Just thought I’d share an unfortunately rare picture of a retic that isn’t morbidly obese. He’s between 9 and 10’ long to give some scale to the photo. My other Retic is younger but growing fast and set to be bigger although I keep him in the same body condition.
His name is TAS (That AH Snake) - 4 year old (Mainland) Orange Glow Tiger produced by my good friend John Cashman.
I fed him every two weeks until he was a couple years old then slowed down. He eats 3-4 large rats every 30-40 days. He lives in a 8’ long 3’ deep 2’ tall enclosure I built.
I love the beauty of reticulated pythons IMO they are one of the best looking snakes even the regulars with thier iridescence.
Myself i would never own a large/monster breed snake such as these, rocks, Burmese, Anacondas just as id never own large breed monitors, that doesn’t mean i don’t love them however.
I hope you have many happy years with your baby, it is a beautiful snake
100% I feel like if more people observed their snakes during the night they might realize how active they actually are. Even in an 8 footer he doesn’t get a fraction of the exercise he would in the wild.
Absolutely. I’ve made a lot of really cool ball pythons but to my taste none of them are as fascinating as TAS here.
I really want to get a SD but while I have enough space for the minimum enclosure size I don’t have the space (or money) for the size that it should get. I think retics are one of the most active snakes, put in some of the smallest enclosures. I’ve seen 8’ enclosures recommended for adult females and based on the pictures there’s only enough space for them to curl up.
It’s an honorable goal. I have friend who’s retics are 12x4x6 enclosures with shelves and you will occasionally even find his 85-90lb mainland female basking on the shelf. His smaller female (40ish lbs) is frequently up high. I couldn’t imagine keeping adults in tubs, or even in 4x2x2s.
I love how bright yellow he is. His body condition looks great!