Retic eating a huge pig (pics)

[Edwin]

A video would have been better.

Link:
Click Here (http://www.kinshi.com.ar/posteos/cerdo_serpiente.html)

[Lrptls]

wow, that is one giant retic, i wonder how much that thing weighs, especialy after that big meal.

[dean_h00]

:O

[Mystic Lizzards]

cool

[JAdkins2451]

That thing is huge.:eek:

[CDN-Cresties]

Awesome feeding pics!

[bistrobob85]

That retic seems so delicate and lovely!

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Thanks for sharing. That tic looks a little on the obese side however.

C.

[JimmyDavid]

That's Marsha, from the San Antonio zoo. She was the biggest sulawesi around, but she is dead now.

[CARLiTO_]

how do these snakes die? obesity or natural causes?

[beagle]

Big retic., but I think Bob Clarks Fluffy has it beat. Nice pic. and beautiful snake. Jimmy David, what makes u think that this is the biggest sulawesi around, or that was around.

[Bloodman6]

Wow! Do you think he's going to be a little sluggish for the next few days?

[JimmyDavid]

I don't know of any other sulawesi at a zoo that was that big and They claimed she was the biggest. But i admit that we never know. In Indonesia they sure must have bigger, after all that's big python zone.

[beagle]

Do you know what size they claim this snake to be? Just for curiosity .

Todd

[timminsreptiles]

That link is not working anymore

[Linds]

Originally posted by CARLiTO_
how do these snakes die? obesity or natural causes?

Both. Although not everyone overfeeds their large pythons, many of them are kept overweight imho. As a result, obesity likely plays a part in the lifespan some of these snakes have in captivity.

I think that the account either doesn't allow linking, or has reached it's bandwith max.

[daiyoukai]

This Account Has Been Suspended
Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible.







SOMEONE SAVED THE PICS?

[JimmyDavid]

I remember reading somewhere that she was just under 25' when she died.
What makes you all think she was obese? Looks normal to me.
By the way, there's a thread here called "the size of retics" or something and there's a big python being held by 12 people. It's Marsha, the same one we are talking about. You can clearly see she was not obese. In fact, rather thin.

[Jayson]

I personally dont know how anyone can call a snake obese simply because who really knows what a healthy conditioned snake is supposed to look like. You can not compare them to wild one because they have to many things going against them. How ever if there has been a study done to support the claim of obese captives i would like to read it.
Now i Have seen snakes that are very obese. I am just curious as to weather or not the majority of captives are obese, I believe that there are not many healthy captive snakes going in for regular check ups. JMO

[JimmyDavid]

Heavy look and large gutt is "obese" by human standards. But it's wrong to define other species using human standards. In a Polar bear, for example, that's exactly how a healthy specimen is supposed to look like.
I believe a big adult python (especially female) is supposed to carry a bit more fat than we are granting here.

[Bartman]

Anyone have a working link?

[Linds]

Originally posted by JimmyDavid
Heavy look and large gutt is "obese" by human standards. But it's wrong to define other species using human standards. In a Polar bear, for example, that's exactly how a healthy specimen is supposed to look like.


Arctic animals *need* a good supply of blubber and coat to survive the frigid temperatures they live in, while animals that come from tropical climates have no use for excess overall body weight. Reptiles especially do not need weight to keep warm, as they do not warm themselves, they use external sources for this. The only time you see a good store of fat are animals that use emergency stores, such as leopard geckos. While obviously captivity isn't the wild, you cannot completely throw the wild out the window either :)

[JimmyDavid]

Correct, but you can't use that as a general rule. Reticulated pythons come from hot places and are usually thin, explain why blood pythons, wich co-exist with retics, are so bulky by nature?
male Tegus, for example, are supposed to store a lot of fat, and females will mate with the largest ones. But they are cold blooded animals, living in hot places as well !?! Why is the Mamba so thin and the Gaboon viper so fat?
Each creature has it's natural look and shape.

[Bloodman6]

I know a bit about bloods, not a lot about retics, but since bloods are ambush preditors they aren't very active. They need to wait for something to cross there path. They use the extra fat in case nothing walks by for a while. Aren't Retics more active? maybe they get food more often thus have a higher metabalism. I think when it comes to obesity in snakes you just have to use common sense.

[JimmyDavid]

Retics are also ambush predators. All boids are ambush predators, they don't really run after any prey.

[Bloodman6]

I know that. It's not like the movie Andaconda (funniest movie of all time to herpists). But don't they move from spot to spot in search for better "hunting" grounds? Like I said before, I know very little about retics. either way they seem much more active then Bloods.

[JimmyDavid]

lol, That movie was full of mistakes.

Well, i guess i have to agree that retics are, in general, more active than bloods. At least some are. It depends on the individual.
While we are on this subject i have a question. What about humans? what are we? some of us are so fat, others so skinny... We don't fit in any cathegory...we are weird, hehe.

[Bloodman6]

yeah. lol.

[Bruce]

We owe our obesity, to some extent, to our genetics from our caveman past.
To survive, in times of plenty, their fat cells expanded for those leaner times. We've inherited those genetic traits. In times of plenty, or, in our case fast foods, our bodies respond by expansion in prep for hard times. Which we don't see that often on this continent, so we keep expanding.
Just a lay persons understanding of it.

Chris