual relationship.

I'm with dave though...we need pics!

[Wish]

So, I'm sure many wont agree... But here's my situation in a nut shell. I have a Mainland (Sulawesi), male. A year and a half and he's pushing just over 8 feet. Before that, the largest snake I ever owned was a red tail boa, about 6 feet long. Just my wife to help, and she is not much of a fan of him. Never the less, I've always had a passion for retics! Once he hit 8 feet, I no longer open the cage unless my wife is home. I am in his cage 3 times a week, minimal. For water, spot cleaning and feeding. He comes out for everything except feeding. I've had him since three weeks old. His attitude is pretty chill, in my opinion. He occasionally takes a shot at me when his tank opens, for the most part he just retreats with out striking. Very normal retic behavior. Hook goes in first, then I pull him out. He's never struck at me outside the tank. I still show him the utmost respect, and always anticipate a strike just in case. I'm aware he will get a lot bigger. The conditions of me being the only hands on person with him will not change. With that said, I'm always prepared for anything. Bottle of spray alcohol, and like some one else mentioned, a sufficient weapon in case things ever go that sour. Which of course would only be used if it is a life/death situation. Let me also say I love my animal! I feel extremely confident that it will never come to that.---But one must always be ready. Bottom line, retics are predators. While many like them for their colors, beauty and size... they are hunting, stalking, large wild animals.--And they're not for everyone. Like anything else in life, no your limits and potentials. If your not comfortable dealing with large snakes, then retics aint for you. That goes for Dwarfs too. Retics are just a different kind of snake. I took many things into account before I purchased mine. One being that I would have to handle this animal for the most part by myself. It's something I feel I can handle. I come from a state where you can't find retics anymore. Nor is it easy to find others in the hobby locally. Most of all my research came from forums and youtube videos (pretty dangerous) lol. Still, I'm comfortable with my choice, and confident in providing excellent husbandry. The attached photo was taken months ago. He's a lot larger today.

[dave himself]

So, I'm sure many wont agree... But here's my situation in a nut shell. I have a Mainland (Sulawesi), male. A year and a half and he's pushing just over 8 feet. Before that, the largest snake I ever owned was a red tail boa, about 6 feet long. Just my wife to help, and she is not much of a fan of him. Never the less, I've always had a passion for retics! Once he hit 8 feet, I no longer open the cage unless my wife is home. I am in his cage 3 times a week, minimal. For water, spot cleaning and feeding. He comes out for everything except feeding. I've had him since three weeks old. His attitude is pretty chill, in my opinion. He occasionally takes a shot at me when his tank opens, for the most part he just retreats with out striking. Very normal retic behavior. Hook goes in first, then I pull him out. He's never struck at me outside the tank. I still show him the utmost respect, and always anticipate a strike just in case. I'm aware he will get a lot bigger. The conditions of me being the only hands on person with him will not change. With that said, I'm always prepared for anything. Bottle of spray alcohol, and like some one else mentioned, a sufficient weapon in case things ever go that sour. Which of course would only be used if it is a life/death situation. Let me also say I love my animal! I feel extremely confident that it will never come to that.---But one must always be ready. Bottom line, retics are predators. While many like them for their colors, beauty and size... they are hunting, stalking, large wild animals.--And they're not for everyone. Like anything else in life, no your limits and potentials. If your not comfortable dealing with large snakes, then retics aint for you. That goes for Dwarfs too. Retics are just a different kind of snake. I took many things into account before I purchased mine. One being that I would have to handle this animal for the most part by myself. It's something I feel I can handle. I come from a state where you can't find retics anymore. Nor is it easy to find others in the hobby locally. Most of all my research came from forums and youtube videos (pretty dangerous) lol. Still, I'm comfortable with my choice, and confident in providing excellent husbandry. The attached photo was taken months ago. He's a lot larger today.

Beautiful retic mate but I don't think it's a Sula

[Tsubaki]

I have to agree with Dave, there are no pure Sula albinos. :)
Also agree that he looks great! retics are amazing

[dannybgoode]

A story for you all. Was chatting to one of the guys today that runs the store I go to.

Regular customer of theirs been keeping giants 15+ years, snakes in general 35 years. Had a male Retic 16' long who was out and about whilst his viv was being cleaned. Never shown any aggression before.

Just went for the guys foot. He was only wearing some flimsy Nike trainers and the Retic very nearly had his foot off. Several months of reconstructive surgery and his foot is as good as it'll get but still pretty mangled.

He broke the 2 person rule and it's unlikely it would have happened if a second person had been there IN THE ROOM.

