Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Welcome to kingsnake.com's message board system. Here you may share and discuss information with others about your favorite reptile and amphibian related topics such as care and feeding, caging requirements, permits and licenses, and more. Launched in 1997, the kingsnake.com message board system is one of the oldest and largest systems on the internet.

Click here for Dragon Serpents
Click for 65% off Shipping with Reptiles 2 You
kamakiri Mar 02, 2005 01:58 PM

i know that retics may reach in excess of 20ft. so how dwarf is a dwarf retic? i have yet to read anything about their averaging sizes. if anyone could enlighten me i would be most grateful.
-----
1.1 normal KSB
0.1 flame KSB
0.1 anery 2/3 het albino KSB
1.0 cal kingsnake
1.1 betta
0.1 ferret
1.1 hypo and albino cornsnake

Replies (4)

hermitcore Mar 02, 2005 09:38 PM

There's still some debate as to how large they actually get. There aren't enough CB animals out there yet to see how large the different locales will get. The Jampea were the first dwarf to be produced in some decent numbers and the females max out at 15 feet. In comparison to a retic, they are indeed a dwarf. I think some people were expecting them to be the size of a cornsnake. I also believe, because of what happened with the Jampeas, a lot of people were left with a bad taste in their mouths for "dwarf retics".

I personally have a CB 04 pair of Superdwarf retics. They're just about 1 year old. The male weighs around 750g and the female weighs around 900g. They have not been fed sparingly. Considering normals reach this weight within a few months and can easily attain 10' in the first year I'd say these are darfs indeed.

Only more time and breeding will tell for sure. I'd be happy to share photos and data with anyone intersted. If anyone else has any thoughts or information, please share it.

murdoch Mar 03, 2005 06:44 PM

THe final size of the smaller dwarf subspecies and locality specific animals is up for debate. I wouldnt say that Jampeas get 15 feet- maybe if you had a power fed baby girl with the right genes it may be possible in 7-10 years but this would take a lot of effort and no breeding.

My Kayuadi females are 6 years old CB animals that were fed good sized meals weekly their entire life except when breeding and they are 9 feet with males much thinner and less heavily fed at 7-8 feet-

Prices for CBB babies will vary and I suspect that it will start to slowly come down over the next few years as more babies are raised and bred. I would suggest that you check the classifieds- at times there are a few regular breeders of founder animals and their offspring but as their babies they produced start to breed over the next few years, the supply will likely expand.

BTW i am sitting on two clutches in the incubator as we speak- one was laid 1/26/05 the other about a month later. lets hope we dont have a power outage!

Winslow

Bill S. Mar 03, 2005 09:44 PM

Hi.

I recall a past post where you mentioned you were supplementing your dwarf retics' diet with omega-3. Are you still doing so? Any noticeable results?

Thanks!

Bill

murdoch Mar 04, 2005 08:59 PM

Good memory!

Actually I haven't supplemented this year.

(I have been too busy with my new practice format- family doc available 27/7 365 where my current patients pay an annual retainer fee for my services- much smaller patient base, electronic records availlable 24/7- very complicated (or demanding) clinetelle- which really tests my intellectual limits and incentivizes me to read and go to conferences almost daily which I love.)

One female, who has bred sucessfully the last two years, laid a large clutch of about 30 eggs only 3 of which were slugs. she is the one who wasnt ready to breed intitially in the fall and was doing the tail wag cloacal gaping routine for about a month while continuing to feed heavily until she seemed comfortable with male introductions.

the other female who was a sibling of this breeder female laid her first clutch of eggs (6 years old now) of which about half were slugs- I let her incubate for the first 5 weeks but when the next clutch was laid i set both up in the incubator- only problem is that with 40 retic eggs, and only two dish tubs with vermiculite substrate, i had a tough time getting the eggs to all fit in such a small area.

should be interesting.

I do think that supplementation still makes sense as the lab raised rats on which they feed are likely low in omega 3 fats- btw the first years clutches when the girls were being supplemented nice hatchlings- almost all of which fed before their first shed- (unlike the green tree pythons that i have worked with over the years) so we shall see how these eggs turn out.

Winslow

Site Tools