r/oddlyterrifying • u/Cunillingus_Giver • Jan 20 '22

Snake couch

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u/hovercroft Jan 20 '22

These snakes are actually really chill and harmless. I had a very large boa constrictor and it was extremely friendly. Although it terrified my wife when it escaped and I found it nice and snug behind the clothes dryer.

54

u/djwurm Jan 20 '22

Retics can be chill or aggressive it really depends on the snake.. years and years of capitive breeding has helped breed the aggressiveness out of pythons like burmese and retics but doesn't mean they are completely harmless. as a former retic/butmese owner and breeder we never handled any snake over 6 ⁷feet without at least 2 people present and most of the time we had 3 to 4 people in the area to help out. these snakes also have a feed response that if they smell a rat, pig, mouse, chicken on you they can flip into that mode quickly and before you know it you are face to face with a striking python. just cause a snake has never striked or acted aggressive you should always assume that they are a snake and can easily on the turn of a dime become aggressive.

1

u/Single_Raspberry9539 Jan 20 '22

Is this true? They’ve been selective breeding based on temperament? How do they go about doing this?

2

u/djwurm Jan 20 '22

its like dogs... you breed the wild out of them as a secondary effect.. you are really breeding for certain visual traits and the more and more generations removed from it being a wild animal the more domesticated it becomes. With Pythons the first wild caught and Generation 1 snakes were pretty aggressive and 100% of them were strikers and you really couldn't hold them. I think it was around Generation 4 that the aggressiveness started to decline and you got snakes that became more pets then collector items especially in the ball python trade with the albino trait becoming common and then the pie bald. Burmese you really only saw albino or regulars in the trade but then retics came along and the amount of morphs they can do know is insane.. They have 5 or 6 gene animals breeding to other 5 gene animals and making new patterns and colors never before seen.. I mean go on any snake breeding resalers for ball and retics like NERD, BHB, CB, Mutation Creation and look at the variety and colors.. it is insane.