@wish. No good your wife being somewhere in the house- they need to be there with you. A spotter spotter would have a) probably seen it coming and could have controlled the head, shouted a warning etc and b) had the bite still happen, react immediately.

Also you say your wife is not fond of snakes-are you confident she would react in the right way if she came in to find a very large snake properly attached to you. I know my wife would not so no giants for me.

A Retic, rock pyhton or anaconda has the potential to attack however calm you think it is and regardless of how long you've had it. Burms not so much but still wise to be cautious.

[macandchz]

love pogie's advice-"don't drink and snake". like to get a t-shirt with that on it! love the big ones but even with the small ones-an animal is an animal. you never know what they are thinking. they can change moods in a minute. my dog is sweet as can be, but he has snapped at me and shown teeth occaisonally. why take the chance-use 2 people.

[Wish]

Beautiful retic mate but I don't think it's a Sula


I purchased him from Chase Dallas. To be exact, I was told by Chase he was a Lavender phase Albino and was a Sulawesi. Please, would love to hear your thoughts if you say it's not a Sula. I don't have the eye or knowledge to actually tell.

[Wish]

I have to agree with Dave, there are no pure Sula albinos. :)
Also agree that he looks great! retics are amazing

Thank you! Would love to hear back on your thoughts if you feel he's not a Sula. I went with what I was told, and do not have the knowledge to know myself.

[Wish]

A story for you all. Was chatting to one of the guys today that runs the store I go to.

Regular customer of theirs been keeping giants 15+ years, snakes in general 35 years. Had a male Retic 16' long who was out and about whilst his viv was being cleaned. Never shown any aggression before.

Just went for the guys foot. He was only wearing some flimsy Nike trainers and the Retic very nearly had his foot off. Several months of reconstructive surgery and his foot is as good as it'll get but still pretty mangled.

He broke the 2 person rule and it's unlikely it would have happened if a second person had been there IN THE ROOM.

@wish. No good your wife being somewhere in the house- they need to be there with you. A spotter spotter would have a) probably seen it coming and could have controlled the head, shouted a warning etc and b) had the bite still happen, react immediately.

Also you say your wife is not fond of snakes-are you confident she would react in the right way if she came in to find a very large snake properly attached to you. I know my wife would not so no giants for me.

A Retic, rock pyhton or anaconda has the potential to attack however calm you think it is and regardless of how long you've had it. Burms not so much but still wise to be cautious.

I appreciate your story Danny. For the most part, my Wife is there. The furthest she is would be 10 to 15 feet away. She's just not literally on top of me and watching my every move. Would she react how I want in the case of an emergency, 100% yes sir! Unfortunately, the snake would probably not be so lucky. I joke with her all the time and say "just don't kill my snake" lol. Cause given the chance, she'd happily do so . I tell you this though, I'd never have my retic just out and about while I'm cleaning the tank. When I clean, he goes in a separate holding tub. I don't even start cleaning until he's been relocated and secure.

I'm not saying it can't happen. Anything has the potential to snap and do something unpredictable. Just as I can make a mistake and provoke the undesired behavior. It's a risk! I'll take your advise, and always be cautious.

[dave himself]

I purchased him from Chase Dallas. To be exact, I was told by Chase he was a Lavender phase Albino and was a Sulawesi. Please, would love to hear your thoughts if you say it's not a Sula. I don't have the eye or knowledge to actually tell.

Sulawesi retics are Wild-type/normal retics mate they get their name from an island some people also call them Makassar retics their ment to be one biggest locals along with the Sumatrans from what I've heard from people, and if hes Sulawesi I can't see how he can be albino :confused:

[dave himself]

I lifed this image off locality retics these guys are specialist in local retics this is a Sulawesi

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j342/davy64/snakes/_20160824_213314.jpg (http://s1081.photobucket.com/user/davy64/media/snakes/_20160824_213314.jpg.html)

[bigsnakegirl785]

My hubby and I have an 11 foot or so beautiful Burmese morph sold as a "jigsaw". He is close to 40 lbs. We have him out of the cage in our bedroom for much of the day, and we are both in contact with him at least 4-6 hours every day. I'm pretty sure he thinks he is human. Definitely the 2 person rule, but only when he is on the floor in front of his cage--as that is where we always feed him (on a towel).
Ours is about 95% potty trained. He has only gone in his cage when left in there while we were on a vacation.
When he needs to go, he pushes the door to our bathroom area open and crawls into the spa tub. We fill it with water, and watch his tail. Once it starts to flatten out and go up, I grab the butt and hold it over a large cup (he doesn't like ANY urine or feces in his bath water, he'll jump outta fast as an 11ft snake can) then he just goes in the cup. Sometimes I help express out the pellets by massaging his underbelly. Then LOTS of positive reinforcement, of course. If he hasn't urinated for a week, we'll put him in the tub, and he knows what we expect of him. After one "accident" on our Tempurpedic, that is all we wanted.
I'm thinking that potty training might only be possible on bigger snakes that are VERY well socialized; regardless, we are very happy to have a OCD clean snake!

