Anyone own Rosy Boas?

[Alicia]

One Rosy here. I just adore her. She's 21, about 38 inches. Haven't weight her in a while, but she's lighter than a BP of the same length. Her last weigh-in was ~800 grams. Probably one of the Coastal/Desert intergrades. She was a pet shop snake, so dunno the exact locality.

I keep Kira in a 20gal long with the screen top fully exposed. It allows for low humidity, which is what you want with a Rosy.

Substrate of the last few years has been plain old shredded aspen, and it seems to really agree with her. She does sometimes burrow. It's cute. I've also had her on newspaper and paper towels and it all works fine.

She always has fresh water available. The container I use is relatively small. If any spills, I clean it up right away. I provided a humid hide when she shed about the first year I had her. I don't any more, it's completely unnecessary.

I use a 60 watt incandescent bulb for heat during the day, though she's done fine over the years with a UTH, a heat mat taped to the outside side of her tank for back heat, low wattage colored 'party' bulbs, and a 40 watt bulb. Her UTH was set at 84. Using a light, I provide basking spot over 90 if she wants to sit on top of her hide box right under the light, but she rarely opts to get as hot as she could. In the hot part of summer, I frequently have her at room temp and she's fine with that. Sometimes she has climbing branches (just cleaned hardwood limbs from around the property), sometimes not. When she has them, she investigates them.

I do understand baby Rosies can be tough to start and sometimes need to be cooled over the winter to get them going. I got Kira as a juvenile, and she was totally trouble free. She went through a long phase of trying to eat my hands. It wasn't aggression, it was a food response. She'd just start checking out my hand and then casually open her mouth and try to see if she could swallow it. She's eaten live, fresh killed, f/t, all sizes of mice, and up to large weanling rats. Now I just feed her f/t. She'll take them at room temp, but I get a more enthusiastic response if I warm them under a light bulb for ~5 min. For the last 10-12 years, she's gone off feed from around now through Feb.

That's all I can think of right now. If you get one, post pics