What Colour Morph is this?

[Andy_G]

Snakes don't need baths...therefore you don't have to get them used to it.

Nice retic.

[sattva]

Originally Posted by Andy_G

Snakes don't need baths...therefore you don't have to get them used to it.

Nice retic.

I had this vision of trying to give a 15 foot retic a bath... My guy fights me when I spray him down with Nix; I can't imagine giving him a bath when he's full grown...

[simon07989]

Danny, I appreciate your honesty.

On the day I bought the snake I was taking some heavy duty pain medication for 2 slipped discs and so life was great! lol

However, I am the kind of person who becomes obsessed with a subject until I know everything there is to know. Hence I am now making sure I am armed with all the knowledge I need to know to grow and mature with this snake.

I know that it will be a challenge, which I accept, and Thank Everyone for there helpful replies and honesty.

I will NOT become another Giant snake owner who in 3 years time looks for a re-home. I accept that this guy will be with me now for 20 years plus.

Keep up the good work Guys, and any more helpful hints or tips would be really appreciated.

[dannybgoode]

Originally Posted by simon07989

Danny, I appreciate your honesty.

On the day I bought the snake I was taking some heavy duty pain medication for 2 slipped discs and so life was great! lol

However, I am the kind of person who becomes obsessed with a subject until I know everything there is to know. Hence I am now making sure I am armed with all the knowledge I need to know to grow and mature with this snake.

I know that it will be a challenge, which I accept, and Thank Everyone for there helpful replies and honesty.

I will NOT become another Giant snake owner who in 3 years time looks for a re-home. I accept that this guy will be with me now for 20 years plus.

Keep up the good work Guys, and any more helpful hints or tips would be really appreciated.

As I say I'm taking on a pair of snakes that are at the limit of what I think I can deal with and far beyond anything I currently have - it's the knowing that you're at your limit that's the important thing.

Just grow with the snake, learn to read it's moods, don't ever ever underestimate or trust it completely. The retic the guy nearly lost his foot to had owned in over 10 years without a hint of aggression and he got it wrong one day.

Do try and find a good retic keeper near you perhaps and handle a few adults so you know what to be expecting.

[dave himself]

We have 2 average sized burms and a retic that's still growing. We would never think of bringing of them out together, not just because they may fight. It's for safety concerns as well. One of these large snakes can turn in an instant from being well behaved to being an absolute psycho. Trying to get one into a viv is a bit of a handful, never mind adding another on to it. The calmest snake we've ever owned is our female retic. She's never shown any aggression what so ever, so calm and a joy to handle. But we wouldn't trust her as far as we could throw a bus, we are definitely not afraid of our snakes, but we treat them with a lot of respect. Dannys idea of seeing if you can get to handle a few adults is a good idea but it won't prepare for keeping one of these large snakes in your own home

[simon07989]

""One of these large snakes can turn in an instant from being well behaved to being an absolute psycho""..

R
eally!!?? But Why would snake just turn like that, surly there would be an obvious avoidable reason?

[dave himself]

Originally Posted by simon07989

""One of these large snakes can turn in an instant from being well behaved to being an absolute psycho""..

R
eally!!?? But Why would snake just turn like that, surly there would be an obvious avoidable reason?

Our female burm Daisy has turned on us a few times with absolutely no warning what so ever. And that's why imo you can never really read a snake. Sure there are times when you know from watching them, that they are getting fed up with being handled and such. But it only takes that one moment and everything goes horribly wrong, that's why you can never trust one these big snakes or let your guard down . This just Moi mate and speaking from my own experience

[Tsubaki]

Originally Posted by simon07989

""One of these large snakes can turn in an instant from being well behaved to being an absolute psycho""..

Really!!?? But Why would snake just turn like that, surly there would be an obvious avoidable reason?

No there won't always be an obvious avoidable reason, and if you can not handle a large reticulated python at its very worst you shouldn't own one to begin with. Of my current reticulated pythons; only one is notably aggressive, so with that one I take extra precautions B.t.w That she was actually really docile as a juvenile, just had a change of heart in how much it likes humans, juvenile behaviour does not guarantee similar adult behaviour. The hormonal change snakes go through reaching sexual maturity can change the animal 100%.

Anyway, even my purple albino who in general is the worlds easiest retic so far has had surprising moments. For example, a few weeks ago; He started bucking to get away and lunged at my feet when I did not let him go under the sink like he was trying to do. I do not ever fully trusts my snakes, and I was prepared for trouble.. So I was able to him back in his enclosure without any harm done to me or him. I didn't even think about it anymore, because to me it's just something that happens sometimes. You have to realise this, that could happen to your boy too. The point is, they're wild animals and will stay wild animals purely driven by instinct. The trigger could be something internal/hormonal of which you have no way of knowing without having experience with it, or even something small like a certain scent that triggers them. You just don't know.

Males during the mating season can pretty much go bananas for no reason, not saying yours will but nobody can guarantee it won't. The reason to have multiple people present to handle a large snake is not for their weight/size, it's in case it flips out and manages to get hold of someone. You need many people to Pull it off. I took a 16/17ish foot retic to a vet, with 4 people trying to hold it down it still shoves us across the room in its panic. And that was just to pull a tooth! Imagen if it had a hold of someone and was refusing to let go, pure panic.

Yes in most cases the animal will pretty much be fine, a bad day here n there, good if you can handle those.. But what if.. Imagen this.. Let's say for comforts sake it's a small adult at 14ft, it's the most perfectly behaved snake ever, barely ever an off day. But it managed to hurt itself in whatever stupid way you can imagine. Even when hurt it's still pretty friendly, just a bit more nervous.. But then you have to give it antibiotics, a daily shot for 7 days in a row. And after day 2 the animal realises what you're going to and resists? More and more each day. You've never dealt with that before, and the first time you're dealing with an aggressive snake.. It's your "so far always friendly" 14ft snake who suddenly seems to be at least twice as big and you start to realise how badly it could hurt you. What then? This isn't a worst case scenario by far, this is a pretty realistic thing that could happen.

I don't mean these as horror stories, I've kept retics for a long time and raised and bred many of them, and I have ALWAYS refused to sell the larger individuals to anyone who had no experience with larger snakes. I kept many snakes working myself up to keep a snake as intelligent and intimidating as a reticulated python, because superdwarves simply weren't for sale around here. Now they are, and retics are more accessible even to the more inexperienced keepers, because even though they might hurt you a SD probably won't kill or mange you.. In contrast to a fully grown mainland or a large adult dwarf.. I do not know how much experience you have with snakes, you just come across as very inexpedience and wanting to grow along with it. If you're really lucky you can grow a long with it, if you're unlucky you'll see why so many people put +/- 2 year old retics and burms back for sale when they reach "puberty".

I don't mean to bash you or crush your spirit, I just want to be realistic here.