Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just tips on getting two retics *(both babies this year) on the housing, i have a big cage already and i have some freedom breeder racks, while they are young which is more beneficial and can i without problems keep the two together *male and female..... I am having an outbuilding built to house a room sized cage for them later this year but for now while they are young i was hoping for some ideas... thanks
-----
17 BP
1 GTP
3 Chameleons
6 Beardies
1 Crested
2 Huskies
1 blue and gold macaw
1 african grey
1 patternless albino Burmese
1 axanthic savannah monitor ("Spike"
= Busy House

Sounds like you have housing under control. Most of the info I have is from breeders; I've only kept my one retic for about a year to date. As for mixing a male and a female that should be no problem, especially before sexual maturation. The only time my retic bit me was after I handled another male and didn't wash between (as many times as I've been warned: I wasn't thinking and mine isn't sexually mature.) When I've seen mature males put into mature females cages the female quickly emptied some of her cloaca and waved her tail about; my guess (and the breeders) is that the female doesn't want to be mistaken for a male.

I started mine in a Jumbo Reptile Keeper (TOM/Oscar) for a very short bit, then switched him to a 322 Vision (36" W x 23" D x 21" H.) I just got in his 632 Vision (72" W x 36" D x 18" H) he'll go in this weekend.

I bought him from NERD at Daytona last year; he measures in between seven and eight feet. I have over a dozen other boids and I've never seen a snake grow like this, or with such a voracious appetite! I'm happy I got into Retics- great personalities. He'll follow me around the house and watch what I'm doing (he and my dog, always supervised, ignore one another. My dog grew up with reptiles running around the house.) I'll be getting a female super tiger soon. I've worked with the females at demos. Awe inspiring. And I saw one of Prehistoric's tiger females. The morph was even more impressive for me.

I'm sure some of the long time retic keepers have a bunch of great advice for you as well.

Cheers!

I house my male super tiger and my female selayers together, although some people will tell you not to I havn't had any problems with the two, and before I housed two RTB together with no problems. But its not un-know for snakes to eat eachother in desperation. just dont feed them together thats a no no

The last sentence says it all...Do not feed them together. Well then this leads to another highly debatable subject. If you house together then you MUST feed outside of the enclosure. I strongly disagree with this practice. I used to house multiple snakes in the same cage and used to feed in out of its enclosure. This leads to several bad situations that could become dangerous. First off, a retic is a crazy hunter and will stay in feeding mode for a long time. Longer then any other snake I have ever experienced. Once the snake is fed you have to get the snake back into its own enclosure. Even an hour or two later, if the snake is still in feding mode it may easily misinterpret you, or your hand, for its next prey item and strike and wrap you. Now you have a situation on your hands. Not only the danger but moving a snake after a meal can cause some stress to an animal and may cause it to regurge. That is not pretty or fun to clean up. The next and last point is that even after consumtion and getting settled back into "their" cage, they will still have the scent of the prey item on their body. I have had one snake attack another because of this. It is a hairy situation having to reach in and try to seperate two large pythons that are wrapped up on each other. This all being said, I strongly encourage you to seperate them(except for breeding) and feeding them in their own, seperate enclosures. Sorry this is so long, Todd

hey guys thank you very much.... i just recieved my two baby tics... a purple abino female and a lavender albino tiger so we are excited. For now they are seperated in a freedom breeder rack the biggest ball python ones.... and shortly i'll have to figure something out where i can house them seperately so the feeding issues are resolved (for when they get bigger). So thanks again guys i would love to show some pics of the reptile room and the animals but i don't know how to do it so i'll just enjoy y'alls pics.
thanks burnzie
-----
17 BP
1 GTP
3 Chameleons
6 Beardies
1 Crested
2 Huskies
1 blue and gold macaw
1 african grey
1 patternless albino Burmese
1 axanthic savannah monitor ("Spike"
= Busy House