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Just how aggressive is a full grown Tiger Retic? Would I have to take it by the head ever time I wanted to clean the cage or take it out to feed? I have not dealt with big snakes before, but you have to start somewhere, sometime. What am I in for?

While there are exceptions to every rule, tigers tend to be pretty laid back as far as retics go. My big male tiger was as gentle as they come and the several large tigers I've have handled were as well. Best thing to do is get them young and spend the time with them. That way you are used to each other by the time he becomes a big snake.

Some hints for working with big snakes....

No matter how much you "trust" a giant, NEVER work with them alone. Sh1t happens and you don't want to be by yourself when it does.

"Hook train" them as babies. This is done by using a snake hook to remove them from the cage for cleaning and handling. Avoid any use of the hook when feeding and feed the snake in its cage. When the snake gets to big to remove from the cage with a hook, a slight rub on the head from the hook will signal handling or cleaning.

Excellent advice from Reticfan!!!!!!! Especially the hook conditioning.

Retics are awesome, wonderful animals. The king of serpents, to be respected and never tanken for granted. What exactly is your snake experience? Retics are for advanced keepoers. They are intelligent and fast moving. Housing, feeding, and dealing with a powerful constrictor on a daily basis is challenging and expensive to say the least-and they grow big real quick. Never handle a large one alone and have an emergency plan in effect. Tigers/super tigers tend to be docile but every snake is an individual. I have four retics-my fifth a beloved tiger-just died. They are all very tame once out of their cages.

What I recommend is that you get some larger constrictor real experience prior to getting a retic. It is one thing if one of my 6 foot carpets goes jurrasic on me, another if my 16 foot retic does. Learn to read their body posture and interactions. A large female true redtail BCC or a burm would be a good interim step to a retic. There are dwarf retics but at 9-12 foot they are still retics and a lot of snake. Some of the super dwarfs stay really small. if you are determined to get a retic, get a baby and grow with it like Reticfan said.

Retics have a tremendous feeding response and always have eating on their minds. As long as the retic never associates you with food you will be just fine. That is why the hook training is so very important. By all means do feed inside of the cage-I do this with all 32 of my constrictors with no problems. The old theory of feeding outside the cage so the snake does not strike when you reach into the cage is just not valid. Even after eating retics remain in feeding mode a long time-even a day or so. Try moving a big retic back into its cage after eating-very dangerous to say the least. Feeding in the cage is less stressful on the snake. Do you want a large constrictor to think he is about to eat when you remove him for handling? Or do you want him to think "no food" when you pick him up?

I wish you the best and please contact me if I can be of help-Bill

As an additional vote of confidence, I have hooked trained all of my carpet pythons for years and it really does work. All I have to do is touch the hook to their head and they know it's not feeding time. Good suggestion.
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"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only to what we know of it."

Thank you so much for the info.

I have 1.1 Ringed Pythons and 0.0.1 kingsnake. Years ago I had a boa.

Every time you grab a snake behind the head & manhandle it, you're destroying the animal's trust in you. Many snakes are head shy, and even to the ones that aren't, grabbing them behind the head immediately makes the animal feel as though it's being predated upon. Retics are surprisingly intelligent animals & easy to establish a rapport with once you have experience & can learn to read your snake. Grabbing behind the head should never be used as a "stepping stone" along the way, especially when hook training works beautifully. Retics are easy animals to condition (hence the giant feeding response), and grabbing behind the head will condition the animal to always be fearful & untrusting when it comes to people.

K

>>Just how aggressive is a full grown Tiger Retic? Would I have to take it by the head ever time I wanted to clean the cage or take it out to feed? I have not dealt with big snakes before, but you have to start somewhere, sometime. What am I in for?
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Just because I have a short attention span doesn't mean

I would suggest you get another boa, because a retic or a burm is too much for a person who is used to tiny snakes, such as your self.
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1.1 Albino Burmese
0.1 Normal Burmese
1.0 Veild Chameleon
Waiting for more reptiles of any kind

You have to start somewhere. You did not start off day one with years of experience with gaints. Somethings you just have to try to get good at and gain experience in. With research and support from the experienced why not?

Excellent point Kara!!!
I forgot to address that. I have been told that retics especially do not like to have their heads restrained. A well adjusted, hook conditioned retic when taken out of the cage is usually docile and not prone to strike at all. Big and strong, yes but not bite prone. Bill.

and most snakes, even colubrids, start throwing wraps when you grab them by their head as it is the only defense they have left. You don't want 16' and 100 lbs of pure muscle wrapped around you. If you really think you can subdue an adult retic by yourself by grabbing it by its head, you have a lot more research to do.

Definitely some good information given above. I have one more thing to add though...

A lot of people, which was hinted at above, have a preconcieved notion that the tigers and supers are tamer than the normals or some other morph. I believe this comes from the mentality that was held years ago when the tigers and supers first came out. Truth is, when they first came out, they probably WERE tamer than the rest. Why is this you might ask? Not that many captive bred and born normals were available at the time. I'm not a retic history buff by any means, but as far as I know the tigers were SOME of the first available CBB retics. A lot of the retics that keepers saw "back in the day" were WC terrors that came in and did their best to eat you or protect themselves (i.e. bite the heck out of you and urinate all over you). This is what gives them the "bad rep" that still lingers today. Therefore, when these CBB tigers came out, all of the sudden the keepers were able to work with them as hatchlings and created the gentle giants we know today. And this, in turn, gave the impression that the tigers were "tamer" than the normals, when in fact, there weren't that many CBB normals to compare them to. I'll bet if we could find a wild population of tigers and supers they too would be jerks if we brought them in.

In conclusion, the CBB normals/albinos/whatever you can buy today are just as tame as any tiger you might find. Of course, there are "fiesty" individuals, but this holds true for the tigers/supers as well.

While I'm on my soap box here, a lot of folks refer to the "typical retic attitude". This label of being more aggressive is making reference to the nasty individuals that were brought into captivity years. This is simply not true now. Get a CBB animal when it is young, work with it, and chances are it will be a sweetheart when it grows up. They are quicker, more curious, and sometimes more food driven than their giant cousins to the West, but that is not deserving of the a negative label.

Sorry for the rant, I normally don't do this, but I just wanted to set the record straight (in my opinion at least) and be a cheerleader for some of my favorite animals.

~Brian Ott

Thank you for the history. I came to this understanding by reading breeders websites and an article in Reptiles Mag. Makes sense what you are saying. This is why I asked the questions I did here, to get the truth by people who own them and love them, and are not trying to "sell me".