Rosy Boa Care/ Setup (Brand New Member)

[NewmanLovesSnakes]

Not to worry: you're apparently in the left pit, while I'm in the right one, I also keep other desert snakes here (a TX longnose & 3 Trans Pecos rat snakes) & have
for well over 10 years now, without any difficulty. BTW, some rosy boas are from the coastal side of the mountains too...they're pretty flexible. I do not use any sort of
dehumidifier either...just what my A/C pulls out.

I’ve been doing so much research lately but talking to you made me feel a whole lot better. As far as for what’s catching my eye is the San Felipie’s Ghost Rosy. The Coastals are so pretty but seem more pricey minus a few. I actually talked to Ryan about putting a deposit down on a Ghost here next month. I’m itching so bad to get another snake. I’m in my first house of my own that’s not owned by the military so I can finally have one again lol


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[Bogertophis]

It's a very good feeling to be in control of your household... BTW, I moved here from the desert and among the snakes I brought was the original rosy
boa "mom" (she previously had five big healthy litters)- she spent a number of "retirement" years here in the south and I'm quite sure the humidity wasn't the
cause of her demise at age 26.

[NewmanLovesSnakes]

It's a very good feeling to be in control of your household... BTW, I moved here from the desert and among the snakes I brought was the original rosy
boa "mom" (she previously had five big healthy litters)- she spent a number of "retirement" years here in the south and I'm quite sure the humidity wasn't the
cause of her demise at age 26.

Considering the average is 20-30 I would say she had a damn good life lol I’m hoping to own a snake that long, it would be nice. The weather is definitely something to get used to here and Florida for sure lol


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[Bogertophis]

Considering the average is 20-30 I would say she had a damn good life lol I’m hoping to own a snake that long, it would be nice. The weather is definitely something to get used to here and Florida for sure lol


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She actually came to me as a "rescue": she'd been housed for many years (15) with 2 other female rosy boas in an under-heated & under-sized cage in a chilly* museum.

Until she "went on strike" and barely ate anything for a couple years...then they finally noticed how skinny she was & didn't want her...after all, they had the other 2 that
gave them no trouble...until both got sick & died the year after "my" rosy boa moved in with me. As a volunteer, I initially took her home on a temporary basis to see if
I could get her to eat...I had a house-full of snakes & intended to return her but the idea was for me to find out if she was actually ill, or just unhappy with how she was
being kept. It didn't take me long to find out: with me, she ate constantly & regained some weight, but when I let the staff know, they convinced me to just keep her.

Lucky snake to escape the sad fate of the other 2. *It took me quite a while to convince that museum to buy & install UTH heat for their reptiles...all they were using for
heat was over-head lights, & since heat rises, very little heat made it into the cages, much less to the cage floor where the snakes were...& of course, the museum was
very air-conditioned for human comfort. They actually thought it was "normal" for snakes to regurgitate meals...the staff was not much into snakes & made no secret of
that.

[NewmanLovesSnakes]

She actually came to me as a "rescue": she'd been housed for many years (15) with 2 other female rosy boas in an under-heated & under-sized cage in a chilly* museum.

Until she "went on strike" and barely ate anything for a couple years...then they finally noticed how skinny she was & didn't want her...after all, they had the other 2 that
gave them no trouble...until both got sick & died the year after "my" rosy boa moved in with me. As a volunteer, I initially took her home on a temporary basis to see if
I could get her to eat...I had a house-full of snakes & intended to return her but the idea was for me to find out if she was actually ill, or just unhappy with how she was
being kept. It didn't take me long to find out: with me, she ate constantly & regained some weight, but when I let the staff know, they convinced me to just keep her.

Lucky snake to escape the sad fate of the other 2. *It took me quite a while to convince that museum to buy & install UTH heat for their reptiles...all they were using for
heat was over-head lights, & since heat rises, very little heat made it into the cages, much less to the cage floor where the snakes were...& of course, the museum was
very air-conditioned for human comfort. They actually thought it was "normal" for snakes to regurgitate meals...the staff was not much into snakes & made no secret of
that.

I wish I could get lucky and get a rescue like that not going to lie. It’s very sad how little they knew for housing those things. You think you would do some googling and figure out more about those animals if you where housing them or working there.


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[Bogertophis]

I wish I could get lucky and get a rescue like that not going to lie. It’s very sad how little they knew for housing those things. You think you would do some googling and figure out more about those animals if you where housing them or working there.


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OK, keep in mind that this was some years back, & when that museum was started by the curator & her father, there was no such thing as "googling"... Once upon a
time, people just stuck a light over the screen top to heat a reptile cage. And some of them tried to feed insects to rodent-eating snakes too...etc.

