A day with Travis Kubes

Necrias · 08-11-12, 09:34 AM

Made the trip to Norfolk, NE yesterday to hang out with Travis and a bunch of retics. This was my first experience with retics, and I have to say... I am completely sold! I had an absolute blast handling these [mostly] gentle giants, and will almost certainly pick one up from Travis at Tinley in October. I only got tagged once while handling over a dozen babies... that is a much better ratio than I get with my carpets! lol

My girlfriend was hesitant at first, but she quickly fell in love with a 9 ft albino tiger, and now wants one almost as bad as I do lol. Enough yapping, here are some pics

We got some pics of babies, including a purple suntiger and a snow (my two favs!) but the little buggers would not stay still for pics. Plus it was hard to keep up with Travis, he was trying to show me 100 different snakes at once lol, he is obviously very passionate and dedicated to the hobby. My gf also took the following video, which shows how difficult a big female that doesn't want to cooperate can be. I tweaked my back during training this week, so wasn't able to move as fast or manhandle this girl as much as I could have, and I'm glad these two kids were there to help. These kids were absolutely fearless with these retics!

Big Female Retic - YouTube

Terranaut · 08-11-12, 01:42 PM

Now those are big snakes. Beautiful!!

alessia55 · 08-11-12, 03:42 PM

That sounds like an awesome way to spend the day

Thanks for sharing the pics! They all look great.

**millertime89** · 08-11-12, 07:12 PM

They look great, Travis really is a great guy, I gotta get back up there to pick my new girl up from him.

shaunyboy · 08-11-12, 08:59 PM

beautiful snakes

many thanks for sharing

i'm NOT a fan of putting snakes round your neck.....

far less one as LARGE and POWERFUL as an adult Retic.....!!!

re 1st picture
imo,the way the retic's tail is using YOUR neck as an ANCHOR,puts you in grave danger,should it decide to " constrict " for whatever reason...

for example...

to give itself a more firm hold,it gets a fright,becomes defensive agressive,etc

imo even an experienced keeper,would have trouble getting the snake off your neck

if you were ALONE at the time,i dread to think what the outcome would be

i am NOT trying to be cheeky,nor do i wish to offend you

i am merely voicing my concerns regards your safety,there have been a few cases,of keepers being STRANGLED and KILLED,by their snakes

cheers shaun

**millertime89** · 08-12-12, 12:28 AM

Look again, that snake is more just draped across his shoulders than wrapped around his neck. Travis has been working with the giants for over a decade and won't put anybody in a situation that endangers them more than simply handling these big beautiful creatures. The simple facts is once they get to that size, on your shoulders is the only way you can support a snake of that size. That picture really is a bad angle.

Rogue628 · 08-12-12, 12:42 AM

Simply beautiful!

Where does a big snake go? Anywhere she wants! lol Actually, I don't think she was behaving badly at all in the video. I thought she was taking the kids' manhandling very well, it's like she was ignoring them. lol

Thanks for sharing!

dave himself · 08-12-12, 02:58 AM

Awesome pics and looks like u had a great day thanks for sharing

Necrias · 08-12-12, 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rogue628

Simply beautiful!

Where does a big snake go? Anywhere she wants! lol Actually, I don't think she was behaving badly at all in the video. I thought she was taking the kids' manhandling very well, it's like she was ignoring them. lol

Thanks for sharing!

That poor girl really didn't want to be taken out in the first place, but once she was out she REALLY didn't want to go back in lol. She was not aggressive in the least, she really just wanted us to leave her alone so she could take off and explore... but I don't think Travis's neighbors would appreciate that much haha.

Necrias · 08-12-12, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by millertime89

Look again, that snake is more just draped across his shoulders than wrapped around his neck. Travis has been working with the giants for over a decade and won't put anybody in a situation that endangers them more than simply handling these big beautiful creatures. The simple facts is once they get to that size, on your shoulders is the only way you can support a snake of that size. That picture really is a bad angle.

You're right, there is no other way to carry them unless you have a big crew of people. And yes, that is a bad pic, we had better angles of her fully on my shoulders, but they turned out too blurry and she kept crawling off me. Travis was in the area at all times except for the video, he picked a bad time to go pee lol.