Reptile & Amphibian Forums

in your collections, and the amount of animals being kept ?? and do you use fresh food or frozen??

1.1 yellowheads (adult)- parents of "Howe" yellowhead line
1.1 "Howe" yellowheads (sub'adult)
1.1 Bali yellowheads (ad)
1.1 Bali yellowheads (cbb offspr)
1.1 Sulawesi yellowheads (cntrl Sulawesi) (WC-LTC adults)
1.1 Makasar (S.Sulawesi) (WC sub'adult)
0.1 Silverhead (sub'ad)

I feed whatever is handy at the time. Usually I get a large order of live locally, feed what I can then freeze the rest.
Notah

We currently have a very nice collection of Retics. Can't get enough of these great,intelligent animals!
Here's what we currently keep:
1.0 Genetic Stripe,4'
1.0 Lavender Albino,13'
1.0 Super Tiger,8'
0.1 Purple phase Albino,12'
0.1 Super Tiger,13'
0.1 Super Tiger,8'
0.1 Tiger (classic pattern),19'
0.1 Calico,ltc about 5 yrs.,15'
and as far as locale specific animals,we are working with:
1.1 Balis
1.1 Makasars
0.1 Selayar
0.1 Jampea,cb,2.5'
3.3 Romang

-most are fed frozen as fortunately we have a good source for 'big' fresh,frozen rabbits locally...
Also, fairly new to the forum here, look forward to posting in the future and meeting fellow 'retic lovers'...

I currently keep:

1.0 dwarf yellow-head 66% possible het-albino - 3'
1.0 normal retic - 13'
0.1 normal retic - 8'
0.1 tiger retic - 9'

NP

Let's just say that I keep a fair number of tics . I usually always feed freshly killed, but a few times a year I am forced to deplete frozen reserves in my three freezers that are kept for just such shortages. I usually have about 150 frozen rabbits on hand. They never remain in the freezer for longer than 3 or 4 months and I date the bags and use oldest first.

>>in your collections, and the amount of animals being kept ?? and do you use fresh food or frozen??
-----
Human "progress" equates to nature's demise.

Hey Did you get my e-mail

with all your retic keepers and I'm sure there's a ton of lerkers..... But heck we should share- I'm an underdog for sure....
They are addictive, their beauty is second to none... I feel.
Hopefully we will all have success and maybe we can trade and barter to get some new additions. LOL
The food thig is really important - I really believe in fresh!!! I know that there is a really big frozen food industry available. But really feeding fresh and being successful breeders go hand in hand. Don't you feel? Problem feeders are nonexistant......90% of the time. Nothing like a ball python going off food...LOL Big investment - no eating- that's the worst. Can someone tell me otherwise!! I love underdogs- Go Marlins....

Tibor-
Why do you say that feeding fresh food and being successful breeders goes hand in hand? I will agree that many successful breeders feed their animals freshly killed, but I think many times this is a matter of coincidence, not the secret behind their success. Many large-scale breeders probably find it cheaper (maybe easier too) to raise their own food rather than to buy it from others. Thus, many successful breeders will have fed their animals fresh, not frozen.
To say that the snakes have higher reproductive output with fresh food would imply that freezing their food would somehow lower nutritional value of the meal. I think it is improbable that many nutrients would "leave" upon freezing. I am also under the impression that many proteins will denature under high temperatures, not low temps. Many biologists will deep freeze tissue samples and other material for the single purpose of later recovery of relevant data (wouldn't be very useful if all molecular structures fell apart).
I have had the displeasure of looking at the insides and muscles of many frozen rats and can assure you, they are all very well intact (not broken down from the feezing process).
I am by no means an expert in this subject nor am I trying to get anyone fired up, I just don't think that there is any way that feeding fresh food would be any more beneficial to a breeding program than frozen. If anyone has some good data on the destruction of tissues upon freezing or the lowering of nutritional value with freezing, feel free to correct me.
Oh, and I currently have 0.1 normal, 0.1 albio, and 1.1 tiger hets. And I feed frozen
~Brian Ott

Hi, and thanks for the post!! No argument on frozen matter,all I'm saying is live food is better accepted and more willingly taken then a thawed animal and juveniles are less likely to refuse a meal.One thing for sure the conveince of keeping live is most likely the reason most use frozen..

I keep:

3.2 Kayuadi dwarf retics (all approx. 6ft)

1.1 02'Het for albino tigers, both in the 9-10ft range. (one from Bob Clark and one Mike Wilbanks)

0.1 02' White phase albino retic (BC stock)

1.0 9ft Super tiger

0.1 16ft tiger, proven

0.1 WC, LTC Vietnamese retic, proven

i also have 44 hatchling retics, tigers and normals.

I feed live because i monitor the feeding and thats what i have redily available.

Currently keep 1.2 bali's. Male is 10.4ft and my females are 5ft and just over 6ft. I love yellow heads and bali's are the only ones that stay a managable size . Although the feeding response gets the best of them inside their cage once taken out I have nothing but sweethearts! I love retics! Saving for daytona next yr will i'll be picking up lots of dwarfs and some more bali's!
John
P.S. I use both frozen and f/k.

1.0 Dwarf Tiger
0.1 Superdwarf/Jampea
1.1 Jampea

I feed frozen or fresh killed.

Jeff