Dwarf Retic

I have kept mainland, I have Dwarfs some would be referred to as super dwarf.
I don't have morphs just pure bred "classics", they are food orientated and fast, tap training is essential. One female is wild caught and did not adjust to captivity well, she wants to get away that's all, if restrained she may turn around and bite. But mostly I wear one glove for moving her,I won't disturb her any more than necessary. Two males have bitten me because they are so fast, hence tap training, make sure they know it's not food and they don't bite at all, simple. One I handle at the local reptile club at meet the Reptile day at Martin Mere- face to face with the public. He is a bit longer than most corn snakes and not much thicker, simply a joy to handle. Both males captive bred, huge difference to wild caught.
The other female is also captive bred, and perfect, never bitten, the glossiest snake I have ever seen. At eight feet she is a handful, but a one person snake, tame as any snake could be . All eat well, she'd well, my vivs are dry, so I will add a large tub of water at shedding time or spray each day.
Get a youngster, handle regularly, establish a difference between opening the viv to feed or handle, and you too can have a perfect snake.
breeding a pure dwarf to another, is what some people would call a super dwarf, but I would just call it pure. But they are all individuals.
Regards David

 

I have kept mainland, I have Dwarfs some would be referred to as super dwarf.
I don't have morphs just pure bred "classics", they are food orientated and fast, tap training is essential. One female is wild caught and did not adjust to captivity well, she wants to get away that's all, if restrained she may turn around and bite. But mostly I wear one glove for moving her,I won't disturb her any more than necessary. Two males have bitten me because they are so fast, hence tap training, make sure they know it's not food and they don't bite at all, simple. One I handle at the local reptile club at meet the Reptile day at Martin Mere- face to face with the public. He is a bit longer than most corn snakes and not much thicker, simply a joy to handle. Both males captive bred, huge difference to wild caught.
The other female is also captive bred, and perfect, never bitten, the glossiest snake I have ever seen. At eight feet she is a handful, but a one person snake, tame as any snake could be . All eat well, she'd well, my vivs are dry, so I will add a large tub of water at shedding time or spray each day.
Get a youngster, handle regularly, establish a difference between opening the viv to feed or handle, and you too can have a perfect snake.
breeding a pure dwarf to another, is what some people would call a super dwarf, but I would just call it pure. But they are all individuals.
Regards David

I thought Super Dwarves was the term for certain localities like Kalatoa that had an even smaller maximum size.

 

This may be useful - from UK Exotics a few years ago now, but I still find it worth a read.
http://www.ukexotics.com/retic-presentation.html

We have a dwarf male and two young mainlands - they all have different habits/behaviors, but basically they're all the same (except it our case the dwarf is bigger because he's the oldest retic we have)

 

You mentioned a male dwarf, so I'm assuming you want something on the small-medium size of the spectrum. What would you consider to be the largest size that you could accommodate / handle?

 

I'd say 14ft would be the most I could realistically handle. I'd be more comfortable with 12ft though.

 

Thank you for the replies guys!

 

I don't own a dwarf but a super dwarf and just wanted to comment on my experience with him. He's 4 years old and has been fantastic. He was quite skittish as a baby and did nip me a couple of times but at his size, it was no big deal at all. He is now around 4.5ft and chunkier than a corn snake but looks lost in his 4ft x 2ft viv. He's active in his viv but he's never got wound up during breeding season or caused any nose rubs.

Just like a bigger retic, he's very food orientated and I have tap trained him so that I can take him out the viv easily. One tap and he knows he's not getting fed. He is fine to handle but very strong for such a small size. He is very inquisitive and totally different to any other snake I've owned (corn, king, milk, boas etc). He seems super smart and just a fantastic snake to own.

There is no way I would ever consider owning a snake over 7ft but I always wanted a retic and owning a SD has been perfect for me.

 

I don't own a dwarf but a super dwarf and just wanted to comment on my experience with him. He's 4 years old and has been fantastic. He was quite skittish as a baby and did nip me a couple of times but at his size, it was no big deal at all. He is now around 4.5ft and chunkier than a corn snake but looks lost in his 4ft x 2ft viv. He's active in his viv but he's never got wound up during breeding season or caused any nose rubs.

Just like a bigger retic, he's very food orientated and I have tap trained him so that I can take him out the viv easily. One tap and he knows he's not getting fed. He is fine to handle but very strong for such a small size. He is very inquisitive and totally different to any other snake I've owned (corn, king, milk, boas etc). He seems super smart and just a fantastic snake to own.

There is no way I would ever consider owning a snake over 7ft but I always wanted a retic and owning a SD has been perfect for me.

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My God, that is one gorgeous Retic!!!

 

Retics

Super Dwarf was one unnamed locality. But I bought a Kalatoa male advertised as Super Dwarf, so the usage looks to have changed and could be translated to "no mainland blood".
In any case reference the parents. Also bear in mind with morph dwarfs it makes a considerable difference which was mum, the Dwarf (small progeny ) or the morph (larger progeny - potentially ).
I stick to normals it makes it simpler, but is still dependant on feeding.
To the original poster - get one and get on with it!

 

Beaut:mf_dribble:

 

Go to Peter rice' shop and speak to Peter. Great shop with plenty of retics and a wealth of knowledge. He will tell you all you need to know about retics and all the localities. Most breeders keep the males relatively small under 10ft (mainland) and even most female mainlands if slow grown will stay under 14ft. Most super dwarf morphs have a decent percentage of mainland blood in them anyway so will get bigger than the pure super dwarf localities and would be considered a dwarf. You could get a massive amount of mixed information from people's different experiences on this forum. I would go to someone like Peter where you can see the proof of clutch siblings fed on different amounts and see the massive variations on size in just 12-18 months and get honest answers from someone that breeds retics for a living.


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