Not sure if people do growth logs here, hopefully it’s chill! I got Kiyohime from Reach Out Reptiles in April/May 2024 as a fresh hatchling! She is a super dwarf anery goldenchild, perhaps plus something else.
I thought it would be interesting to photo log how she has developed, and how her colors went through a very light phase, and then changed back.
This was around November 2024 I believe. At this point she had become completely light brown, whether in the sun or not LOL. I have a theory that keeping her at warmer temps caused this. It’s funny how the speckling on her back became so apparent due to how light she became.
There’s been a few progression threads here and there. =)
She’s beautiful! And excellent name! She’s so good at photos. Mine are little heathens as soon as the camera comes out.
I’ve got a little golden child het anery pos HOGS boy (not RoR) but he has constant shed issues with me atm. I need to try switching the room he’s in now that he’s out of quarantine. I hope he looks half as good when he’s older~
Or I get a little cutie like Kiyo if I breed my anery gal.
Nice looking retic you have there. I like the progression post. It’s nice to see how they change as they grow. Looking forward to seeing more pictures of Kiyohime.
Highly recommend haha she’s been staying so small for so long (assuming not overfed), so they’re such an easy add! She’s slightly over 2 years old now and still only half the size of my adult ball pythons LMAO
She’s a stunner for sure! It’s incredibly interesting to see that change to her coloring. Would you ever bump her temps again and see if she goes light again? I’m so curious about that colour change.
Ahhh, if I could ever convince my wife to be all in for a retic, it’d be a dream to have one like your gal. I love dark snakes, but her still having pattern and subtle hue shifts is so, so gorgeous.
It’s a bit cooler and dryer in my downstairs, so that could be why the same setup seems a bit frustrating. He also just tends to hang on his warm side while my other two young’uns like to go back and forth.
I honestly do feel like she’s going a bit light again compared to last year, because I moved her back into the PVC cage with RHP where it’s overall warmer and more consistent in ambient temp! I just moved her since last October. When she went dark last year, I had moved her into a wood cage with front glass terrarium type setup with just belly heat and cooler ambients (70-75 usually), between March~September 2025. Still no for sure if this is actually the reason for her color changes, but I have my suspicions haha
Show her Kiyohime’s pictures and growth sizes (she’s so small imo), maybe it’ll work! LOL
Haha I highly recommend! Retics learn so quickly and she is so tame. Even when I didn’t handle her for a few months, she remembers hook training after a couple pats and comes out calm. She has never struck at me either or even considered it, ever since hatchling age. And still very strong feeding response when I don’t tap her with a hook!
Kiyohime is soooo pretty! And that SD blood is really putting in the work, what an awesome girl! I already have one retic and have no intentions on getting another for a bit, but if/when I do I definitely think it’ll have to be a goldenchild!
I can’t get over the way her eyes pop against her dark colors, truly a holy grail animal.
Thanks, I love retic eyes in general for the same reason! They look like little beads of candy and really pop LOL. I picked her mainly for her eyes and the clean cross pattern on her head.
Yes I heard they are super smart and active which is a huge draw for me. I am between that or a diurnal snake like a cribo so I have someone to hang out with while my other snakes are asleep. What percentage dwarf is she and how big were her parents?
I also used to have cribos, and currently just have one 8 year old male Eastern Indigo who I raised from hatchling! They’re definitely both smart and active in different ways. I actually find that retics are not extremely nocturnal, more opportunistically active during the day, especially if you’re also active in the room. At least, compared to say ball pythons or green tree pythons haha. So you would still be good to get a retic for daytime handling imo! I also keep my retics with lights, a bit of sunlight hits the cages sometimes, and a bunch of branches and stuff to do in their enclosure.
Kiyohime is a super dwarf, localities Kalatoa and Jampea, but not sure the details past that! I unfortunately didn’t clarify about her genetics, kinda placed it to the side of my brain since I’m not breeding haha
That’s cool, maybe your’e the exact person I have been looking to talk to haha. Which would you say is more interactive, curious, investigative, fun to watch? Which one is more tolerant of frequent handling?
Aw yea! We love the intelligent tier of snakes LOL
Fun to watch and more reactive to things going on were definitely my yellowtails, but they were also way jumpier. So it’s only more fun if you like to do the whole keeping jumpier snakes tame thing, at least in my experience.
I also had a pair of blacktail cribos who were both FAR less active than the yellowtails and indigos I had, but still interactive, very easy and placid, smooth to handle! I feel that my eastern indigos are somewhere in between, more active to watch, more investigative during handling, but not too jumpy. Personally my favorite are still eastern indigos. The blacktails and easterns have never struck or feinted at me, never hissed. The yellowtails did loud hissing and huffing/puffing initially, unless regularly handled.
My friend kept my eastern for 2 years, and she told me that he bit her friend LOL. But I don’t know the circumstances for that, and they may have been moving quickly/handling roughly while hanging out or distracted. I had never seen even a hint of that behavior myself with my easterns.
Also to note, compared to other python and colubrid species I’ve had, I found that both my drymarchon and retics hook trained the fastest and “turn off” their feeding response very quickly in response to it. Big brain activities haha
