Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone,

I just got my baby super tiger today and she is doing great. She is doing just fine. I held her once with gloves and she didnt snap at me. I wanted to thank Sarge for all his information he sent me as it is extremely helpful in raising a tic successfully. Hopefully the baby will be very calm. She did strike at the glass, but i think it was because i was crumpling up a plastic bag next to the tank and it startled her, but only time will tell.

Sarge if you have any other info you would like to share with me I would certainly appreciate it. My tong and hemostat are being shipped to me. Sarge Im assuming its normal for a tic to once in a while strike thats why its important to take every precaution possible. Just because she struck doesnt mean shes gonna be nasty and even if she doesnt strike doesnt mean that she wont strike in the future. I apologize for sounding so inexperienced with retics. I am so used to handling monitors and knowing they are in a bad mood cuz they will puff and hiss and use their tail first before biting. Of coure retics might puff and hiss, but they might not and just strike.

Sarge i think its time to find you a publisher so you can get a book out there LOL I would buy it!

I saw this post and wanted to add afew things. Jud is a great person to do bussiness with I purchased a pair of supers from him and they are doing great! I also purchased a dwarf tiger and a green anaconda last night. All of these animals are perfect. Also as far as leather gloves and tongs for a retic is alittle overkill. A baby retic bite feels like a pin prick and if you always wear those gloves they will not be used to human hands. When you get the courage to hold it with your bare hands the snake may want to bite because he/she has never felt the touch of a warm human hand. And the tongs I would strongly oppose the use of them. They are more for handling venomous snakes and even with them I try not to use tongs. In your case a baby retic is very fragile and if you squeeze him to tight with the tongs you will end up with a snake with broken ribs, or spine or even worse death. Every retic I own and have owned all have a strong feeding responce. When I open the cage they come at the door wanting food, so you can't assume they are mean killers. I simply touch and I mean light touch with a hook and they realize it is me and not food and I can go ahead and reach in with bare hands and proceed to remove them from there cage. I hope you are ready for the king of snakes they are not for everyone and get big. If you are always scared they will sence your fear and you will never have a good expirence with a retic. Maybe a ball python or boa would be a more suiting pet.

Not wanting to start a fight just my 2 cents

Thanks DREW

My pair of jud supers.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated. I was gonna use the tongs not for holding, but just for touching the snake instead of the hook. I had Columbian redtails and just wanted a snake that is gonna get big. When i first started out with Nile monitors I was a bit nervous as well. I was also 14 at the time. I raised two Ornate Niles successfully and both were dog tame. I wll get over the nervousness. Thats just me. That will go away with time as I get used to the retic. When I used to work in a petstore I been bitten many times by snakes, i.e in the ear by a baby indian rock python. Its just been a long time since i have been bitten so the sense of it has gone away. I should just let her bite me if she does. For babies its the strike that is scarier then the bite, of course that doesnt apply to adults. I will learn with time and do as much research as possible to be successful in taming the python.