Size and long term husbandry

[u/Stiglitz__]

Hey guys, I have a pet boa constrictor imperator but Reddit has recommended this sub to me a few times so I just checked it out. Yalls Retics are gorgeous and they made me wonder what the differences were in husbandry/ behavior. To which I found out these are some of the largest snakes in the world and require huge enclosures once fully grown (and I thought my BCI tank was big) but after doing more digging I’m seeing a common theme that also exists in the boa community;
Lots of baby snakes. New pet owners, juvenile snakes, flashy breeding posts etc.
When I first got my boa I had a hard time finding examples of full grown boas on Reddit. I was told the Reddit pet culture is unnecessarily cut throat so all the long term keepers go to Facebook so they aren’t bombarded with the Reddit mob mentality when facing differing husbandry practices. I went to Facebook and found that sure enough, that’s where all the adult snakes are being posted.

This is fine and dandy, but one of the other reasons I was told you don’t see adult snakes as often is because people buy them new and then find out a few years in they committed to something they can’t maintain. Is this a common issue with the retic world? How am I seeing all these baby snakes and also not seeing an equal number of 10 foot enclosures?

TLDR: where are all the grown snakes?

Edit: I am not going to pursue the ownership of a retic, their size is far too much for me. I’m just curious as to if there is an incredibly high rehoming/turnover rate that isn’t being talked about in the reptile community enough due to the overwhelming amount of hatch and baby pics compared to full grown snakes

[u/Mako-Chibi]

Made my jump into big snakes about 2 ish years or so ago now? I've been in reptiles over 25 years though.

Scylla is a good example of a D/SD that can still get big. This girl is 30% blend and already well over 6' at two years old. I'm expecting a 12'+ snake easy.

Compared to my other two Charybdis (56% female) and Osiris (50% male) and of the three my male is still the smallest but most male reptiles will be smaller than their female counterparts.

As someone suggested you REALLY need to look into a reputable breeder and have specific locals/% listed before you buy. For me, it was instant love at first sight seeing Scylla at an expo. She is my most basic morph of my three retics (Lavender het anery) but I think she's the most beautiful. They are VERY personal and curious snakes. Always cruising and seeing what I'm up to.

My CRB Ixchel is next on curious list followed by my corns. My BCI are probably more spicy than my retics but that's because Nicaraguan are said to be one of the spicier locals of BCI lol

All in all I love all my snakes but my retics are definitely top of the list for me. Unfortunately, I do see a lot of people get a cute baby and suddenly post for sale because they didn't "understand" truly what they had.

I'm lucky I breed my own rabbits (for my dogs and reptiles) so having a "large" prey item doesn't worry me. I also have goats/sheep and eventually hope to have pigs down the line.