Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a buddy that has his retics sexualy mature by 12 months, I dont have retics but was thinking about getting some, what feeding regimine do you recomend and your thoughts on power feeding

I'm sorry but I do not buy that one bit. As I see it no matter what you shove down a females neck it is not going to breed at 12 months of age. Even 24 month would be hard to believe. Possible, maybe but highly unlikely. Three years of age seems to be the magical mark that most are ready regardless of how much food they consume. Some will take even longer.

Jim

Jim,
What's the largest size you've seen on a retic in one year?
Thanks

I have heard of retics hitting 12 foot in a year, but for me right around 10 feet is what I have witnessed. It takes more then size for a retic to become mature. With females in takes a few years. This is coming from what I have read or what I have heard from very respectable breeders and friends.

Jim

Burmese females will break 10 feet in a year and specific locale retic females can get 11 to 12 in a year if heavily pushed. However, these females are no where near reproductive maturity and when bred early as in the second or third year, the chances of reproductive disorders and health issues is extremely high with these females.

Kelly

Ok- I've always, always heard that the "giants" can reach 10 foot in a year.... but I've never seen it....
I've got a small retic thats going on 2 years and is just now about 9 foot.
I don't power feed but if she's hungry- i feed her....

How often do you have to feed a retic to get one up to 10 foot in a year?!

and at 12 months old... my little girl was like.. 5-6 foot.... and WAY not big enough to breed...

interesting thoughts...

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

I believe I've read here before that some people on the forum like to feed 1/4 of body weight of the snake every four days or so, for the first year and a half.

I've never understood the point of power feeding. The result is often a fat, pinheaded, unhealthy animal. Some breeders do this to "maximize" their profits, and to be the first to produce that EXCITING NEW MORPH. I find it slightly unethical, but that's just me.

Males can typically breed around 1 year of age. I have heard of males breeding at 10 months when pushed very hard. I recently bought a trio of '06 het stripe retics. The breeder told me they were maintenance (sp) fed and with a lot of feeding they can breed in early '09. They have pretty much been on an every other day feeding schedule and are doing fine. Good body tone shed and defecate regularly. There shouldn't be a problem as long as the snake is healthy. I sometimes have mine just flat refuse to eat. When this happens I will cut back on their feeding schedule. They have extremely high metabolisms and even on the heavy diet the bulge from the rat is gone by the next feeding time.

Scott Austin

It all depends on temperature and metabolism. If given a basking spot at 130 degrees the animal can process what it takes in quick and efficiently and can be fed every other day without becoming obese. In that sense, there is no such thing as power feeding. However, most people give their snakes low basking temperatures which doesn't allow for the effiecient uptake of food items, which leads to obesity and the flat tire look. I've been giving my snakes high basking spots for years and have had nothing but great success doing so. Most commercial caging does not allow for this, so the "Power Feeding" myth will keep perpetuating itself untill keepers start realizing that these animals use temperatures in excess of 120 degrees to bask and metabolize at.
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South Central Herpetological

How do you procide that kind of basking spots in your cages? Do you have pictures?