First big snake

I would personally recommend reticulated pythons but I’m a little biased since I love them and I’m planning on getting a SD in a few years. Do you have experience with larger snakes yet? For example a boa constrictor. This is a good guide for getting a snake that you should look through: So you want to buy a reptile…(a guide). From what I’ve heard burmese would be a good introduction into giant snakes but it would be a good idea to start with a dwarf or juvenile hatchling first to get an idea of their temperament and care before you buy a giant one.

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I would say yes. Do you own an lager snakes such as boas or something bigger then 10 ft? Male burms don’t get huge but still they can be a handful. Most males I see are about 10 ~ 14 max but with decent girth obviously females are more.

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The Rileys are to the rescue

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I definitely recommend what @erie-herps says about getting a hatchling, very important. Definitely want to get time to learn their personality and grow in trust with them before they can get too big to harm you.

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:rofl: :joy: :rofl: I was waiting for that.

The other important thing with large snakes is their “modes” they’re always in either sleep, fear, food, or thinking. You want to handle them often since you do not want an aggressive 15 ft long snake. You also only want to handle them in thinking mode and many keepers hook train or tap train their snakes so if they are in food mode all they have to do is tap/rub them on the head and it puts them in thinking mode and they can be handled.

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I definitely no I don’t want to LOL :joy:

I definitely recommend this, you can read through this topic Click me

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Have you fed a snake that size? Or done a cage cleaning with a snake that size?

I ask because a lot of the time I feel like maintenance is overlooked when it comes to larger species of snakes.

When I comes to feeding a lager snake it can be very intimidating, so I’d recommend that you feed a snake that size so that you have the understanding of how it is to feed it safely and always keep that in mind.

In about cleaning cages, it really comes down to the fact that these snakes produce large messes, and it happens quite regularly. Most importantly you have to be up for the task when it occurs, even though it can kind of be gross.

All in all, yes, burms can make great first time large snakes if you are ready and committed to them. I hope this works out, and if so 100% post pictures, because I love burms. :heart:

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I’ve had a female Morelia spilotacthat was about 10-11ft long that I got as a rescue, feeding her was insane. Ill definitely be getting a hatchling and if I do decide on getting a burm I’ll be buying for black diamond herps once his are hatched and ready to go to a new home. I’ve thought about getting a retic but honestly I don’t know much about their growth rate compared to a burm, I know that with a burm you can control their growth to a point by slow growing it which is also healthier for the snake but idk if a retic would be like that since I haven’t looked into them other than kalatoa/jampea SD/D ( can’t remember if their considered SD or D) I’m up to the task of cleaning, done it many times in my lifetime. First snake I was around was my uncles BCC which is still thriving with his new owner.

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Yes I’ve had a Morelia spilota that was 10-11ft before, she was awesome.

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I’ve considered a kalatoa/jampea retic before but a male was 500 (just a bit out of my budget since I’m ordering a huge enclosure from AP) I’ve heard Its better to have a female and that a male looked at a owner and craped on him lol, always fun. How long do retics usually get in captivity?

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Like burms retics will only grow as fast as you feed them. Feeding them less is healthier and they grow slower. That’s just a rumor, the only difference between males and females is that the females will lay eggs. I ask @jrc_retics for all my retic questions since he is very knowledgeable.

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Thanks for clearing that up, I heard males are one of the worst during breeding season I may get a retic and slow grow it

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I’ve kept both burms and tics in years past, my personal preference is to go with burms. It comes down to 2 reasons for me personally. 1, they were my first big snake I had interaction with and I love their giant puppy dog nature while the tics I kept in the past were more prone to being unpredictable. 2, retics tendency to push gives me anxiety due to the facial damage they can cause themselves. With that said, one of my friends has kept retics in large number for a long time and he adores them.

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Ah, then I’ll get the burm, is 150 a good price for a male baby burm btw

If it’s a normal I think that would be a very good price. When you buy it do your research on a seller to make sure they’re reliable an if buying in person make sure the snake looks healthy.

I’m curious what you mean by unpredictable. From what I heard if you train them well and learn their modes they are very predictable. However I’m still learning and I would love to hear another opinion about them.

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Yea, I’ve checked reviews of the breeder and they’re pretty great from what I’ve seen and heard. Ill be buying from black diamond herps

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The ones I had experience with were often unreadable, they’d go from appearing to be fine with handling/interaction to deciding you could use a bite. This was a long time ago though, with several being imports. Also with that said, I’ve had a couple Boas over the past 20 years that were exactly like that. You’d think everything was hunky dory and wham. One of my current Arabesque females is like that, she’ll be completely chill, being handled just fine and the next thing you know she’s deciding she’s had enough, and you need bit a few times without obvious warning.

That’s mostly changed from all of the generations in captivity. A lot of people at first didn’t want them because of their aggressive reputation (which some of the imports/F1 were), but after they were bred for a few generations in captivity they got increasingly more docile and tame and now most of the captive bred snakes aren’t aggressive at all. However they still carry a reputation for being aggressive.

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I’d agree with that assessment, the captive breeding has definitely helped refine their attitudes.

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I find my retics to be the easiest to read. A lot of people confuse a high feeding response for being aggressive. My female is extremely fiesty to say the least but I can always tell what type of mood she is in or if she’s going to strike.

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