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My Retics.

What does a baby retic get for its first meal?

These where offered live hopper mice as I had a few laying around for the coachwhips I have, although with how quickly they took the food I'm sure they'd also take rat pups/fuzzies as well. I'll switch them to PK after the 2nd/3rd meal.
 
I remember the first time I saw a tiger retic...LOVE!!! The super tigers are amazing...and the color morphs coming out these days are just insane. Nice babies you have there, thanks for sharing :D
 
They look so awkward and cute when they are babies, like their heads are too big for their skinny bodies. They certainly are beautiful animals.
 
They've all taken 3 meals now, and one has willingly switched to rat pups. Victory! Now to get my other female to drop her clutch after my move and not before it....
 
Awesome! The females drop when they want unfortunately! Mine waited until I was in Daytona at the show to have her litter! My poor hubby didn't know what to do!
 
How do you find homes for such a special requirements snake? I don't even like selling corns, as simple as their care is, I just don't trust people to take good care of them. Maybe I'm just overprotective. Well... I know I am :p
 
How do you find homes for such a special requirements snake? I don't even like selling corns, as simple as their care is, I just don't trust people to take good care of them. Maybe I'm just overprotective. Well... I know I am :p

Very carefully, but then again, I don't personally believe these to be any more dangerous if taken proper care of than a dog, but I'd rather not have this thread go in that argument direction. If people demonstrate the knowledge of the animal- I'm willing to sell to them, and they've owned other constrictors.
 
I'm not saying they're dangerous, but for something that needs all that dedicated space, and the food, my goodness, rabbits are expensive. How often do you feed a large beast like that? Typically I mean, I know you have to feed the moms extra.
 
If they understand the size requirements and what's necessary to care for them, then selling them would be no different than my Amazons or Green trees. In general when I speak to them, it should sound like they've done their homework or had the species before. If they are asking simple basic questions...then no sale...they don't know enough...and haven't done any homework to keep one.
I don't know how often CM feeds, but in the wild I imagine that an adult retic wouldn't eat more than once a month or even longer in between. Even my smaller snakes only get fed every 2-3 weeks....I've got no weekly feeders except my false water cobras and my snail eaters...the former because they have extremely fast metabolisms and so get fed every 9 days or so and the latter because they eat snails only. They get fed more frequently due to their nutritional requirements. Corns, amazons, green trees, and all venomous are fed every 2-3 weeks once they get older. Babies get fed every 7-10 days depending upon the species and prey size. I found if I fed my Amazon babies every week they didn't eat. Every 10-14, they ate every time. Most boas and pythons have slower metabolisms and don't require feeding as often. I think most domestic snakes are obese compared to what I find in the wild.
 
I'm not saying they're dangerous, but for something that needs all that dedicated space, and the food, my goodness, rabbits are expensive. How often do you feed a large beast like that? Typically I mean, I know you have to feed the moms extra.
Vision 632 is adequate for 95% of adult females in the hobby today. A 6x3 vision isn't that much space if you think about it ;)

Feeding isn't that bad, if you find a reliable breeder or supplier. I purchase wholesale groups locally, feed my animals, and sell everything ~1-2$ more than I paid usually to other keepers/breeders. They still buy for less than half the cost of a store, and I have basically fed all my animals free the entire time I've owned them, just a small time investment. After the move I'll be breeding several hundred rabbits for myself/other breeders at $1-1.50 a lb.

If they understand the size requirements and what's necessary to care for them, then selling them would be no different than my Amazons or Green trees. In general when I speak to them, it should sound like they've done their homework or had the species before. If they are asking simple basic questions...then no sale...they don't know enough...and haven't done any homework to keep one.
Exactly, I also usually have an adult mainland with me to display so that people can understand how big they truly do get. Often times it's hard to imagine how big an 18' snake really is.

I don't know how often CM feeds, but in the wild I imagine that an adult retic wouldn't eat more than once a month or even longer in between. Even my smaller snakes only get fed every 2-3 weeks....I've got no weekly feeders except my false water cobras and my snail eaters...the former because they have extremely fast metabolisms and so get fed every 9 days or so and the latter because they eat snails only. They get fed more frequently due to their nutritional requirements. Corns, amazons, green trees, and all venomous are fed every 2-3 weeks once they get older. Babies get fed every 7-10 days depending upon the species and prey size. I found if I fed my Amazon babies every week they didn't eat. Every 10-14, they ate every time. Most boas and pythons have slower metabolisms and don't require feeding as often. I think most domestic snakes are obese compared to what I find in the wild.

My males get fed every 3-4 weeks depending on prey size, I keep them on rats usually so an XXL every 3 weeks is pretty solid, sometimes a little more depending on time of year as well.

Females are fed every 2 weeks except around breeding season. Pre-breeding I feed weekly to add weight or larger meals bi-weekly, post breeding I offer about the same to put the weight back on.
 
I guess you're right, it really isn't that much space if you have a spare room. It just bothers me that some people can't even care for a corn snake but they get the animal anyway and well you know what happens.

I didn't even think about it but I do the same thing, Meg. When I sell a baby corn the person must sound dedicated and intelligent, I made one exception with a not so educated guy because he sent me pages and pages of messages wanting to learn about them while the eggs were still cooking. The snake with him is thriving in a beautiful home made habitat and I'm glad I made a good call. I suppose you can see that I don't really have much faith in people.
 
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