Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was just wondering if anyone could tell me what is the largest male they have ever seen. I know retics get huge ,mostly the females, but my husband is really interested in a male tiger or super tiger retic. He likes the tiger pattern the best and we purposely chose male to have a smaller retic but I am still trying to decide if I need to talk him into a dwarf instead because I really don't want a snake larger than 15'. All I keep seeing is males between 12'-15' and 75-85lbs. Has anyone known there to be males larger than that and how common is it? I don't want to just buy any snake and not feed it to keep it small. I want a healthy animal that I feel comfortable to handle. I also want to mention that I have had snakes (mostly boas) for 5-6 years and I am more than aware of the retics feeding and aggression tendencies. Thanks for anyones help.

About 15 foot is the largest i've seen them as well--- I'm sure as with anything-- there are some honkers out there.

As for the food aggression and general aggression--
Thats what kept me away from retics for about 5 years--- then I couldn't stand it.
We have several now--

They are far more intelligent than most of our snakes (*cough*burms are dorks*cough*)
For instance-- Tonight, we went and got rats-- walked in the door-- went to get the bowl so I could start thumping rats and feeding them off-- came back in and the retic is stationed where the food comes in the cage--
She KNOWS when food's in the room--- She waited there patiently for over 15 minutes-- rat went in and dissapeared.

She is also hook trained- which i wasn't really a believer in, until we got this little girl. When I open the cage, she pops out LOOKING for food--- if i'm going to handle her--- I touch her nose with the hook--- she used to jerk back when i did this-- she doesn't any more. I touch her nose, and then run the hook down her body, and then scoop her up a little-- reach in with my hand an pick her up.
Never bit me or struck at me.

Now-- retics will eat ANYTHING!

We had a big ice storm here in December-- and had no power for 9 days.
We had a generator, but it was only keeping the house at about 60 degrees, and a little lower at nite-- no matter what we did. (we actually lost 3 animals in this storm, and spent about 4K at the vet fixing the rest of them).
I had fed all the snakes 2 or 3 days before the power went off--- one of the retics regurged (several snakes did) -- then immediatly struck, wrapped it up, and tried to eat it--- I had to pick up the snake and shake the 1/2 digested rat loose from the snakes mouth and throw it away-- it was HORRIBLE. And 2 weeks after the power was back on--- ate perfectly- and we haven't looked back since. They will eat ANYTHING.

anyway--
I think if you get a male-- you will be ok with the size. Just be prepared to get one of those honker huge snakes-- just in case.

Beth
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The rescue site: www.freewebs.com/okreptilerescue

Again, I do not agree with everything you say Beth. But thats what makes the world go round, we are all differnt. Burms being dorks, I have to stop you their. I have some very smart burms here with me. I had a burm that I rescued afew years ago that was not all their. Once I had him put down and checked out he had a lot of health problems that I did not know about so with that in saying the health problems made him that way. I have some healthy and very smart burms and they are not " dorks ". I could go on about another few things you said but just this one is enough. Please don't get all huffy and puffy again about my comments to you. But if you must I guess go ahead because I can always use a laugh from you. Just remeber, you made the comment.
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Education is Everything.......

like you said-- its what makes the world go round.

I have 2 here that are pretty silly sometimes.
I wasn't calling them stupid or worthless.
I think you read a bit too much into the comment.

We had one of our girls outside about 2 weeks ago, she was cruising along and a june bug plopped on her head-- she started shaking her head around trying to get it off and the bug flew up, and would come right back down and plop on her head-- she flipped her head around one time to many and whacked the tree. -- the bug left.

It was funny--- and thats my example of a burm being a little dorky.
It's hard to explain--- something about a 14 foot burm "fighting" with a june bug and knocking herself silly on the tree....

They are intelligent-- i didn't say they were pea brained retarded stupid moron snakes..... i said they were dorky ....

sorry if I offended--- I was sharing an experience i've had, and something i've noticed between burms and retics.
I do feel that there is a difference between them-- be it brains, intelligence, or curiosity.
I also think that burms are a little more cautious I suppose, while exploring-- while retics seem to just plow on through....

make sense?

B
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The rescue site: www.freewebs.com/okreptilerescue

I read what your comment said. I replied to what your comment stated. Does that make sense ?? Like I said, your comments make me laugh at times.
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Education is Everything.......

this is the retic forum and burms are dorky here LOL...

for the record my burms never repeatedly push their faces into the enclosure like retic's sometimes do...they are more of a sit and wait predator then retic's. Retic's seem more alert because they use both sit and wait and active foraging to get their food more so then what seems to be a "lazy" Burmese, one just seems smarter then the other and both can be dorky at times.

My burms "lazy" just sits their looking stupid all the time.

Well try not using that hook and see how lazy and stupid he proves you to be!!!!

Burms are Dorky BTW. (lol)

Well if you like retic's better that is.

>>I read what your comment said. I replied to what your comment stated. Does that make sense ?? Like I said, your comments make me laugh at times.
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>>Education is Everything.......

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Roberts Realm Of Reptile Research
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Thanks,

I opened my mouth and out flowed a melody black.