Hello,
I was just wondering if anyone could help me, my female super dwarf is out growing her vivarium (3ftx2ftx2ft) she’s had this since she was just under a year old and I was wondering what size to go to next? My choice are 6ft x 1ft6in x 2ft, 7ft x 2ft x 2ft or 8ft x 1ft 6in x 2ft, with the 6ft and 8ft I can go 2ft in height too. Don’t know what’s going to best for her, she just over 3.5 ft now so I’m looking at getting the new one in the next 2 weeks.
Thank you in advance for any help.
I think she is probably fine in that enclosure for awhile. I have my adult female in a 5x3x 18”. Height is not as important with the retics. But I’m by far no experts in retics. @mnroyals I’m sure would be more than happy to lend you his opinion. He is far more knowledgeable on the subject than me. Also a little more info on her lineage would help to determine the final size enclosure you will need.
I would say, given she is established and a good size, go as big/tall as you can. Being arboreal by nature, they really do benefit from being able to climb. Make sure to put some sturdy branches so you might be lucky to see her perch like a GTP does. It saddens me a bit when I see people keep them in enclosures where they aren’t able to do what they do in nature.
Okay, the thing is with the lineage is I have no clue, I had done my research for like 3 months about retics, I went on a weekend away and thought I’ll go to a reptile shop I’ve heard about and asked about retics and they showed me the super dwarfs they had but they didn’t know the locality or the lineage, they said she would be about 8ft-9ft max. The males they had 5 years ago from the same pairing only got to 4ft-5ft.
I have thought about this before as I was going to get her a 6ft x 6ft x2 ft but I wasn’t too sure how I would of heated it🤔
I would imagine multiple heat sources would have been needed. A UTH, maybe a RHP or a light/CHE. All hooked up to a thermostat of course. Or you could use heat tape if you wanted to cut down on wires.
She use to perch when i first got her, I don’t think she trusts her vines no more 
, I believe I would need a CHE, basking bulb and reptile radiator to keep an ambient temp
Don’t use a ceramic heat emitter with Retics, especially for such an active subspecies like Super Dwarfs.
I’ve seen them burn themselves far to many times, and also knock the emitter down due to them climbing on it.
Radiant heat panel is what you would need for an enclosure over 2ft tall. Super Dwarfs like it cool, so don’t go over 86-88 degrees on the hot side and anywhere between 70-76 on the cool side is perfect.
You add to many heat sources you’re going to create an ambient temp that will be just a little to high for what they find to be comfortable.
Now for the size of enclosure that I would recommend, I need the answers to a few questions first.
•How active is she right now in her current enclosure?
•Does she make use of the 2ft height you have in there right now?
•How old is she?
•Does she have a shy demeanor or is she overly defensive?
As @saleengrinch notes, being 3.5ft she is perfectly fine in her current enclosure for awhile longer. You definitely have time before you have to upgrade her, which is good because that leaves you options to order from basically anywhere( some shipping times from certain cage distributors are very long right now) or the option to build one yourself.
I usually agree with this statement, but in all honesty if that’s what we all strived for, none of us should keep snakes as pets. No enclosure is going to be perfect and comparable to them being in the wild no matter the species.
This is true, but the least we can do is give them the ability to climb, even if it is not comparable to a giant tree over a river.
How active is she right now in her current enclosure?
Not very tbh, she might climb here and there but she’s usually just sat on the cool side or in her log
•Does she make use of the 2ft height you have in there right now?
when I’ve had her out and put her back she will climb to the top that’s it
•How old is she?
1year old
•Does she have a shy demeanor or is she overly defensive?
She’s chilled out, does what she want not shy nor defensive, when I open the viv she just thinks it’s feeding time.
With the CHE, not even if I have a cage on it then? As I’m using a CHE now but I’ve always had cages around them, I only ask as I’m alway open to a better way of heating. I learnt the other day about why using basking lights with cages are pretty beneficial for snakes.
Also I’m glad you’ve said about the temps, I have it so the hot side is 30-31 and 26-27 on the cool side at all times
Don’t get me wrong a CHE is a very good way of heating an enclosure, just from my personal experience and experiences of the Retic owners I know, I wouldn’t recommend them. Of course people have housed them using the CHE as their heat source and had no issues with accidents, I myself just wouldn’t risk it. Using one with a cage I think is a good idea, as long as the cage doesn’t get hot to the touch.
Given she’s a year old, and 3.5ft, she doesn’t need the largest enclosure right now. Sure the extra space is nice for them, but as you said she’s not very active right now, and she’s in a reasonably decent sized enclosure for her size at the moment. I would personally wait till she’s about 4-4.5ft before you upgraded her.
That’s good that she has a tame temperament. That will allow you to go as large as you want, Retics that are a little more defensive don’t like the extra room or height in most scenarios.
If it was my Retic, I would wait until she grew another foot or so, especially given she’s not very active.
