Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello I have baby tiger retic male! He was born late 2002 september I believe! I Feed him every week and sometimes on ocasion every two weeks! I do not know if he is a slow grower or or jusy hasnt hit his growth spurt he is only like 3.5-4 foot! he is under four feet I am prett sure and is like round like a quaatrer I think a little bit rounder but what I was expecting it when I got by now it would be like 5-6 foot is it just a slow grow or what Its cage tempature it were it supppose to be so dont ask and he has a cool spot and a hiding box and the whole nine yards! and is in a 100 gallon tank so I dont know what to say or do any suggetions would be help ful he digest the adult mice like in 24 house so he is warm and shed's not often though I evn tride for a bit two mice a week to for faster growth nothing but he was really small when I got him I got two males and he was small compared to the other! Hiw big should I exept him to get thanks
stephen

I would graduate to rats. And once a week I think is not enough. I would feed it, twice a week every three days, to get some size, but I would see what others have to say who have more experience.

At a year he should be around 8 feet, modestly speaking. With only two months until his first birthday, he has a ways to go. Seriously try to switch him to rats, and go up in size weekly until he is taking colossal rats. He will not gain weight on mice and he will only gain moderately on rats. Your task, soon enough, will be to switch him to rabbits. Don't lose time dealing with mice. He may become cranky toward you since he is probably hungry with his present diet.
-----
Marcia Pimentel
Tango River Reptiles
GiantFeeders

I have a 4' albino which is only 2 1/2 months old and is eating medium rats. Start feeding him medium rats and see if he grows for ya. I know mine grows extremely fast.

Males are smaller than females. I also have a baby tiger (female) who's growing pretty fast. My normal male retic is over 2 and a half years old and only 11 feet. Which is fine for me. I don't need a monster to appreciate the animals. 8 foot at a year old is fine if you want him to have a heart attack at 4 years. You're not doing anything wrong at all. If you want him to grow a little faster, do switch him to rats and he'll gain weight. But if you're comfortable with his size and he's healthy, don't worry about it. Also, different animals grow at different rates.

Dude, don't post that retics will have a heart attack at 4 years old if they are 8 feet at a year old. This is not true and is highly misleading! And furthermore, it's only overall eventual size that males are smaller than females. Not growth rates. I have males that outdistance my females sometimes on LESS FOOD. Sorry if this seems hostile, but I do not like when someone posts incorrect info as fact. Have a good day.

>>Males are smaller than females. I also have a baby tiger (female) who's growing pretty fast. My normal male retic is over 2 and a half years old and only 11 feet. Which is fine for me. I don't need a monster to appreciate the animals. 8 foot at a year old is fine if you want him to have a heart attack at 4 years. You're not doing anything wrong at all. If you want him to grow a little faster, do switch him to rats and he'll gain weight. But if you're comfortable with his size and he's healthy, don't worry about it. Also, different animals grow at different rates.
-----
It isn't "Ideas" that fail or succeed,... it is the "Systems" which are instilled to launch and sustain the idea that either fail or succeed.>[Me.]

A few years ago, some friends of mine were given a 4 year old, 18 or 19 foot female retic that was huge. I'm not sure what she weighed but she was obese. The guy had to get rid of her because he moved to Germany I believe because of the military. He powerfed it, it's entire life. It was eating like 10 pound rabbits, 3 or 4 at a time. It was found dead in it's cage a few weeks after my friends got it. When they skinned it, the heart was surrounded by fat and was being sqeezed by the fat which is why it's thought to have had a heart attack or similar ailment. The skin is still on their wall and that was one big snake. Not that it had to be that big. I just think it's ridiculous to feed an animal like that just to make it bigger, faster. It's unhealthy. And if you really care about it, wouldn't you like to have it longer than 4 years. So anyway, sorry, but I was just stating fact. That might not happen to every overfed snake but I've personally seen it happen to one of them.

Dude, just because you may have "witnessed" a snake die at 4 years old and saw fat around the heart is not conclusive evidence that it had a heart attack due to powerfeeding. That's absurd to even assume that. Ridiculous, assinine and ludicrous. Every animal has fat around their heart muscle. I have seen very fit, young, and thin snakes suddenly die without rhyme or reason. You can't come on here and state this crap as fact that a snake will die at 4 years old if powerfed because of this ridiculous account of your observations and heresay. Fact is fact. This is just your flimsey opinion. It's people like you that pass along misinformation and myth that is cause for so much ignorance in the world.

