Dwarf Retics

So I've been looking at dwarf retics here lately but haven't been able to find to much about their genetics. I was wondering how they pass down the dwarf gene and if a dwarf x dwarf make a super dwarf and is their any way to tell a dwarf from a normal if the pairing was dwarf x anything but dwarf?

Jampea dwarfs look different than regulars from what I remember. I had two 50% dwarfs I picked up in a buyout. One was normal and the other was a tiger. It's hard to tell unless you know them very well. After hours of researching and contacting the breeder, I was confident they were 50%. The jamps just look plainer IIRC.

I love the "big" boids, but I don't have room for them. I really want a Retic or a Burm, so I've been looking into Dwarfs, but not all that extensively or seriously.

I think it might just be a simple recessive. Being able to tell neonates apart from their normal/het brethren sounds like it would be a nightmare O_O

Sorry, that probably wasn't very helpful lol

When Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs (VPP) first entered the pet trade they were very expensive and somewhat difficult to get. At the height of their popularity, unscrupulous breeders bred VPPs to typical domestic pigs, the resulting offspring looked like VPPs and were sold as such at a great profit. This went on for a while until people discovered that their VPPs purchased from the unscrupulous breeders were growing huge, almost to the full size of domestic pigs.

I believe that we are starting to see the same thing unfold with "dwarf" retics. If I were going to purchase a dwarf retic, I would make sure and get if from a well established reputable breeder.

jw wrote:

When Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs (VPP) first entered the pet trade they were very expensive and somewhat difficult to get. At the height of their popularity, unscrupulous breeders bred VPPs to typical domestic pigs, the resulting offspring looked like VPPs and were sold as such at a great profit. This went on for a while until people discovered that their VPPs purchased from the unscrupulous breeders were growing huge, almost to the full size of domestic pigs.

I believe that we are starting to see the same thing unfold with "dwarf" retics. If I were going to purchase a dwarf retic, I would make sure and get if from a well established reputable breeder.

That is my exact concern with the dwarf gene. I would like to get into it because I love retics and already have one baby tiger but I also know they take up alot of space. I currently have the space but I know as I grow my space will be limited and space seems to be the problem for alot of other people who love these animals too so dwarf seems like the answer. My real concern is how it would be passed down when trying to mix with other genes is it simple recessive or something more. Obliviously to mix with the other retic genes it would have to be a large scale line breeding project if its simple recessive but if I got into them I wouldn't want to produce a dwarf and have it end up being full size.

@ Nick i looked up the Jampea dwarfs and yeah they look very different from normal retics so in that case it would be easy to tell.

@ Stray That is the exact reason i would like to get into breeding dwarf retics. I think it would be great to be able to make them more manageable to people who already have a love for them but not the room for them

Definitely! They're such gorgeous snakes. I wonder if Dwarfs became the standard "captive" Retic size, would some of the legislation and bad press surrounding them be countered? It's one thing to be intimidated by a 20-foot Retic, but an 8-foot is much less scary.

(off topic) I recall the furor over the VPPigs and seeing a few that were supposed to be "true" VPP and thinking, "there's no way a 300lb pig is a dwarf pig" but the crossing with normal pigs clears up that mystery for me, thanks