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The relative merits of keeping a retic outside of a zoo are hotly debated as with any number of giant snakes.
A blanket statement that the 'best' pet for a first snake is specifically and always a [[Ball Python]] is a gross oversimplification. Individual snakes have individual temperaments. Ball pythons may well not be suitable for some people. Personally, I'd recommend a [[Columbian Red-Tailed Boa]] over a Ball Python due to a more 'cuddly' and affectionate temperament, though they get much larger and cost more to feed. [[Burmese pythons]] are very popular, though this is partly due to a misconception that they are the mildest-mannered of pythons -- something that if often true but untrue often enough to lead to the occassional disaster. [[Blood pythons]] are also sometimes kept for their temperament, though this widly fluctuates from blood python to blood python, and the most common reason for keeping a blood is the pretty ankh on the forehead.
However, there are also plenty of non-python, non-boids that would also make suitable pets. Western Hog-nosed snakes in particular often have mild dispositions when socialised, and as to the 'brag' factor, a hog-nosed owner can honestly state that they own a venomous snake (though the venom only has a mild anaesthetic effect and is injected by back-facing fangs inside the throat, which means one would have to shove a finger down its throat in order to get a numb finger). King snakes and black racers (both colubrids) have also been often found as good starter ophidians.
If more detailed advice as to the keeping of a retic as a pet or not is to be given, it might be pointed out both that retics who have grown over a certain size should certainly never be kept without special facilities (however a four-foot adolescent is no different than any other mean-tempered, moody snake -- many ball pythons come to mind), and that there is a smaller option, the Dwarf Retic, which has not been seen to ever get large enough to swallow its owner, unlike a egular retic. : [[User:66.199.69.117|66.199.69.117]]
== Herpetoculture vs. Herpetology ==
A number on interesting things have been done with reticulated pythons over the past couple of 10 years in the field of [[herpetoculture]] . A variety of new strains have developed through the selective breeding efforts of private breeders producing snakes for the [[pet trade]].
It is unfortunate, however, that this article has more information about keeping reticulated pythons in captivity rather than it does about the animal in the wild. --[[User:Bezbaq|Bezbaq]] 01:49, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)
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