True length of "record" giant pythons.

[stephanbakir]

My female tics get a meal that is 130% their girth or smaller every 2 weeks, the boys get the same every 4 weeks.
Females are also my garbage cans who eat any refused food.

[moshirimon]

Originally Posted by stephanbakir

My female tics get a meal that is 130% their girth or smaller every 2 weeks, the boys get the same every 4 weeks.
Females are also my garbage cans who eat any refused food.

That sounds like a good feeding schedule to me. Why do you feed your males so much further apart?

Originally Posted by StudentoReptile

So unless you're throwing whole caimans, capybaras, or deer to your adult giants, the "natural feeding regime" doesn't cut it.

I agree, that makes sense. I was just talking about a lot of peoples idea of ideal. I just think its too much. I've seen retics that look thicker than burms (in proportion) and i just think theyre meant to be a somewhat more slender snake.

[StudentoReptile]

One thing to consider is that while wild retics don't eat often, they often eat huge meals than what is conventional in captivity. An adult retic may eat a whole deer, or a leopard or something and go months. Anacondas do the same thing. They may not eat anything during the dry seasons of their climate.

So unless you're throwing whole caimans, capybaras, or deer to your adult giants, the "natural feeding regime" doesn't cut it.

[Starbuck]

I'd pay good money to see someone with a giant feed it a freshly killed small white tail That would be quite the experience!!

[smy_749]

we had a discussion about this in the varanid section and how far to go in mimicing the wild , and how far is too far. Its too complicated of a subject and theres not a clear cut line since we dont know alot of whats actually ideal and whats not, etc etc. I'd say no need to change whats ready working. Maybe the males are smaller ? About feeding a deer, Isnt there too much risk involved in that? Can the snake actually burst (like the famous pic of one swallowing a gator)

[StudentoReptile]

I don't think there has ever been a documented case of a snake "bursting" from eating too large of a meal. There have been some accounts of larger snakes eating deer or antelope and the antlers/horns will penetrate out of the stomach wall through to the skin. Allegedly, the snake digests the rest of the animal and the horns either get reabsorbed back into the stomach wall (maybe "reabsorbed" isn't the most accurate term, but you know what I mean) or they just fall off. Either way, the snake heals with a nasty scar, but lives on. I don't know how true that really is.

The infamous photo of the python dead floating in the swamp with an alligator sticking out of its burst torn-open belly is been discussed to death. There is no clear evidence that the gator "burst" open the belly of the python, as snakes this size and species prey upon small crocodilians routinely (the gator in question was only about 6 ft long). It is more likely the python successfully killed and swallowed the alligator, then later was killed by something else; either a larger alligator or a human that shot it. The head was either missing or pulverized to bits when the photo was taken. Or heck..maybe both, someone shot it, then another alligator started tearing up the remains.

[smy_749]

thanks for clarifying, always wondered About that photo. That and the python biting the bar b wire fence and the one with the human inside lol

[StudentoReptile]

The python biting the fence - If I remember correctly, the snake (an African rock python) slithered into a fenced-in area in South Africa where there was sheep or goats, swallowed one, and tried to come out the same way. Unfortunately for the snake, its distended belly touched the electric fence, which it apparently struck in retaliation, but of course, died.

I think I know which photo you're referring to with the human inside the snake. There's a handful of them floating out there, and most were hoaxes; i.e. people posing inside the guts of a killed snake for publicity.

[smy_749]

Originally Posted by StudentoReptile

The python biting the fence - If I remember correctly, the snake (an African rock python) slithered into a fenced-in area in South Africa where there was sheep or goats, swallowed one, and tried to come out the same way. Unfortunately for the snake, its distended belly touched the electric fence, which it apparently struck in retaliation, but of course, died.

I think I know which photo you're referring to with the human inside the snake. There's a handful of them floating out there, and most were hoaxes; i.e. people posing inside the guts of a killed snake for publicity.

I figured as much with the human thing, but I didn't think of an electric fence for the rock P, thats unfortunate.

[millertime89]

bump, there are always people that need to read the article in the first post.

[millertime89]

Someone dug up a bunch of the old reports and quoted the fun parts, if I remember I'll look for the reports and post them here, but here's the excerpts in one nice easy place.
Serpent Research: Size Records for Giant Snakes

[millertime89]

So using dwarf locality genetics is wrong? Won't get any argument from me that maintenance feeding an animal to keep it small is wrong but when a snake won't grow due to genetics it won't grow. Evolution is a wondrous thing (usually).

I still say one of the best looking retics is a high silver normal.

[Aaron_S]

Originally Posted by millertime89

So using dwarf locality genetics is wrong? Won't get any argument from me that maintenance feeding an animal to keep it small is wrong but when a snake won't grow due to genetics it won't grow. Evolution is a wondrous thing (usually).

I still say one of the best looking retics is a high silver normal.

No problem with dwarf localities. Never said there was one.

Lots of people don't solely use them.

Even worse, if you want dwarf localities to be recognized as dwarf localities the lines should have been kept pure. Now they'll be banned because everyone needed dwarf morphs.

Just play with already small pretty snakes. Problem solved.

[millertime89]

Originally Posted by Aaron_S

No problem with dwarf localities. Never said there was one.

Lots of people don't solely use them.

Even worse, if you want dwarf localities to be recognized as dwarf localities the lines should have been kept pure. Now they'll be banned because everyone needed dwarf morphs.

Just play with already small pretty snakes. Problem solved.

Politicians don't give a damn about subspecies or localities. They rarely use the most up-to-date science even when its presented to them in peer reviewed publications.

[Aaron_S]

Originally Posted by millertime89

Politicians don't give a damn about subspecies or localities. They rarely use the most up-to-date science even when its presented to them in peer reviewed publications.

That's your excuse? If they don't care why should we? That's the argument for doing it? You giant keepers get crazier by the day.

Let's not give them any more reason to.

StudenttoReptile made a very solid post about similar to this topic in another thread.

I'll just link it here....

http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/850798-post69.html