To be honest, I never wanted to breed rosy boas, but that r.b. left me no choice. While in the museum, she surprised them once or twice by expelling a pile of slugs, but
when she came to my house ("the land of warmth & plentiful food"), she went one step further, & had not only a pile of slugs that first summer with me, but also one live
(parthenogenetic) baby. Sadly, "Longshot" was born with defects (bent neck, one eye, etc) & she only lived about 7 mos. before expiring from some unseen internal
defect. I was sad & didn't want the same thing to happen the next year (even more likely as the mom-rosy was bulking up nicely) so reluctantly I decided to give her a
mate, so at least she'd be more apt to have healthy viable offspring. She was not a young snake, & had very poor muscle tone from years of neglect, so that even with
ample food, it was very hard on her to push out slugs, whereas live babies ("neonates") push their own way out. To my surprise, she excelled at reproduction (the "TLC"
made all the difference) & then I wondered where the "off switch" was. It took five years of breeding before her inner biological voice said that was enough. She was
a wonderful rosy boa...that I was privileged to know & care for.

[NewmanLovesSnakes]

OK, keep in mind that this was some years back, & when that museum was started by the curator & her father, there was no such thing as "googling"... Once upon a
time, people just stuck a light over the screen top to heat a reptile cage. And some of them tried to feed insects to rodent-eating snakes too...etc.

To be honest, I never wanted to breed rosy boas, but that r.b. left me no choice. While in the museum, she surprised them once or twice by expelling a pile of slugs, but
when she came to my house ("the land of warmth & plentiful food"), she went one step further, & had not only a pile of slugs that first summer with me, but also one live
(parthenogenetic) baby. Sadly, "Longshot" was born with defects (bent neck, one eye, etc) & she only lived about 7 mos. before expiring from some unseen internal
defect. I was sad & didn't want the same thing to happen the next year (even more likely as the mom-rosy was bulking up nicely) so reluctantly I decided to give her a
mate, so at least she'd be more apt to have healthy viable offspring. She was not a young snake, & had very poor muscle tone from years of neglect, so that even with
ample food, it was very hard on her to push out slugs, whereas live babies ("neonates") push their own way out. To my surprise, she excelled at reproduction (the "TLC"
made all the difference) & then I wondered where the "off switch" was. It took five years of breeding before her inner biological voice said that was enough. She was
a wonderful rosy boa...that I was privileged to know & care for.

That’s so cool, I appreciate you sharing that story with me. She sounds like a wonderful snake, I’ve never seen a snake birth in person so I bet that was neat and it was nice having new baby snakes. I hope to get a nice one that healthy, I want to teach my two year old about snakes and warm my wife up to them. My son thinks they are neat, he points at my phone and says “Wow!”.


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[Bogertophis]

That’s so cool, I appreciate you sharing that story with me. She sounds like a wonderful snake, I’ve never seen a snake birth in person so I bet that was neat and it was nice having new baby snakes. I hope to get a nice one that healthy, I want to teach my two year old about snakes and warm my wife up to them. My son thinks they are neat, he points at my phone and says “Wow!”.


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My pleasure. I think it's wonderful that you'll be sharing what you learn with your son, & the more your wife understands, the sooner she'll change her mind -I'm betting.
Especially if you start with a fragile "baby" snake, she won't be intimidated, though you'll need to refrain from handling while it grows (& might be hard for your son).

About "rescues": I've known many snakes over the years, & as I think more about it, I've learned the most from the snakes that I didn't plan to have & didn't think that I
wanted. I'll admit that some snakes are more beautiful than others, and there's nothing wrong with buying that perfect "dream" snake, but I'm more interested in
"personality", and the snakes that just happened to come my way have had the most interesting things to show & teach me. Life is strange that way...

[NewmanLovesSnakes]

My pleasure. I think it's wonderful that you'll be sharing what you learn with your son, & the more your wife understands, the sooner she'll change her mind -I'm betting.
Especially if you start with a fragile "baby" snake, she won't be intimidated, though you'll need to refrain from handling while it grows (& might be hard for your son).

About "rescues": I've known many snakes over the years, & as I think more about it, I've learned the most from the snakes that I didn't plan to have & didn't think that I
wanted. I'll admit that some snakes are more beautiful than others, and there's nothing wrong with buying that perfect "dream" snake, but I'm more interested in
"personality", and the snakes that just happened to come my way have had the most interesting things to show & teach me. Life is strange that way...

I’m betting if I have a nice snake she’s going to love it, she loves lizards just not snakes. She said the Rosy that I want is pretty. My son likes snakes, he sees my pictures on my phone and says “WOW!!!!!” I stepped on a speckled king snake a few weeks back and picked it up to relocate it and my son was not scared at all. It scared the sh*t out of me. Those are my favorite non-constricting snake.


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[Bogertophis]

...I stepped on a speckled king snake a few weeks back and picked it up to relocate it and my son was not scared at all. It scared the sh*t out of me. Those are my favorite non-constricting snake...

FYI, speckled king snakes ARE "constrictors"... I have kept one in the past.