Posted by:
eunectes4
at Wed Mar 23 08:38:00 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by eunectes4 ]
I really wanted to refrain from making this post. If you will be 21 in September then I am not much older than you and I do have members in my herpetological society about your age who do keep and have kept retics. As rare as it is to find a 14' boa constrictor it is rare you find someone of this age who is actually ready and knowledgebable enough to keep retics and burms. There is actually only one member of my group who does this and I do agree he knows what he is doing. However, while all his snakes are locked up and in a separate room, his life is very unstable and it makes it very difficult. Please remember this will be the case for you. I noticed you mentioned "cost is not a problem" and I don't mean to pry but why is this? It is not common to find someone of your age who is in such an excellent financial situation. Anyway, I would be a hypocrit if I were to say you are certainly not ready for this snake as I got into anacondas when I was only a bit younger than you actually. I can also say from experience you need to be different than the rest of your peers. I am willing to bet I know more about anacondas than nearly anyone in my state. There was actually a high school biology teacher nearby where I live who published a book on anacondas and I would love to speak with him. I can tell you I used to spend spring breaks in Cancun right up until I began working with anacondas (it never happened since). It changes your life and you cannot live like a normal person your age. Getting to the point, if you feel you fit this category I can tell you reticulated pythons do seem to be highly more alert. They are very active and you should not be fooled by misconceptions about them being slimmer bodied snakes. While slightly slimmer than burmese pythons they carry equal or more strength since many burmese pythons you see are thick from obesity more than anything. They are also not as slim as people might lead you to believe. They move a lot and they will keep you on your toes. A friend of similar or greater experience is a must when dealing with one. I have kept retics but if you would like to e-mail me I can give you contact information to a kid in my organization who has kept many more. I would trust what he knows about retics more than 90% of the people on these forums. If Rob Carmichael has contacted you, I would also treat his words as gold. Dealing with these animals is not something to take lightly.
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Burm or Male Retic 6lk... - eunectes4, Wed Mar 23 08:38:00 2005