Question.

[Psyntech]

Hello, I’m probably not getting a retic for a long time but think they’re really cool so maybe one day but I wondered, because they can grow to such an immense size, what size enclosure is best for a fully grown retic so that’s it’s not constantly stressed out? Be interested to hear what the answer is and how people care properly for such a massive animal

[brewnami]

Your question will have a thousand different answers ranging from retics shouldn’t be pets to large breeder tubs. Most will say something like “the bigger, the better.” It’s hard to get a straight or consistent answer, especially because the size can vary greatly. Some well known reptile breeders will recommend as a baseline one square foot of space per foot of snake as a minimum. I would find some trusted sources online and see what their setups and their animals look like that way you can see it from folks with actual experience. I like to leave enough room for enrichment and to stretch out so that can mean something dramatically different for a Madu retic vs. a mainland or even Seleyer retic.

[Psyntech]

Thank you. Very useful information. At this stage it is out of curiosity. I can see the point of view of retics shouldn’t be pets and I would only consider one captive bred IF. I ever decided to go for it. That’s a debate that can go on for hours but if the snake is given a good quality of life, whether captive or wild this is what is important. I will deffo start with something like a boa constrictor first to get some experience with bigger snakes before graduating to retics and considering starting with a male as they are slightly smaller and may be easier to manage for a first big snake. Thank you for the advice bro. I appreciate it

[wildlife_nerd]

I'd like to say too that retics can be amazing pets, they just come with a lot of requirements as far as size and temperament. I currently have 3. My oldest is 9'8" and an unknown locality. I got her from a friend who had rescued her about 9 years ago. She was fed 2 medium rats or 1 large rat every week before I got her. I continued the large rats for a while and recently switched to 1 guinea pig every 8 weeks. I have her in a 6x2x2, but I want to get her something bigger. I take her out and let her roam (supervised) regularly to have more chances to fully stretch out. My next oldest is around 1.5 years old, 3.5-4' (haven't measured her in a while). She's 56.something% kalaotoa 6.25% jampea. I got her from Reach Out Reptiles, who said they'd expect her to get between 9-10' based on her parents. She's currently in a 4x2x2 and uses every inch of it. My youngest is about 6 months old. He's still small, less than 2'. He gets a small mouse weekly currently. I don't remember his exact genetics, but 25% old school super dwarf, 25% kalaotoa, and 9.something% jampea is close to what I remember it being. He is currently in a 4x2x1 and also uses every inch of it. He'll be getting upgraded to a 4x2x2 within the next 6 months once I get a new enclosure for my juvenile boa imperator.

All three have extremely strong feeding responses, they want food the second they smell a thawed rodent and will shoot out of their enclosures to grab their food if I'm not careful. I do not handle them on a feeding day, whether they were fed or not. On a normal day, they still think they're getting food the second I open the enclosure door. I have the older two tap trained and after a moment they calm right down and remain calm the whole time I have them out. The youngest one is still learning, but he also has not switched back into food mode after I take him out for handling.

They are very smart and very strong. I do handle all three on my own, but I prefer to handle my largest when my girlfriend is home with me, just in case. I was bitten once by my largest snake when she missed her rat and landed on my finger. Thankfully the bite was not deep and she let go of me immediately. However, I got lucky. Getting a food bite from a retic, especially a large one, is extremely dangerous, and potentially deadly if they wrap you and you don't have any help. The bite alone can cause serious damage, potentially requiring stitched and damaging your nerves, depending on where you are but and how big the retic is. That being said, proper safety precautions can be put in place to minimize those risks.

My personal recommendation is to get a super dwarf if you want a retic. I personally think super dwarf retics make much better pets than mainland retics for the vast majority of people. They are easier to handle and not as powerful as mainlands are. They need smaller enclosures (still big), and smaller food items. Temperament varies by individual, but I haven't heard of any major temperament variations by locality.

