Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have read articles that say Big Retics do not climb much when they get to a mature size. I have found quite the opposite. Every night the two in this Pic look for a high spot to sleep after their usual evening trips around the enclosure. Even at 14ft they still like to sleep on the ledge.

Strange....

Retics definetly seem to prefer the option to climb if it is provided....great setup you have your tics' in. Is that cage from cages by design? Always liked the looks of their cages...
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Todd Spinosa

It is Cages By Design. Needed a little work to safely house big snakes. Also requires some maintance time when snakes are not fasting.

Kevin

Have you had any luck with the anacondas breeding this past year Kelly? I havn't been on that forum in some time.
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Todd Spinosa

from the same female that produced in 2003. We had 24 live young with a few slugs and a couple of stillborns. It was the second litter for this female and the third for the male. Thanks for asking.

Kelly

Sure Kelly, congrats on the litter. I saw a group of them that my friend has from the earlier clutch and they were really nice animals.
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Todd Spinosa

I was just talking with a friend the other day and this subject came up. I told him about a show I had seen back in the 1980's called Ring of Fire, that was about a couple of guys hiking to remote areas of Indonesia. In one episode, they were hiking through a remote jungle area of Borneo and surprised a large retic on the ground. It immediately shot up an adjacent tree trunk about a foot in diameter that was smooth without any limbs for probably the first 20 or 25 feet. Using a concertina motion, it coiled around the trunk with its tail and lower body, reached up to anchor its head and front part of it's body on another section of the trunk by coiling around it, then pulled up its back half and so on up the trunk. The remarkable thing was the speed at which this occurred. I would estimate the retic was at least 15 feet in length and was out of sight and into the canopy in about 10 seconds. It was pretty impressive for a python of that size..

Kelly

Kelly
I saw part of that footage the other day on Animal Planet. Another really bad reptile show. Extreme Snakes. # 5 on the list was the reticulated. Of course first they show some guys being tossed around by a large and aggravated ROCK python. It was cool but clearly not a retic. However the next clip showed a large, 15 foot for sure retic climbing a tree. Climbing is to passive a word. He ATTACKED that tree, he made that tree his.
As far as a big snake climbing or moving for that matter it was the single finest most impressive thing I've ever seen.
Honestly it was scarey. Anyone who has ever kept big snakes this would scare the hell out of you.
No limbs nothing, just flew up that tree and disappeared.
The idiots on E.S. said he was hunting macaques. They kept cutting away to a group of macaques in a tree who looked concerned.
I told my wfe that snake is'nt hunting he is retreating. Something scared him.
8 of the 15 have taken chicks.
Danny Conner

It is pretty incredible how fast it moved up that tree. Glad to here the greens are starting to feed, chicks are definitely the way to start them. Thanks,

Kelly