So I got back my retic girl about a month ago. Long story short, I was having a bit of a housing crisis a few years ago and sold her to someone who had her maybe 3 years. At the time of selling her, she was ~6 years old and close to 12’. They estimate her current size at 18’, but I’m still not sure if I totally think that. She had definitely grown a toooon. She is very much, much larger than she was when I sold her.
Are 18’ retics smaller than I was imagining, or am I correct in thinking she’s closer to 16’? This is her in a 38 gallon tote. I really wanna measure her but sadly it isn’t warm enough.
How long and wide is the tub? You may be able to estimate her size that way. By using your picture of her in it. Or just take her out and put her in your longest hallway with the doors closed, so hopefully, she stays straight along one side.
Unfortunately my home is a tiny little box, no hallways, like 400 sq ft. Lol And the snakes are in a 30’ building, but it’s very narrow and not much room to work with her to let her out.
Online it says the dimensions are 15.51”x22.03”x38.16”. I am unable to correctly gauge her size using the dimensions, but if anyone uses the tub and knows what their retics look like inside it they would be able to have a reference for her size.
@tommccarthy has a great suggestion, I use a extra 4’ x 3’ cage for cleaning and my 14’+ girl goes from each side 3 times, so that is 12’ then her tail and neck and head are extra+ the amount of bend when she turns to go to the other side I estimated at least 14’ Retics as you know don’t stay still or straight, getting a accurate length is tough! You could try the string method, but would need more hands to help you! What they are eating doesn’t help a ton, I have seen 12’ ones eat huge meals and mine still prefers rats!
I unfortunately can’t have extra entire cages just laying around. She’s my only retic, and she goes into this tote easily enough.
And yes I live with my bf, and sometimes have people visit. The string method I plan to do when it’s warm again, but I’m so impatient.
At 12’ she was taking 2-3 lb rabbits or chickens with a small bulge, and 5-6 lb chickens with extremely large lumpy bulges. Now she takes 8 lb with barely a lump. I wanna say she can’t be under 16’, there is just too big a difference between when I sold her and now for her to be any smaller.
I can’t help you with your question but as always when someone posts a picture of his/her retic I have to say how jealous I am because retics are my absolute dream snakes! And of yours is gorgeous!
Riverrun is beautiful! I admire the huge snakes. I can’t physically manage them, but I do like to look!
I’ve got an idea for getting a good guesstimate of her length. Get yourself that ball of string, then get the tub without the snake in it. Using your picture, lay the string out as if you were laying it along the centerline/spine atop a nice, motionless snake who was positioned as in the picture. It won’t be 100% accurate but it ought to be pretty close.
The above method above just made me think of this. This website lets you trace out a picture of a snake, and then estimates the length. You want to have an image looking straight down on the snake, where you can see the whole snake, which might be tricky.
A few things I’ve learned using this, is that it’s better if you don’t include a ton of points, just where the snake’s direction changes. Also, place the points on the snakes spine.
I could certainly try that! There is a loooot of tail under there though. Her tail after the vent alone is a good like 2’.
@erie-herps I have use SerpWidgets a lot! Unfortunately the app is extremely touchy, and if you’re even the slightest bit off making the picture perfectly parallel to the ground it throws off readings. As much as 3”-4” for up to my 7’ snakes. I would have to stand on my roof to get her in the shot, and I would never be able to trust it. I only use it for smaller snakes easy to get in shot from a standing position and realize it could be off a couple inches.
It’s worth a shot, lol. You might be able to look at her markings and roughly figure out the length of what you can’t see. Or you can put her in the yard and get on the roof!
I said it first I distinctly remember having to climb a step ladder to take a pic of my BI Cloud because all the other pics I took standing normally were way off when I used them on Serpwidgets lol He was 6’+, so as a 5’2” person it was kinda difficult to get him in shot without some sort of tipping of the camera…or elevating myself
. But you didn’t have to egg it on…….