Reptile & Amphibian Forums

You hear about kings sometimes going and eating their mate...

well I just got to wrestle apart a pair of reticulated pythons where the (12-14') female was trying to eat the male (8 or so). I'd put them together following a few showers and thunderstorms--figured it'd be a good time since that seems to trigger courting.

Well holy &^%#$#. He did the courting thing, I go to grab a coke and I hear this huge noise coming from my snake room...go in, she's got two parts of his body in her mouth and is coiling him, he's trying to flee...I put on gloves to try to pull her off him, find out the hard way those teeth WILL get through welding gloves (not with too much to spare--you can't really see the marks), douse her head with rubbing alcohol, the first maybe 1/2 her body falls out of the cage (which is the 3rd cage up on a stack) still coiling him, finally lets go, I grab the first 1/3 of his body and get him pointed just barely into his cage, look down and she's about to go for him again.

Grab the shovel I use to scoop her poop and lift the first 1/4 of so of her body off the ground, so she misses, shovel is slammed out of my hand, she's on the ground hissing and striking. Starts to go between the stand the cages are on. I pull her out and have to jump back to avoid a leg/groin strike, she starts to go under the rack and I grab her head. At this point the rest of her body falls out of the cages and I lose my balance. My wife is in the corner of the snake room (I'd told her to stay there to play it safe), at this point she rushes forward and grabs the rear 1/2 of Citrus (brave wife) and we get her back in. As I'm closing the door she gives one last strike right at face level.

The male at this point is in the corner of his cage as far away from Citrus as he can get basically. There's definitely blood visible. I'm going to see how he's doing tommorrow and take him to the vet if it looks like he needs it.

I'd heard of kings doing that but not retics. Freaked me right the hell out. And I've had to seperate kings once, and that was easy. Doing it to snakes with a combined weight of >70 lbs is waaaay harder.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.

Got to bond them. Ask Rainer how to do it. Lol.
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Gerard
www.livebaitclip.com

GONE FISHING!!!

I've actually had some success with that with my Florida kings. I'm not going to even try it with retics, just for the sake of MY well being. Feeding time with 2 large pythons in a cage is just asking to get yourself hurt.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.

So they are not getting along?

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www.Bluerosy.com

nananananananannana-i can't hear you!-nananananananana!

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WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so glad that things were brought under control, and I do hope the male is ok.

Talk about a date going bad! LOL!!
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Genesis 1:1

Seriously, it was probably a feeding response. Retics get that a lot and your situation has happened a couple times to me.
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Gerard
www.livebaitclip.com

GONE FISHING!!!

Wow! Glad you got away relatively unscathed. That could have ended a lot worse. I've witnessed someone getting nailed by a big retic before and it was no fun!

(P.S. Your wife is brave.)

--Dennis

hahah yes she is.

I've actually been nailed by that female once or twice. Hurts like hell.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.

That's why I will stick with colubrids and rubber boas! Interesting story!
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Kent

1.1 Hypo (het lavender, striped) corn snakes, 2010
1.2 Gray-banded king snakes, blairs phase, 2008
0.0.18 Gray-banded king snakes, 2011
1.1 Oregon rubber boas, w/c 2000 and something

Colossians 3:17

Good thing you had your wife there to help. My friend John has retics, and when he does anything with them always has an assistant near.

An Eastern Indigo male that had a bad experience with his mate. He did recover, but it was a close thing.
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

Maannnnnnn! Those indigos are absolute destroyers!

*Chomp* *rip* *clamp* *bend* *tear*
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www.Bluerosy.com

nananananananannana-i can't hear you!-nananananananana!

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No Sh*t Sherlock! The poor fellow almost had his neck chewed a third off! The owner was watching them, too, but she did all this damage in seconds.
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

HOLY CRAP!,........poor thing!..

How long ago did this happen?. I sure hope it was able to make a full and complete recovery from that ordeal...wow!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

and here i am thinking everyone is working with dwarf retics now, hahaha...

i can have some empathy, having been in the middle of two big black pines going at it a number of times. not the same scale though.

i remember the barkers' article in one of the magazines where they showed a little nip dave got from a retic. i will opt for the barbed wire treatment instead because i can control that better ...(?)
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odelay odelay odelay hee hoooo...
heeeeya huhhhh!
~Back in the saddle (Aerosmith)

Been there, had that happen. I have a 40 yr old polaroid of FR and I holding one of my Pythons, a 12' female Retic. I also have a forty year old scar from that critter. Getting tagged by a big Python puts bites in perspective!!!!

".. the shovel I use to scoop their poop.." lol, big snakes.

Glad you and him are OK. Wow. With retics is it feeding or pure aggression?
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Mark

Feeding. Citrus, the girl in question, actually *isn't* that aggressive most of the time. But if she thinks there's food somewhere in this state, she thinks it belongs to her.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.