Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was talking to my across the street neighbor who has like 30 reptiles, not just snakes, but including burmese, retic, dumerils, redtails and I don't know what else!

Anyway, she has know that I have quite a few corn snakes and had mentioned that I wanted to get 1 larger snake at the Daytona Beach Expo, but nothing that one person could not handle when it was grown. I was leaning towards a redtail or dumerils. Of course my son wants the giants, but I am not ready for that.

Anyway, she has rescued some of these animals and is out of room in her apartment and has given me a full grown redtail female, a pair of 3 ft dumerils and a dwarf retic, i think about 6 ft so far. Well, now my son has his retic, but hopefully it stays under 15 ft!

Up until tonight, the largest snake we have had is a ball python. I guess I can say they are re-rescued,lol.

Any tips, beyond common knowledge? Have already warned my son about letting them exercise only in certain closed rooms and only completey supervised. Don't want to lose a cat or something!

Sorry for the long post, and thanks for your input. I am excited but also cautious.
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1.2 Ghost Corns, Beetlejuice, Casper and Spooky
1.1 Charcoal het pewter, Smokey and Flame
1.1 Hypo het lavender, Rosy and Rocko
1.0 Anery, Goku
0.1 Amel, Sunny
2.0 Tabby Cats, Daddycat and his son Brat
0.1 Australian Shepherd, Angel

Gypsy

If I were you Ild keep the Dumerils and the redtail and ditch the retic until you've had more experience with larger constrictors. Buying one for your son because he wants one doesnt make a whole lot of sense to me. No offense or anything, please dont take it that way. Simply since both of your experiences are with smaller animals. Even a Dwarf can get very large and its not really safe to handle anything over 9-10' with a single person, and even then you should have some experience in doing so. A 9' constrictor can lay you open and send you to the hospital for many stiches with one single defensive bite, and if they try to constrict ... thats a situation that is likely to hold serious consequences, much more so then you might currently understand. Great animals, but they need to be respected.

My vote would be ditch the dwarf retic until your son is older and you both have more experience, for now... enjoy the boas!

Welcome aboard!

I would keep them in locked cages or a locked room if possible.
jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

Thanks for the reply. Very good advice. My son and I do have experience handling the larger snakes, we have just never owned one. He is grown and going to move out soon and had full plans of getting a retic or burmese. This way he has his retic, but not an actual "giant."

He is a very responsible young man and is very respectful of the animals. We have agreed on some very simple rules. The red tail is approx 8 ft and prob 60 or 70 lbs and the retic is 7 ft prob about 20 or 30 lbs. These two are not to be handled alone, they are not to be taken out when there are children around unless we are both there. Both snakes are quite docile, but they are still unpredictable creatures. We do play on the safe side.

The pair of Dumerils is absolutely stunning. I have pictures but am unable to post pics using this computer.
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1.2 Ghost Corns, Beetlejuice, Casper and Spooky
1.1 Charcoal het pewter, Smokey and Flame
1.1 Hypo het lavender, Rosy and Rocko (RIP Rosy)
1.0 Anery, Goku
0.1 Amel, Sunny
2.0 Tabby Cats, Daddycat and his son Brat
0.1 Australian Shepherd, Angel (RIP Angel)
0.1 Blizzard Corn
0.1 Snow Corn
1 Ball Python
1 WC Yellow Rat
2 WC Normal Corns
1.1 Dumerils Boas
0.1 Redtail Boa
1.0 Dwarf Reticulated Pyton

Gypsy

How the crap did you get 60 lbs on a red tail....

wow.... thats.... wow... er... wow...

Please don't "ditch the retic" --- AAAARRRRRUUUUGGGGHHHHH Just that sentence makes me want to bash my face into the wall.

We just got 3 retics and 2 burms in--- the retics are about 7 foot... very handleable but HUNGRY.... the burms are about 4 foot....
"I didn't realize they would get big so fast" .... what were you going to do with them when they were big anyway? .... "I was just going to start over with smaller ones..."

ppl. don't need big snakes- and PLEASE don't "ditch" the animal... Do A LOT of research for yourself-- you've already started by asking here- there are books, there are websites... be a sponge- absorb all you can....

Good luck

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

Don't worry, I would never "ditch" an animal. We are in this for the love of the animals. The retic is a dwarf retic and we have some experience and people right across the street with lots of experience, plus our reptile shop is always helpful.

I'm not sure of the weight on the redtail, but I don't think that is exagerated, considering I've been toting around 50lb bags of rat feed I'm familiar with the weight, lol. She was way overweight when my friend ended up with her and she has been slowling working on her weight. Now I will work on her weight and have more room to let her get exercised frequently. Any other suggestions for getting her weight under control are definitely welcome. I of course don't want her to be hungry she is uncomfortable or aggressive.

Thanks for your help.
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1.2 Ghost Corns, Beetlejuice, Casper and Spooky
1.1 Charcoal het pewter, Smokey and Flame
1.1 Hypo het lavender, Rosy and Rocko (RIP Rosy)
1.0 Anery, Goku
0.1 Amel, Sunny
2.0 Tabby Cats, Daddycat and his son Brat
0.1 Australian Shepherd, Angel (RIP Angel)
0.1 Blizzard Corn
0.1 Snow Corn
1 Ball Python
1 WC Yellow Rat
2 WC Normal Corns
1.1 Dumerils Boas
0.1 Redtail Boa
1.0 Dwarf Reticulated Pyton

Gypsy

lol-- I rarely get 'fat' snakes thru the rescue... and rarely see them at our "exotic shops" ...

As for the weight thing... just slow and steady... I have one that gets nasty if she's hungry so we feed her to avoid stitches.... but a lot of times, we just leave her in her cage to be nasty until feeding day...
We're 3 days away from feeding day... and she was pissy yesterday- watched me move around the room all nite... and tonight... she's ready but has to wait for the rest of the gang to have thier food too...

Good luck with the dwarf --- i've never had dwarf anything here... I don't think you'll have a problem, so long as your set up is good and it gets fed properly-- should be ok.

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