This sounds like a troll post...especially since this is the only post they've ever made. A snake allowed to be out of its enclosure as often as this one would be dead, and essentially free-roaming an 11' snake? Sounds fake and dangerous.

[Snake_eyes_88]

I'm loving reading through this and seeing how I approach my handling to everyone else's. Of course my retic is still young but I've approached him from day one the way I intend to for his lifetime... With Floki (my retic) being 50% madu and 25% Jampea he's on the smaller size but I've no doubt of what he will be capable of as an adult.

It's scary sometimes when you see the mentality of some keepers, and how they show literally zero respect for what these animals are... I've wanted a retic for about 5 years, so after a lot of research and thought on the matter we finally agreed on an SD.. Of course we ended up with a lottery ticket in terms of size in the end with an SD cross but at almost 17 months and barely being 3ft we should be ok.... I hope :D

It's when the purchase of a giant is a snap decision based on the "cool factor" that it usually turns out bad for the snake, the person... And in the end these idiots will make it worse for all of us.

[marvelfreak]

This sounds like a troll post...especially since this is the only post they've ever made. A snake allowed to be out of its enclosure as often as this one would be dead, and essentially free-roaming an 11' snake? Sounds fake and dangerous.
My thought too.

[dave himself]

This sounds like a troll post...especially since this is the only post they've ever made. A snake allowed to be out of its enclosure as often as this one would be dead, and essentially free-roaming an 11' snake? Sounds fake and dangerous.

My thought too.

I'm with you good folks that's why I asked for pics :D, they're either a troll or their weight and measurements are way off :D

[dannybgoode]

This sounds like a troll post...especially since this is the only post they've ever made. A snake allowed to be out of its enclosure as often as this one would be dead, and essentially free-roaming an 11' snake? Sounds fake and dangerous.

@BSG you'd be surprised. I know of a couple of burms that are freeranging in people's homes. There's one that lives upstairs and their chihuahua lives downstairs. No amount of telling them will convince them that one day that dog will probably 'disappear'.

Completely stupid yes but it does happen...

[bigsnakegirl785]

@BSG you'd be surprised. I know of a couple of burms that are freeranging in people's homes. There's one that lives upstairs and their chihuahua lives downstairs. No amount of telling them will convince them that one day that dog will probably 'disappear'.

Completely stupid yes but it does happen...

They're also asking for a host of health issues with their snake. There's no way a home could properly provide the temp and humidity needs they need without also destroying their home and their wallets. They're tropical/subtropical animals. I have seen 3 animals allowed to free roam. A ball python, that ended up dying from infections and had pretty bad dehydration despite them running humidifiers and offering multiple heating spots. A tegu that went to the vet's and had severe dehydration and the start of MBD despite multiple humid spots and basking spots throughout the house (afaik it survived but didn't follow up on the story), and a third one that was a tegu that was put in an enclosure before anything noticeable occurred.

Even if it took a few years, their snakes are going to suffer and ultimately perise without proper care, even with the dog and human safety aside. Which if their dog and their safety isn't a high priority the snakes' safety probably isn't, either.

I'm not arguing that it happens, I'm saying the way they wrote their post and the fact that it rarely happens makes it seem fake. The whole thing seems like a caricature.

[dave himself]

@BSG you'd be surprised. I know of a couple of burms that are freeranging in people's homes. There's one that lives upstairs and their chihuahua lives downstairs. No amount of telling them will convince them that one day that dog will probably 'disappear'.

Completely stupid yes but it does happen...

I must admit the free-range part didn't even make me raise an eye brow sadly as when I was on Facebook I saw some absolute trainwrecks that just hadn't happened yet. One guy who lived on his own had an adult burm free roaming in his bedroom 24 hours a day. I agree with everything you said BSG and when I asked him what about her humidity, temperature and everything else the answer I got was, she goes back into here viv when she wants. Sometimes you just have to walk away because you no your no going to get anywhere arguing :(