Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got my first retic who is a baby. I have a 40 and a 75 gallon that I plan on keeping him initially. How long do you think he will last before he has to get his permanent enclosure?

Good luck using glass, unless you live in a really humid area (Florida, Gulf Coast, etc).

I moved my male into his adult home at about 6', seems to do fine. He's highly defensive but he was like that before too. I moved my female into a 6' when she was about 6-7' as well...she's doing fine, is a sweetheart still. I won't know if this'll be her adult cage for a little while yet though, depends on her size.
It took my male...maybe 4-6 months? to get that 5-6' size, my female considerably less. For reference my males like a fall 08 hatchling, my female's a march 09. Both are over probably in the 8-9' range and still little string beans though the male's starting to get a bit thicker looking. Growth was slow during Nov-Jan and started really picking back up in Feb. I'm not 100% sure why given I didn't alter my care much *shrug* Probably the slight drop in ambient temps I guess. It got my colubrids too.

I've had an SD since mid-08 too, but the growth rates are so different...and I just got some mid/late 09s in like last month, but hey, still babies, not even 4'.

Citrus (female) maxed out my 4500 gram scale by January. I'm trying to find a non-super pricey digital scale with a higher max weight so I can weigh her again.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

I appreciate the info. As stated this is my first retic. I have been planning for one for quite some time. I was going to wait a little while longer but I ran into one of the most laid back and docile males that I have seen. Therefore I decided to move now. I am excited to get this going. What has been your feeding cycle and growth rate?

I want to clarify/apologize, you did give some information on the growth rate already. I am interested to hear exactly how much the feeding cycle actually influences the growth rates.

While young, I feed when hungry. Mine have hugely varying appetites. I have 2 the same age (little over a yr) and one eats 5 lbs/2 weeks and the other 0.5 lbs/month. As long as the length is still in the exponential stage I don't worry much about caloric restriction. For a male a 3'X6' enclosure should be a suitable adult enclosure. You probably have a good 1.5 yrs. in the 75 gallon--but I don't know your snake. Genetics greatly determines growth rate AND appetite, they kind of go hand-in-hand. I don't under feed to slow growth, as I stay ahead of the housing requirements. Did I mention---I LOVE retics!!!
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steve

Your post has confirmed my own observations and research. I definitely do not want to underfeed to slow the growth but at the same time I have no intentions of trying to overfeed to expedite the growth. I will make careful observations early on to assess the appetite. This forum is exceedingly useful.

With large constrictors over feeding is common. It is hard to gauge appetite as young retics and anacondas for example, seem to want to eat all the time. This will result in illness, obesity and large size. They get big anyway so I feed moderately and balance this with lots of attention, clean cages and CLEAN WATER. I have raised several species of large constrictors (Burms, Retics, Anacondas Yellow/Greens etc) and have always had beautiful, tame and healthy animals. Their sizes are more moderate but I can maintain them and enjoy them. I feed them about once every ten to fourteen days or so, even when young. Anacondas also have slow metabolisms and do not need to eat as often, but I also do this with my retics. I also hold them often and interact with them a lot. This keeps them tame, healthy and manageable. The snakes that are "power fed" get HUGE then are dumped and let go and this has created havoc in some areas like Florida. Not good.

Ditto. I don't want to claim to be an expert but since no one else chimed in I did

And I've never understood heavily restricted feeding; you still wind up with a big snake but now it's always hungry

It's literally almost visible growth while it's at the peak, it's just freaky. Check in on them every other day you could swear they added a few inches.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

It really varies. I have one retic that went from 2.5' to 10' in one yr!! The other 3 are growing MUCH slower. I have went with the idea of preparing adult size enclosures for all of them from the get go; just because I never know what the future holds in terms of time ect... I have placed dividers in some of the really big tanks to consolidate since the retics are still small which makes 4 easier cleaning--I still have several big tanks in storage.
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steve

80% of a snakes growth depends on the combination of genetics and its individual metabolic rate. 20% is based on feeding regimine (ie, prey size, frequency, type)
retics generally have quicker metabolisms than other larger boids (ie, rocks, burms), but, each snake (as humans are) are different. some snakes i have seen powerfed horribly and still slow grow, and i have seen retics fed prey items that barely leave a visible lump once every 4-6 weeks, and just sprout. you have to find the feeding regimine that works for your snake
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retic is king of kings

1.0 Tiger Retic
1.0 Albino Tiger Retic
0.1 Striped Tiger Retic (het albino)
0.1 Salmon Boa
1.0 Albino Boa
0.1 False Water Cobra

10-4, I appreciate your input. I have seen several of your posts and you clearly have a lot of knowledge. Thanks for responding.