I find with retics that they tend to be more active than a lot of other snakes their size and they seem to appreciate a bit of room to move around. When they are babies they like to feel secure, so huge cages arent the best, but by the time they have hit the ten foot mark(often even eight) or so they are usually pretty secure in themselves and will appreciate some room to roam. Melamine isnt bad, but it can be a heavy material to work with especially larger cages, so it isnt a personal favorite of mine, although it holds heat and humidity well when sealed properly and snakes do do well in it. There are some nice Visions, and neos out there that work well for some adult retics, and it all depends on how big your retics get. Now adays it is difficult to predict because so many people breed dwarfs into the lines and such, so some adults may only hit 15 feet, while others could approach 25 or more. I love the 54" x 36" x 18" visions for retics up to about 12 feet or so. Beyond that the 6 footer works well for tics up to about 14. I have seen bigger in these cages, but I dont think its adequete space for such an active species. The eight foot neos are awesome if you can find them, but it can be a tough find. Those will house a good sized retic no problem, and probably be sufficiant for 75% of the adults out there, but there are those retics that just get huge, and those will often require custom caging, right up to their own room in some cases. There are a lot of caging companies out there that have offered, or are starting to offer caging for these larger animals if you look around. My suggestion is to comparison shop and see what would work best for your retics and you. Go on here, or kingsnake and look at the caging ads. I wouldnt spend a ton of money on the middle caging(while they are growing fast, 6-12 feet) save the money and go extravagent on their permanemt homes once they get adult sized. I am not saying to go cheap, but no need to buy the best cage out there to use for 6-12 months, unless you plan on having alot of snakes raising up that could use them. No matter what reccomendations you get I suggest finding what works best for the animal and something you like since you have to look at it all the time.
As far as heating goes I love the Flex watt. It is to die for, heat lights are garbage IMO. They are difficult to use to control ambience and basking ect. I would pony up the extra bit of change and get some decent thermostats and flex watt ect, I love it, plus its cheaper to run! My snakes have eaten better, shed better, and been healthy as can be since I started using it. Its great stuff. Good luck as always, Dan M.
