My Dwarf Retic Pair.

[boaboy]

I thought I would share a pic of my dwarf retic pair. The female is a two and a half year old lavender albino het genetic stripe dwarf and the male is a one and a half year old dwarf double het albino, genetic stripe. I plan on trying to breed them this year if not then next year.

Will have to take them out for a real photo shoot one of these days as her colour does not really show, she is a lot more purple.

[kfc223]

Beautiful pair you have there!

I can't wait till they become more available.

[Jason&Sam]

Very nice. Best of luck with them.

[Mitton]

Very nice. What is the length of that female?

[ocean/blue]

Awesome pair, good luck with them.

[Westley Price]

Great looking snakes! Photographs never do albino snakes justice.

I have very little knowledge on Retic morphs; I was under the impression that all dwarfs has reduced black surrounding the saddles, whereas your seems to have almost enhanced black borders.

Am I wrong with the above statement, or does is only apply to certain dwarfs?

[boaboy]

Thanks guys.
The female is at three meters and eating three jumbo rats every two weeks.
The male is about one and a half meters.

Westley, im not too clued up either just yet, still trying to learn the retic ways but I got him from prehistoric pets in the USA as a dwarf double het and the fact that he is the size that he is with what he eats I really hope he is a dwarf. Will find out when I breed because genetic stripe is a dwarf gene. I also know that the genetic stripe gene enhances colour is retics.
I guess only time will tell.

[chris w]

if you got them from prehistoric pets i think you can rest easy that they are dwarfs, dwarfs are known to reach lengths of 4meters and a little more. i myself have 6 retics from prehistoric pets and all are amazing.

[Bushviper]

Have a look here because this is the genetics that we are working with here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzMrNka_M0Q

So dont believe the story of these getting to be huge sizes.

[boaboy]

Thanks, Chris W and BV.

I was not all that worried about them being dwarfs it was more the genetics thing as there is no way to really prove it, I guess like most things it all comes down to trust.
With her being as big as she is with her appetite I know she is a dwarf, same with the male.
Cant wait for the breeding season to see what happens!!

[Bushviper]

Well all Genetic striped retics are dwarfs because they only occur in a single locality and no mainland reticulated pythons have this genetic trait.

[boaboy]

So does that mean that she has the gene because she is a dwarf?
I mean she is three and I would guess a touch smaller than the retic in the video.

[Bushviper]

If you cross a dwarf with a mainland (to get het genetic stripe and albino) then she will grow bigger than a dwarf and smaller than a mainland. It all depends on how you feed them. Bob Clark does not even own a male mainland that is over 3 metres because he just slows down on their feeding when they reach sexual maturity. It is the only snake I know of that you can determine how big it is going to get (within reason).
I have seen Super dwarfs that are only 1.3 metres and breeding and then I have seen Super dwarfs that are 2.5 metres and very round.
You cannot expect a mainland giant to only grow to 2 metres and still be healthy. Feed them a decent sized meal once a week and they will grow slowly and live a long time. Feed them a massive meal every 4 days and they will grow to maximum size within 4 years but not live very long.

[boaboy]

Ok cool, So because they are both het genetic stripe they are not true dwarf? So they should hit 4 or so meters, I feed every second week since they hit 1.5m.
I love them either way, if they stay at 3m or hit 5m. Such beautiful animals. Cant wait to get more!

[Bushviper]

Yeah possibly not quite 4 metres. That would make the dwarfs in my book. The male is probably sexually mature but the female will take another year at least.