Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently aquired a large pair of Tiger Retic's 100% het albino, they were sold to me as a tame manageable pair. The male is true to discription puppy dog tame, I was told that morning the female was a little grumpy but she has never struck and I should have no problem, Well I gave her the bennefit of the doubt it it came back to bite me litteraly. I gently tried to pick her up and place her in her vision and she came at me mouth wide open. I figured she was angry from the move so I gave her a few days to calm down and went to see how she was doing and she proceeded to strike to glass. I gave her a few more days and had to clean her cage so I took precautions and started to remove her and she was acting alot better so I removed her all the way from the tank everything was going great until I felt her body tense up and before I could say anything out loud she had my left hand in her mouth. Lucky for me I have alot of experience with large snakes and I was able to control the situation and I also never take a large snake out without another person. Anyway four torn veins and multiple lacerations I have ruled her untame at least for the time being. Any thoughts on her mood switch? I know she is a retic and I have had many but I have never seen this extream change before. Thanks
Erick Markstaller
Exotic Designs

Man, I've known a few unpredictable retics in my time. Used to be more common when there were more wild caughts around. But it happens with captive breds too.

Brad Chambers

I know what your talking about It's just that I've never seen it this bad before, I have had well over 20 or 30 and has never seen a change this severe in such a short time. Either I'm not getting the whole truth about her original behavior or she is just in a big PMS mood. lol Thanks Erick

I have a 2 year old male Bali y.h. that I've had since a few months after cb hatching. He had never struck. But a few months ago I moved him into a larger cage. A day or two later he was very defensive and would strike out at the glass when I walked by. Or at the hook when it came into the cage. Really pissy looking too. Well, within a couple of weeks he calmed back down and returned to his normal self.

I'd have to say that the Bali's extreme change of behavior was directly related to the new cage, until he got used to it. Maybe that's the situation with your animal. Give it a few weeks and see.

B.

Hopefully your right but the behavior started at the previous owners facility in its own enclosure. The only other thing I am thinking is that the pair was put together in january thru febuary for breeding, Nothing was seen as far as breeding goes so it was left at that, Maybe they bred and she retained good sperm and went thru a very late ovulation. She has packed on some serious weight in the past few weeks. Any thoughts? Thanks Erick