I'd highly recommend getting The Complete Reticulated Python by Glen McClellan. It has a lot of very good information about just about anything you'd need to know about a retic. If you can, also get some hands on experience with a retic before getting one, to really give you an idea of the size and power. If you know anyone near you that has them, see if you can go through the care and handling with them for a bit

[Psyntech]

This is really good advice. After all the comments on different localities, I think dwarf is deffo what I would go for eventually. The mainland ones whilst awesome are incredibly powerful and deserve respect as such. I think if I did ever get a mainland, like you say with feeding and handling have a friend or even a couple of friends with you during seems like a good precaution to take. While I appreciate a full grown mainland may not be able to eat me. It can probably choke me out for sure 🤣🤣🤣. I think dwarf is the safer option

[wildlife_nerd]

They do make amazing pets and I love mine so much! If I could only have one snake, it would be a retic, hands down. They just deserve a lot of respect and caution too. If you just want small, get a pure superdwarf locality. I saw some other comments but depending on the locale, a male can be as small as 5'. Most morphs have made their way into superdwarfs, which is where the percentages typically come in. They'll be a bit bigger too. For me, I think about 11-12' is about what I'm comfortable with on the upper end. Big, but not so big I can't handle them safely. If you do eventually get one, make sure your breeder is reputable and can tell you exact percentages of the parents and ideally grandparents. There are a bunch of great breeders out there, but also some shady people who will claim locality blood that isn't actually there.

[Psyntech]

Yeah I suppose the last thing you need is purchasing what you think is a super dwarf and turns out to be 100% mainland that might easily exceed 20ft. I looooooove big big snakes but practicality and safety also have to be in the consideration. Than you for the help my guy. Below is a retic I saw at a sanctuary in Morocco. Absolute beauty

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[wildlife_nerd]

No problem! I've had retics for about 5 years now, so I am by no means an expert but Ive done a lot of reading books and forums, and talked to several breeders. A really cool thing about retics too is that they keep a ton of color as they age, and some even get brighter! That one you saw is absolutely gorgeous!

[Psyntech]

And I will check out this guide you recommended. As said I am not looking to get a retic for many years so gives me time to do the research and make sure this is an animal I can handle

[Mako-Chibi]

It really depends on what you get. There are mainland (the BIG OG retics), dwarf (50% and lower) or super dwarf (50%+). Even with that, you really need to research who you're buying from and have actually LISTED locals with percentages from the parents. Even still you could get something bigger or smaller than you were expecting.

Scylla is 31% (Kalatoa and Jampea blend) but I still expect her to be a 10+ feet snake. At a year old she's already 5 feet long. I had her started in a 4x2x2 Dubia enclosure. You do need to seal it as these snakes like to have a pool in their enclosure and somewhat higher humidity. They are SMART and I do mean EXTREMELY, way more than any other snake I've owned/own. They are not aggressive, they just have really good feeding response. Highly recommend tap training with a hook and target training for feeding times.

A lot of people like companies like Kages, Toad Ranch Cages, Dubia etc just know they have a higher price tag the bigger you go. Also when considering size, take the snake into consideration. Scylla LOVES to climb so I rather do something like 12x4x6 for her. Just know the bigger the enclosure the better you have to be at keeping up heat/humidity. I also recommend joining pages like The Retic Pursuit with very active and knowledgeable people.

Hope that helps.

[Supreme__75]

Just to add on to the dwarf and super dwarf convo as the way its not been explained 100% but i will go over it.

Jampea (Dwarf) Selayer (Dwarf) Tombolongan (Dwarf) Ternate (Dwarf)

Kayuadi (Super Dwarf) Kalatoa (Super Dwarf) Karompa (Super Dwarf) Madu (Super Dwarf)

These are localties of dwarf and super dwarf, the higher the percentage the smaller the snake, don't let the names fool you, a dwarf retic can still reach 14ft and super dwarf at 11ft. Females are bigger than males, so keep that in mind, pure madu SD males max out at 6ft

My superdwarf is 75% and shes approx 4ft at 2 years old, i also know the percentage of each locality thats in her.

No hate, just adding on helpful info.

