Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently had a thought I'd like your opinion on. It seems to me (perhaps inaccurately) the incidences of pythons killing their owners are overwhelmingly Burmese Pythons and not Reticulated Pythons. Do you agree or disagree?

Secondly, why do you suppose this is? It's my understanding Burms are more "easy-going" while Retics have the reputation of being more aggressive. If that's true, why wouldn't Retics be the aggressors? (I have very limited experience with Retics, while I do have experience with Burms.)

And third, with several new Retic morphs established, do you think we'll see a shift in headlines from Burms to Retics? Assuming more people are keeping Retics now than before.

I'm making several assumptions here. Feel free to prove me wrong, set me straight, share your opinion or anything at all. Just wondering...

Oh-It's also my hope there is never another death caused by ANY pet, especially one in our industry. I hate it when we make headlines, cause they're not often good.

Headlines I gathered from a quick google search of pythons killing their owners.

BURM:

http://www.anapsid.org/nyburm.html

http://www.anapsid.org/coloburm.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6620394.ece

http://arachnophiliac.info/burrow/news/burmese_kills_owner.htm

RETIC:

http://www.sareptiles.co.za/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3127

i think all these sites and places that say this stuff are retarded.

i have my opinions on these supposed "large python kills owner or child" rediculous news stories, but not enough room to do it here.

anyway to the topic at hand. i think the retic vs burm thing could be partially true, but i think its because people that own retics, especially the newer, pricier morphs are way more educated than people people that go out and get a $40 burm because they want a large snake to be cool. people that like all the crazy retic morphs and spend hundreds and thousands of dollars, either already now what they are doin or they research and get practice hands on prior to getting a nice morph retic.

and the people that get the burms to have a big snake to be cool, and cheap, see that they are not very active, and therefore, do not get handled and fed on a regular schedule. so that when they finally do get big enough and they are drinking and showing off to friends or feeding irresponsibly, BAM !!!, they get nailded.

people are just breeding retics so much now, that cbb animals are usually more docile and easier to handle (plus they are much more acive), many burms are still comin over as wc imports for dirt cheap to sell dirt cheap. not sayin we dont have cbb burms here because we do, just not a whole lot of burm morphs right now, so many people still import alot of burms to see if they are carrying interesting genes to start making some new morphs

there are just so many awesome morphs of retics now, that you dont need to import as many wc's any more because you can just mix and match all the morphs we have now, and keep the babies cbb, and much more docile and easier to handle (relative to wc's and/or ch snakes.

so, thats my take and opinion on it
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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

I didn't realize how many burms are being imported. That's a good point, and I completely agree with you that being so inexpensive, burms are more attractive to those just wanting a huge snake and not knowing anything about them. It's not surprising to see a pile of baby burms or the occasional imported african rock in a dirty, pet store aquarium, whereas I can't say I've seen many retics at those places (thankfully.)

When I started keeping Burms I knew the AFH Guidelines for Keeping Large Constrictors by heart. I thought about it as a big responsibility to keep those snakes. I wish more keepers would treat their animals as individuals instead of accessories.

Terry