Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone!

I, and especially my boyfriend, love retics. EVENTUALLY we want to own one (or 2 or 5... ) but understand what a HUGE responsibility they are. We are not in a situation to own one yet, and probably won't be for a few more years. We currently own balls, so we do have some experience with snakes.

My question is, aside from reading absolutely everything we can find on retics, what would you all say would best prepare the 1st time retic owner? Any good books you know of?

I'm thinking of keeping an intermediate sized snake, to get a feel for keeping larger snakes. We both love the look of carpets, and I'm a fan of Dumerils.

All HONEST advice is greatly appreciated. I read the similar post below and it's unfortunate how he obviously didn't care what experienced keepers had to say.

Thanks,

Allison

I'd say to try to snake sit one for a period of time. Really, a couple of weeks of working with a big one is an eye opener. It's what I did and it tought me a lot. Obviously I've learned more keeping my own but hey, it's a start. There's probably someone in your area that has big boys--if there's a herp club in your city it's a good place to start.

as far as keeping a mid to large sized snake yourself...I don't know how valuable that is honestly. I mean, it's a whole different game handling something 20' (or even 15') as compared to an 8' snake (speaking from experience). If you want to go that route, yeah some carpets are good...you might even look at some large colubrids--tiger ratsnakes maybe? They're also active, can be tempramental, etc. They can hit reasonable sizes of like 7' or so...

owning a retic is a whole different experience, than a ball, a boa, a burm, even condas or rock. however, its not the "advice of choice", but, my first 3 snakes i owned, back in the day, were retics. 2 hatchlings and an adult. i look at it like when i started veterinary medicine, you can read about them and peridically handle them until you are blue in the face, but when you just dive right in, thats where the true learning comes. retics are pretty similar as other boid as far as basic husbandry needs. where they differ, is they are far more alert than most other snakes and have pretty incredible feeding responses. must do's for owning, ideally get a cbb hatchling. handle it frequently. feed inside cage and hook train. when they get around 6 feet and bigger, handle with at least one other person, and have a bite/constricting deterent (for example i have at least my wife around, a knife within reach and rubbing alcohol). realize their size, easily 15ft plus. realize their enclosure size requirments, at least a 6ft x 3ft enclosure. most importantly, realize that they will be needing rabbits, and depending on what their adult size is (usually by about 3 years old), alot of times multiple rabbits, can get expensive.
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retic is king of kings

1.0 Tiger Retic
1.0 Albino Tiger Retic
0.1 Striped Tiger Retic (het albino)
0.1 Salmon Boa
1.0 Albino Boa
0.1 False Water Cobra

Thanks a lot for the input!

We've handled some of the bigger (10-12ft) ones before but never thought of 'snake sitting'. Will have to see if anyone nearby has a larger one. I know they're not allowed in city limits where we are right now so it may take some looking around. nearest herp club is about 70 mi away.

We would only consider buying cbb hatchlings. And neither of us want to become just another bad press headline for snakes, always get help with 6ft or more, have rubbing alcohol nearby, and don't be dumb and reach in smelling like food.

Resources in general (time, money, space) are the reason we are holding off on getting one. Still have to finish school and get our own place before we'd consider it.

Again, thanks so much for your advice.

Allison