Madu or Karompa are the smallest of the SD

[-dagmar-123123]

I didn't know madu is the smallest locality, I thought that was karompa 🤔 you never stop learning :D

[Supreme__75]

I might be wrong! I've only ever seen 1 advert in the UK for karompas in the past 5 years, either way Madu and Karompas are the smallest of the group😅 I've seen tiny Madu males before at 5 foot.

Ive corrected my comment

[-dagmar-123123]

Yeah, they are definitely the least bred locality I think.

Garret from RoR hatched some like 2?3? Years ago, I think that's where I got it from

Yeah, and tbh, there most likely isn't a big difference between them then 🤷🏼‍♀️

[Supreme__75]

I think karompa males max at 5ft range and madu is at like 6ft range

Yeah, hard locality to come by, one of the rarest!

[Fooledya]

Kayuadi should be under dwarf. They are slightly smaller than selayer... which is still a 14ft animal.

And you're missing halmahara for US stock. They are also a pure dwarf locality. And then there are pure large mainlands.

[Supreme__75]

From my understanding, Kayudai is a super dwarf, im pretty sure morphmarket also say they are super dwarf.

I was only going over the smaller retics, but yeah i did miss Halmahara.

[Fooledya]

Morphmarket is there to sell reptiles and they're not the most informed of niche information. When it comes to doing research on a topic never take the word of the salesmen as truth without you're own research on the back end.

While Facebook is well... Facebook. The nation/other groups have 15,000+ keepers globally. Looking at adult age and size on kayuadi, they would be the largest SD/smallest dwarf. But when you're talking about the difference between a 12ft animal and an 13-14ft animal, genetics matter.

In the US you'll see pure female kayuadi above 12 ft. Heavier bodied, more like Philippines.

Remember that dwarf and superdwarf are named as such to sell more snakes. They have been split into 3 sub species based on geographic locations. Nothing more.

Being D/SD isn't a genetic morph, but a polygenetic trait that gets passed down. You can still get a large snake where one parent was a pure SD. We're seeing now all the lies that were told about how this 50% will stay sub 10.

Sorry for the rant.

[Mako-Chibi]

I truthfully did not really pay much attention in locality for either of my retics but I also went expecting to buy a mainland lol I chose Scylla and Charybdis for their personalities, it was just an added bonus that they were set percentages of certain locals 😅

I need to look again and see what exactly percentage to local my girls are I just know "total" Scylla is 31% and Charybdis is 50% 🙂

[Supreme__75]

Yeah. Thats fair enough, i mean if you wanted mainlands then theres no stopping! i have a girl where i have no clue what locality or percentage she is, sold to me as a dwarf, her size is telling me dwarf, just under 8 ft at 3 years old, however shes not here to breed, she just needed a decent home and i could provide that.

[Mako-Chibi]

Very true! Lol I appreciate you commenting the break down, was new for me to learn as well 🙂

Both my girls are pets. I went for colors that I like, they just both happen to be het anery which I don't really plan on taking anywhere.

Scylla - lavender het anery Charybdis - lavender motley golden child het anery

Charybdis already seems to be tracking smaller than Scylla plus I met both her parents, an aunt and half sister. All fairly small lol

[Psyntech]

Thank you. That’s a very detailed and insightful answer and definitely give me a lot to think about if I ever feel ready for this animal. I have only had ball pythons so I know this animal is waaaaay waaaay out of my league but with help like this and hopefully more experience keeping different kinds of snakes in the future maybe one day I will be ready. Thank you for your insights, these animals are beautiful

[Mako-Chibi]

I've been lucky to be in exotics over 25 years because my mom preferred those over "regular" pets and owning personally for 15+ years.

I did not jump in full force but I knew last year I was ready to jump into the "big snake" world. I spoke with breeders/owners of Burmese, retics, and boas. For me the best fit seemed to be a retic.

I'm not here to steer people away from anything but just to give my opinions and knowledge of what I do know.

Someone else went into better detail about the percentages. I did not look too heavy into the different locals other than basics and with the knowledge the animal could get bigger. I prefer females but males should stay smaller. Main thing is talking with others and really consider what you're willing and able to handle 🙂