Is there anyone near Salem, OR that can take a Rosy Boa?

So I don't. Browsing craiglist and found an ad advertising a special needs rosy boa, they've been syringe feeding her for six months (I gather from the wording) but wife just got pregnant so snake has to go. Idk... I get the feeling if a pregnancy is enough to make them dump a special needs snake on craiglist, it might be the people not the snake. Poor girl is THIN. Rosys are a breed I've wanted and liked and my "save all the things" finger is itching to grab her.

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Having to syringe feed a snake is both stressful for the owner and the snake. And its no way for a snake to live. Ive already been down that road. Its not a nice one :(
Id pass on a snake like that, but inform the owner the best thing for the animal would be to have it humanely euthanized.
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Yeah I figured that might be possibility. I emailed to ask about the husbandary and see if anything jumped at me as something i could correct. I'd even take her just to make sure she gets euthanized and not just passed on to someone who'd keep her alive like that.

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So emailed her some more, temps sound ok 84-90 during the day and 74-80 at night which sounds a little cold. They also went straight to syringe feeding after she didn't take f/t pinks. They still offer the f/t but she's not interested. Well no duh. :/ they have her in a 20l that looks really open... I kinda want to put her in a small tub, give her some space then try a live pinky and see if its stress and insecurity causing it. Poor girl. I can't even imagine going from f/t to force feed. She's so thin too :/

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I think you should just get it and have it euthanized.

Yeah. It's about 99% sure if I get her that what it will come down too. I mean, it'd be awesome if I tried and it worked and I could 'save' her, but I don't think it's possible at this point. I'm not sure if I'm more upset at the 'we are having a baby, so no time for the snake!' or 'we couldn't get her to eat f/t, so we've been syringe feeding her for six months'. She told me to check out wiki for care, so she can google ... did she not catch that syringe feeding isn't a good solution?

This was broached in another thread, but how would you handle taking a snake for euth purposes? Would you tell the owner? I'm pretty sure if I said I want to put her down, the lady would cut all contact (she wants to find a home with 'lots of time for her special girl') and the snake would go somewhere else.

I would get it, and try to see if you can get it to recover at all, maybe start it off on something undersized and if that doesn't work try to put it in a paperbag with the food. I don't know the size of rosy boas, but fuzzy mice or rat pups or fuzzies should be okay? Try live for the first feeding and if that works you can give multiple per feeding and stay feeding live until you get her up to size.

Either way I wouldn't bother telling the idiots anything, especially if it leads to having to have her euthanize. Hopefully the live feeding in the dark triggers a feeding response. I wish you luck regardless, but I'd at least give the snake a fighting chance. With them stressing the snake out that may be why it never fed regularly, and no telling how long they waited to try to feed her when they first got her. Give her a chance though.

I'd go pinky with her size- she's pretty thin. And I've read (here actually) that live after syringe feeding can really stress her/shock her system out- that shock alone could kill her. If I do get her and give her shot, she'd be in blacked out tub, left alone, then live pinky and left alone some more. If she ate and it didn't put her into shock, we'd go from there. If she didn't eat... well :/ I wouldn't make her suffer with more syringe feeding.
I need to think about it a little more.

I was looking at a good idea for a tub size last night (to be prepared)... I saw 32qt get recc'ed a few times. Would you go smaller? I know BP's like small and tight vs large and spacious as babies, I don't know if rosies are the same, but it seems like it wouldn't hurt.

Pictures from the post:
http://images.craigslist.org/00G0G_e...08_600x450.jpg
http://images.craigslist.org/00I0I_c...5m_600x450.jpg

I can't recommend size because I know nothing of the sizes of Rosy Boa's. I wish you luck whatever way you decide to go though.

They also wanted $75 dollars for her. I talked it down to $65 because I don't need/want the tank, but I'm a little leery of laying down $65 plus money for the rest of her supplies for a snake that could die due to stress from transport, or die from just the stress of moving. IDK D:

I used to have two rosy boas. They actually bred once n produced a litter of babies. I kept them each in a 10 gallon tank, fed them live fuzzies/hoppers, n they were just fine. Rosy boas are actually pretty small snakes, n like to burrow a bit.

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I ended up not taking her. The rehoming fee was 65 dollars, and I'd need to buy her tub/UTH/thermostat/thermometers... which would add up for a snake that could not survive the trip to my house (I don't live in Salem, but about an 45-60 minutes south), or might not survive the next week or two or its first feeding. IDK D: I told the owner that if she couldn't find a home and needed one ASAP to contact me and I'd see what I could do. We also had some unexpected expenses come up while I was debating what to do. I hope she finds a good home :/ and hopefully one that won't syringe feed the poor thing.

$65 for a snake thats only surviving by being syringe fed is ridiculously high. It sounds to me like they care more about the $$$ than the animal. Its been quite a few years, but i got a baby mex. rosy boa at a show for $55, and ive purchased adult breeder female, also at a show for $80. I know its hard cuz you care about the snake....but its prob better you just let that one go.

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That's what I felt as well.
I mean on one hand, I get wanting a higher price to weed out people who just want a free animal and don't realize how much work she'd be. Or getting back some of the money spent on the tank+gear, or needing extra cash.
But on the other... yeah. Dumping a special needs animal and then asking for money for her? I don't think they get how sick she is- I mentioned being leery of taking her when she was thin enough, I wasn't sure she'd survive the ride home. The owner goes, "Oh, she's not thin, she's in shed." And I'm not even going to touch selling her because she got pregnant after only owning for only six months. I get downsizing and having other animals that need priority, but still irresponsible.

ooookay then. There's a difference between a thin snake and a snake in shed, but ok.


I did tell her that if she really needed a home, I could take the snake and she could sell the rest of her gear together (I was originally asking for light+snake which brought it down from 75 to 65, but she didn't want to go any lower). So we'll see. :/


side tangent- I live in a college town and I see a lot of people re-homing their balls because they say they don't have enough time for them. ...really? I get that with a dog or cat (I don't condone it, but I get it). My dog lives with my parents even though I miss him because I know I can't give him the attention he needs. Tali however, could care less if I'm here or not and her care is pretty simple and not exactly strenuous most days. I think it's more they get bored with the snake, or the exoticness rubs off. It's just annoying to read ad after ad of 'I got this ball python 2-6 months ago, and I can't give her the time she needs/I'm going home and mom won't allow it, but I love her so much I want a good home so give me a rehoming fee'