When it’s time to upgrade her, and you could do it now, definitely up to you and it won’t hurt her at all to have more space, I would go with a 5ft wide 3ft tall 2ft deep. You can go a little larger or smaller it’s really up to you.
Only thing to keep in mind for the larger enclosures is the humidity is harder to keep up around the levels Retics should be kept at, and it’s also harder to heat as you know. And cleaning can turn into a real pain, because I’m sure you experienced they pee pretty much everyday and unless you spot clean( I don’t, I clean everything whenever they pee or poop) it can be a choir everyday to sanitize everything.
Again you have a lot of options and can’t go wrong with upgrading her or leaving her in what she’s in now.
The biggest thing I think Id ask myself tho, especially because it sounds like she’s not as active as some Retics, do you want a lager enclosure or does she need a larger enclosure? She will do just fine in what she is in now, and you don’t want to invest in a large enclosure unless your snake will use the extra space. One of my Retics sounds like your girl, she never moves or explores. Another one of my Retics never stops moving. For the active one I’m going to give her a very large enclosure because she will use it, and for the other one I’ll probably go half the size of the active ones enclosure because she could care less if she has extra room.
And if you’re worried about her getting exercise or enrichment, take her out everyday. That’s the best exercise and stimulation they can get.
Okay , thats great, I’ll leave her in the viv she is in then, I do worry about enrichment and exercise but she lazy, I get her out sometimes and she will find somewhere to perch her head then she will just sit there lol, but other times were she want to see everything. I spot clean but do a full clean out every month. Whilst I have your attention, how do you keep the humidity high? I spray twice a day, I use orchid bark as substrate, but I just can’t seem to master the humidity! I mean it stays pretty high but just not enough, Would coconut husk be better?
For orchid bark you need to submerge and soak it in water for 20 mins probably 2-3 times a week. I keep orchids and I do that once a week, but in a snake cage it would dry out much faster, and soaking it is how to get the water to stay in it overtime, spraying or misting wouldn’t be much help with that kind of substrate.
Coco husk would be much better.
What is you humidity level at on average?
I mist once in the morning and once at night, and keep a very large water bowl in the middle of the enclosure. That’s all I’ve ever needed to keep humidity up and get perfect sheds.
Another great way to offer enrichment is to offer them different prey types.
One week feed a few mice, the other week feed a rat, or a quail, or a very small rabbit, hamster, or guinea pig.
Offering different types of prey is very very enriching for them. Mentally and physically. You will notice they will act different with different prey in them, and your girl might become more active if you switch up the prey.
That explains so much, I’ve been sat in front of the vivs, wondering if soaking the orchid bark would help as it comes in moist, and did wonder wether that was why.
I keep her water bowl underneath the heat lamp to keep some humidity in there. I use to have a hygrometer and it use to say 0% all the time even when I sprayed… even spraying water on it… so gave up with it and need to buy another one, but it must be around 60% as I still get slight condensation on the glass.
That’s great as I feed her rats, multis and chicks, been trying to get hold of quail but no one has young quail. The first time I fed her a chick she was sat staring at it then just bolted at it. Was entertaining to watch her think. Very smart snakes.
With condensation on the glass your humidity should be good. I don’t think I’d worry to much about it. I don’t go above 60-65% during the day, and at night I raise it to 85-100% for about 6 hours. In the wild where Super Dwarfs live, humidity reaches 90-100% many times of the year, so they can handle high humidity levels really well.
If she has had stuck shed in the past after she sheds, try misting the enclosure really well while she is in blue. That should help and give you perfect sheds. Some Retics will shed in pieces too, so don’t be worried if she does that as long as there is no stuck shed you’re good.
I can’t agree more, they are the smartest snakes I’ve kept and worked with, very fun just to sit and watch them figure stuff out and use their brains. Really an interesting experience.
And nice mixing up her prey, not enough people do that and it really helps.
@jai75 originally it said a day but I meant week. Don’t soak it 2-3 times a day, I apologize for the mistype. Do 2-3 times a week.
did think that was loads aha, would mixing if help at all? I’ll probs just use the rest of what I’ve got up and get husk but it’s just thought
I did this, this time, I saw she was blue and sprayed her loads to make sure and this time she shedded in 3 piece I was really happy with it but there’s more room to improve, so I will keep this in mind. That’s madness that, where they live can get to 100%, I couldn’t imagine living that aha.
I’ve heard it helps with there skin, so I had to start doing it!! She’s a machine when it comes to eating😅
Yeah I would just use what you have left then switch to coco if you prefer.
I know right lol, it’s crazy high humidity. When I first started keeping Super Dwarf and Dwarf tics, I checked the weather around South Sulawesi everyday for a year to learn what they experience in their native habitat.
100% right. It helps their scales and skin a lot, very healthy for them.
yeah that’s Retics for ya, crazy food responses and I’ve never had one miss a meal even in shed.