[bowlofcereal]

:welcome: :whistling2:

Someone is giving me a reticulated and I've never actually had this question come up before. The previous owner is currently feeding his 3-4 year old FEMALE retic 1 jumbo rat every 2 weeks. Now my question is, will this stunt growth? Is this proper food for proper growth? should i kick it up a notch? I've read at that age you'd have them on small rabbits. I could be wrong. I just want to be sure. Answer wont change me taking her. I just want to know how big she will get roughly. (I don't mind big snakes. Bigger the better.)

 

[Malc]

Welcome to the forum,

What experience have you had keeping snakes?

Can you give us some details on its size, possibly some pictures so we can see what physical state the snake is in. How are you intending to house it (heating / enclosure etc)

This will help other members off you some advice

 

[Sid85]

Hi and Welcome.

As Malc says - what experience do you have with snakes, especially retics? I would definitely not recommend getting a retic without a lot of research and preparation - including spending time with someone who owns retics. They have a very strong feeding response, but can also quite flighty (which can lead to defensive behavior).

I would find out as much information as possible from the current owner including her temperament, how she is handled, how she is currently fed, etc

In terms of your specific question - what size is the retic? At 3-4 years old she should be sexually mature, or close to maturity. Retics can vary in size considerably depending on their genetics from their parents/ancestors, so in reality she could be anywhere from 5-15ft at this age. This will be the major factor in what she is fed.

I would probably look for feed around every 3 weeks with a meal that is about 1.5 times thicker than the thickest part of the snake. However, if she looks underweight then i would stick with slightly smaller items and look to increase the frequency. We cant really give you a complete answer without more information.

Hope that helps.
Sid

 

[Purgatory]

Good thing I don't own a retic at 3-4 years old it would eat me or 3-4 extra large rabbits each feed time. That's if it was a mainland of course not these dwarfs and half dwarfs.


Sounds like a very small meal for that age but again how big is she = length and weight, he may have been underfeeding her to keep her small. You can easily keep a mainland as small as a dwarf if you feed them very little.


Just a warning for you, if you up her food she will get very large very quickly, so reality time now, do you want a really large snake ? Are you able to house a very large snake in the future if you feed her larger food.

Regarding her being stunted... that depends on the snake, some may never reach their full potential and then some will and suddenly be eating 3 extra large rabbits a feed. So maybe think before you change anything the previous owner was doing. There is a reason he was feeding her that item. Maybe to keep her at that size that is manageable , retics are not very pleasant snakes to deal with if they are large and have attitude.. So as above have you kept snakes before ? Have you kept a giant snake before , these are not even classed as large snakes BUT GIANT snakes... This is coming from a person that owns a 18 foot female Burmese python. Retics are nothing like a Burm they are snakes that run and will tire you out and you will need to have more people around you when handling her if she is large ... being 8 foot and over... so step with care they are also known to be unpredictable snakes retics, they play all nice and then whip round and nail you...