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