that retic forum and stick to the Rainbow and Boa forums lol. Those tigers are absolutely stunning and to see one in person and see the amount of irredescence is just breathtaking. I saw some of the comments on the retic forum about feeding and it is very common to have a 6-9 month tiger at 7 feet or so but I have a friend that breeds them and the ones he keeps and does not plan to breed simply aren't fed as often. For instance he has a 2 year old male that is only 6 feet (maybe a couple inches past) and the girth is nothing, my '05 columbian at 40 inches has more girth this his male. He is not underfed and is very healthy. Feeding time they can be aggressive but simply don't take them out a couple days after feeding and feed in the enclosure to avoid any mishaps and a snake hook is a must but you should have one already and if you don't they are very handy and will teach them the difference from coming out the cage to play or when the cage is opening for feeding time. I watched my fried feed his 12 foot females (2 of them) f/t pigs and their feeding response was nothing special, meaning when the cage opened they knew they were getting fed cuz they could smell it defrosting in the room and was simply controlled by pushing (gently) their head back in with the snake hook and even after the food was in their enclosure they rubbed themselves for several minutes on the prey item instead of striking real hard and fast like you would imagine. A lot of this has to do with they have been eating f/t their whole life and live prey is a total different story, that is prolly where things can go wrong and obviously scars that we can't remove so why do it. Always put the prey item at the tail end I would imagine so no strikes are headed in your direction either I believe. Also his snakes pretty much go straight to swallowing rather than constricting the prey (not heated up real hot though. Sorry this got long but I do plan on picking up a retic in a couple years from my friend for free but I think I would rather get a lavender albino (not for free or maybe both) but the tigers speak for themselves though. Nice chatting with you Russ and take care.

Bob

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