Question about my new retic.

[MikeM77]

I got my new reticulated python a week and a half ago. He is very well tempered and completely non agressive. The problem I am having is that everytime I get him out, which is almost daily, he urinates on me. Is this something I should worry about or will this eventually stop.

[lady_bug87]

He's probably freaked out that you keep pulling him out.

[stephanbakir]

Hook train him, it will help a ton. Hes male I'm assuming?
The more you support his body, the less he will be freaked out (for the most part)

[MikeM77]

Thanks for the imput.

[Stephan Grundy]

If it's stress stimulating him, it will stop. However, it is possible that what stimulates him to let go is the gentle massage-effect of being handled - my retic really preferred to do his business about ca 15 minutes after being taken out, any chance he got (my mum still hasn't forgiven me entirely for her formerly white bedspread), and most of my other snakes also (if there's something due) tend to do it as a response to moving and being handled. Compared to many popular breeds, I think retics tend to both drink and pee quite a bit, too.

[stephanbakir]

He wont necessarily grow out of it, my male is well past 10 feet now and he still paints the walls with urates.

[MikeM77]

Good to know. I got him out today for about half an hour. Let him rest on my shoulders and had no incidents. Guess we will see what happens.

[stephanbakir]

Do you know how retics bite btw? sometimes its bite and release, but males tend to slash.... gruesome bites. If you don't trust an animal I HIGHLY advise keeping him away from your face.

[Terranaut]

Whos pic is that?
Ouch!!!!

[RyanReptile]

Do you know how retics bite btw? sometimes its bite and release, but males tend to slash.... gruesome bites. If you don't trust an animal I HIGHLY advise keeping him away from your face.

That must have been one big retic!

[Pirarucu]

Do you know how retics bite btw? sometimes its bite and release, but males tend to slash.... gruesome bites. If you don't trust an animal I HIGHLY advise keeping him away from your face.And that's why you don't handle males during the breeding season. Those combat bites suck.

[stephanbakir]

it was a smallish male (bite from a friend) Combat bites suck... that snake was way smaller then you think it was.

[Freebody]

wow that's a nasty one, looks like the snake bit wrapped around and pulled back with out letting go of the bite or something? last time my retic bite me she opened her mouth and gently released her teeth from my skin, I think I love my girl that much more now after seeing what she could have done to my arm.....

[stephanbakir]

I've never heard of a female combat bite, as far as I know only males do it. That being said females are capable.

[MikeM77]

Thanks for the heads up on the biteing.

[CollinGallows]

How do you know when it's breeding season? I

[rocknhorse76]

Yet another reason I think I'll stick to boas lol.

[Stephan Grundy]

How do you know when it's breeding season? I

Normally breeding season for retics starts somewhere between late September and early November, and ends in March. It is stimulated by the snake's photoperiod dropping to ca. 8-10 hours per day, and its nighttime temps dropping to the mid 70's or so (you can coax a retic to breed out of season by messing with its photoperiod and night temps; I don't know if the opposite is true, but I'd say you couldn't keep a retic from going into breeding mode indefinitely just by maintaining a constant 12-14 hour day and not letting the temps drop a little).

My guess would be that tap-training would somewhat diminish the risks of getting a combat bite, since the object of the combat bite is after all to make sure no competitive snakes (or anything moving in the viv that might be a competitive snake, you never know, best to bite first and ask questions later) get too uppity - but might not eliminate them. However, before trusting even that guess to keep my body parts intact, I'd get the opinion of someone who has a fair bit of experience with actually breeding the critters.