>>A few years ago, some friends of mine were given a 4 year old, 18 or 19 foot female retic that was huge. I'm not sure what she weighed but she was obese. The guy had to get rid of her because he moved to Germany I believe because of the military. He powerfed it, it's entire life. It was eating like 10 pound rabbits, 3 or 4 at a time. It was found dead in it's cage a few weeks after my friends got it. When they skinned it, the heart was surrounded by fat and was being sqeezed by the fat which is why it's thought to have had a heart attack or similar ailment. The skin is still on their wall and that was one big snake. Not that it had to be that big. I just think it's ridiculous to feed an animal like that just to make it bigger, faster. It's unhealthy. And if you really care about it, wouldn't you like to have it longer than 4 years. So anyway, sorry, but I was just stating fact. That might not happen to every overfed snake but I've personally seen it happen to one of them.
-----
It isn't "Ideas" that fail or succeed,... it is the "Systems" which are instilled to launch and sustain the idea that either fail or succeed.>[Me.]

I don't care what you do with your snakes idiot. I'm just saying what I've seen and regardless, it's not a good idea to overfeed anything. It's not healthy. That is a fact. Maybe that cliche' about guys with big cars trying to make up for something else also applies to the world of snake keeping? What do you think big Bri?

Overfeeding is not healthy you are right, but you are basing an opinion on a test group of one and without any evidence. At any rate the retic in the original post is severely underfed. For anyone that has seen Brian give advice and help snake owners on this forum, your post is not only misinformed but also misguided. Even if you are not familiar with Brian's contributions - you show a general lack of knowledge and tact that should be sufficient for you to refrain from giving advice.
-----
Marcia Pimentel
Tango River Reptiles
GiantFeeders

I really don't care what your opinion of me is. I could not care less, period. But what I do care about is when boobheads go around "stating facts" that are based on speculation and conjecture. People read this and take it to heart. Do you know how "facts" are established my misinformed friend? Not by one unfortunate individual snake,... that could have died of COUNTLESS other causes mind you,.... NO! By NUMEROUS identical or similar animals in a study group. All fed or treated identically and the percentile results dictate the findings. So if you had 100 four year old pythons,. and they were all overfed the same amount,.. and 92 of them died during their fourth year of life, THEN, and only then could you state anything even remotely similar to what you posted. And even then, you could only say the majority, not all. You can't come on here and post facts based on one snake and the details of its life. By your logic half my snakes should already be dead and the other half will die next year. Also by your logic all the snakes I had in the 80's were DAMN lucky to be alive at 8, 10 or 12 years old. Bob's snake fluffy should have died 11 or 12 years ago. Heck, he must have her on life support! Baby is 24 or 25 years old,.. holy cow! She must have Jesus on her side.

No my friend,.. at best you might be able to say that it is "probably" unhealthful to overfeed one's python,. and "COULD" lead to an early death.

>>I don't care what you do with your snakes idiot. I'm just saying what I've seen and regardless, it's not a good idea to overfeed anything. It's not healthy. That is a fact. Maybe that cliche' about guys with big cars trying to make up for something else also applies to the world of snake keeping? What do you think big Bri?
-----
It isn't "Ideas" that fail or succeed,... it is the "Systems" which are instilled to launch and sustain the idea that either fail or succeed.>[Me.]

You know, I just typed about a 8 paragraph reply to this and when I was done realized no matter what I or anyone else says you won't believe us or care anyway.

Plain and simple your statement that a retic that grows 8' or larger within the first year of it's life is going to die of a heart attack is INCORRECT and you cannot come up with facts to back it up. There are MANY owners and breeders of retics who own snakes which have grown 8' or larger within the first year and are still alive today two, three, four, and even more years later. Too many facts proving your statement wrong out there.

That is just a ridiculous statement with no fact to back it up.
-----
Bill

I start off my hatchling retics on small rats and by the time they are 4 or 5 feet they are easily on mediums. Yes, as the others said and I am saying, increase the sizes of his meals and don't waste time with mice unless it is 6 to 8 large mice per feeding. But it's best to get them on the larger food items as soon as possible, rats, rabbits, etc.

>>Hello I have baby tiger retic male! He was born late 2002 september I believe! I Feed him every week and sometimes on ocasion every two weeks! I do not know if he is a slow grower or or jusy hasnt hit his growth spurt he is only like 3.5-4 foot! he is under four feet I am prett sure and is like round like a quaatrer I think a little bit rounder but what I was expecting it when I got by now it would be like 5-6 foot is it just a slow grow or what Its cage tempature it were it supppose to be so dont ask and he has a cool spot and a hiding box and the whole nine yards! and is in a 100 gallon tank so I dont know what to say or do any suggetions would be help ful he digest the adult mice like in 24 house so he is warm and shed's not often though I evn tride for a bit two mice a week to for faster growth nothing but he was really small when I got him I got two males and he was small compared to the other! Hiw big should I exept him to get thanks
>> stephen
-----
It isn't "Ideas" that fail or succeed,... it is the "Systems" which are instilled to launch and sustain the idea that either fail or succeed.>[Me.]

Thanks to all who have replied! I am going to switch to rats and see if he gains and gets a little longer maybe he is just the runt but thnaks for the advice and I will use it thnaks again

stephen