This is my first time owning snakes I have done a decent amount of research on retics. I just want to make sure that I’m not missing anything or If anyone has any advice they want to share. I also have been struggling with names. 🫠
I have a male and a female.
male purple motley 100% het pied
female motley tiger 100% het pied 100% het albino or caramel
Sorry to be the preachy one but... First time owning a snake and getting a retic not to mention a mainland is very bad idea!!!! Just asking for trouble I'm sorry I would have gone with a ball python or even a common boa.
With that said expect a 8-10 ft snake within 12 months or so if pushed with heavy feeding since you bought a pair I'm as your planning to breeded them most case senero 7ft to be realistically. Unless you raise or have a hook up for rabbits or pigs your looking at a food bill that will rival your own consumption. Animal plastic cages or something similar don't use wood or melamine they won't last retics piss a half gallon a episode. I'd look at a 8foot by 4 foot cage. You can keep them in a 41qt Rubbermaid with a heat pad under one side for a few months. So I'd order the cages now.
Feeding start with rat pups and then to small then to large skip medium there a waste in cost. El Segundo reptiles in LA California sells piglet's id reach out to him. At 6 ft they can eat a ½lb piglets biweekly. As hatchlings is feed every 5-7 days for the first 3 months then every 7-10 days until they reach a year. After that every 2 weeks. I tend to keep the meal size smaller for the male to keep him smaller. FYI males turn out to be major assholes in most cases especially it they sense a female near by. I hope you don't have plans to breed there's no money in mainlands or for what you have you'll end up culling half of them or be stuck feeding a bunch of hatchlings into yearlings unfortunately.. hook train to teach them so they know when they're getting fed and when they're being taken out. Biggest blunder from newbies is getting nailed by a hungry bite. Also when they get bigger get a spray bottle with brown Listerine straight. I use it for cleaning but also if you ever get a bit by a hungry response spray this in the mouth and face it will cause them to release.
Hopefully you never get a bit from a male in combative mode it's stiches especially when they get big.
Heat and humidity I keep my hot side at 85-87 and cool side 70-72 with humidity around 60% or so. Give them enrichment like logs and hides and things to climb up. ..
I've owned retics for over 15 years I have dwarf and Island locality now no more mainland.
Yes, I feed mine chickens cheaper then rabbits. Stay away from guinea pigs it's like feeding a kid a twinkie for breakfast they won't eat anything else , lol.
Rodent pro sells chicken from x small to 3 xl. My 9ft female eats xlarge every 14 days. Lump is usual gone in 3 days
A 6 ft retic would be simply on medium rats, large rats at best. They would be about the weight of an adult ball python. It is nothing substantial at all yet.
Wow. What a way to jump into snake ownership with not 1 but 2 mainlands. Read everything you can on them. A few good books and forums out there with information on things you may encounter. Good luck. Retics are rewarding and amazing snakes but a big expensive responsibility
You got your hands full there for a first snake. 10+ foot male 15+ female. Get yourself a hook and when you want it interact with them rub them first or tap them they are extremely food driven and you open that enclosure they'll think your food. They are an intelligent snake you can Target train those snakes there are lots of videos about it. Be prepared to build your own enclosure or spend half your mortgage on professional build enclosures to house those two snakes.
Lots of good responses already. The only thing I will add is never fully trust them. Tap train. Learn to read their body language and tongue flicks…but still never trust that. Before I go any further. I love these snakes. Raised from babies by me. Never aggressive at all. Perfect snakes. The days leading up to feeding day get sketchy tho. I would avoid doing maintenance in the enclosure during this time.
Learn from my mistake. I have scars and permanent nerve damage in my left thumb.
Split second before disaster. Screen shot from video.
Jesus lol at least you have the proof when you’re telling the story 😭 had a similar situation happen to me with an ~8ish foot burmese about a year back now and still can’t fully close the thumb she annihilated. Can’t even imagine a retic’s teeth in her’s place. What was that recovery like? Bad week or bad month?
Honestly not to bad. It was painful for a week or so but not terrible and my thumb was numb for a long time. Like months. Couldn’t curl my thumb for a while.
The scars were crazy for a long time. The teeth went to the bone. So when the puncture wounds started to heal and scar, it pushed up like crazy. Deep tissue scaring. A picture would explain this better than I can lol. Here
Well get them well socialized now because you don't wanna deal with that when they're 15 feet long in 2 years.
And you'll need an enclosure where the side + front is equal to or longer than the snake. Ideally the whole front is longer than the snake but with mainland retics that is certainly gonna be a struggle. Also retics like to climb a lot so give them lots of opportunities for that.
If you haven't taken a look at the Reptifiles guide, please do. These are very intelligent, gigantic, very active snakes and they require extreme resources to house properly. I'll link the guide here: https://reptifiles.com/reticulated-python-care-sheet/
Meaning don’t under feed your snake but you also don’t want to over feed . There’s a balance. Most underfeed forgetting these guys are the longest snake species in the world
I’m not judging because I’m getting a lot of hate for getting my super dwarf and don’t have much advice other than tap training will be your friend. I will say as confident as I am around snakes the only one that ever made me truly nervous was the last mainland I fed. It was wicked and I stilled did it but they are powerful. Definitely make sure you do all the research and take all the advice you can.
A retic was my second "big" snake and ended up being the most docile reptile I've kept. Like others have said, get ready for a growth explosion... If your temps and feeding schedule are on point a female can easily exceed 10ft in a year. I got mine as a hatchling and she was real close to 12ft after a year.. Way quicker growing than the green anaconda I had. I'm pretty sure I was giving her rabbits by 6 months, and eventually little pigs, then bigger pigs. Make sure you handle them often when they're small, cause a big pissed off retic is not fun. Hook train so they know the difference between feeding time and being taken out
If you weren’t 100% confident in your knowledge, I really would’ve held off on buying a snake let alone mainland retics. These snakes can kill you if you don’t know what you’re doing.
That said, I don’t believe that anyone should be limited as long as the correct amount of research is done beforehand.
With these guys you will need a ton of space for them. Rooms ideally. Humidity on the upper end and training is absolutely key. Check out target training with Lori Torrini.
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u/Norseman-71 10d ago edited 9d ago
Sorry to be the preachy one but... First time owning a snake and getting a retic not to mention a mainland is very bad idea!!!! Just asking for trouble I'm sorry I would have gone with a ball python or even a common boa.
With that said expect a 8-10 ft snake within 12 months or so if pushed with heavy feeding since you bought a pair I'm as your planning to breeded them most case senero 7ft to be realistically. Unless you raise or have a hook up for rabbits or pigs your looking at a food bill that will rival your own consumption. Animal plastic cages or something similar don't use wood or melamine they won't last retics piss a half gallon a episode. I'd look at a 8foot by 4 foot cage. You can keep them in a 41qt Rubbermaid with a heat pad under one side for a few months. So I'd order the cages now.
Feeding start with rat pups and then to small then to large skip medium there a waste in cost. El Segundo reptiles in LA California sells piglet's id reach out to him. At 6 ft they can eat a ½lb piglets biweekly. As hatchlings is feed every 5-7 days for the first 3 months then every 7-10 days until they reach a year. After that every 2 weeks. I tend to keep the meal size smaller for the male to keep him smaller. FYI males turn out to be major assholes in most cases especially it they sense a female near by. I hope you don't have plans to breed there's no money in mainlands or for what you have you'll end up culling half of them or be stuck feeding a bunch of hatchlings into yearlings unfortunately.. hook train to teach them so they know when they're getting fed and when they're being taken out. Biggest blunder from newbies is getting nailed by a hungry bite. Also when they get bigger get a spray bottle with brown Listerine straight. I use it for cleaning but also if you ever get a bit by a hungry response spray this in the mouth and face it will cause them to release. Hopefully you never get a bit from a male in combative mode it's stiches especially when they get big.
Heat and humidity I keep my hot side at 85-87 and cool side 70-72 with humidity around 60% or so. Give them enrichment like logs and hides and things to climb up. ..
I've owned retics for over 15 years I have dwarf and Island locality now no more mainland.
Good luck......