The name’s chelle

Introductions
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What i said about feeding problems is a fairly widespread problem with that species, they can be picky eaters and many people have problems with them eating even yourself. I see them go off food for periods and i do see many posts not just here of “help! My ball python wont eat” of course it could be just that there is a higher prevalence of ball pythons and therefore probable that there may be more instances of problems.

Ball pythons require a consistent humidity wheras rosy boas do not so long as it doesn’t stay over 60 for long stretches. Its much easier to maintain a species that is native to California than it is trying to create a southern African environment. Sure theres breeders and keepers of balls in california but most breeders should know how to properly maintain correct conditions same with most keepers.

I haven’t met a retic yet that wasn’t very defensive unless you work a lot to desensitize them to you. Also a retic besides their gianormous size have a potential to seriously harm a person, a rosy (even my large male have a small head so little chance of doing any real harm if bit) yes some baby Rosys can be nippy but many baby snakes are more defensive but in general they are pretty docile, they are also a slow moving snake, unlike some other varieties, balls tend to move slow too.

While they may have similar temperatures around 85/86 California doesn’t have that humidity except artificially which requires monitoring and work which for a beginner can be a bit more difficult.

True many pet stores especially big box chains tend to know very little about the animals they sell.

I haven’t heard of a rosy boa with an eating disorder however that doesn’t preclude the possibility that there may be Rosys out there that don’t eat. I know none of mine have ever had a problem and nobody i know that have Rosys have feeding issues.

Balls are a beginner plus animal, it helps if you have had experience with animals that are similar needs.

Honestly my Rosys never even use the heat pad, they may once winter hits, but then again they will be in brumation where i will drop the temperature. Of course you should still provide a hot spot of 85° just incase they need it. My room is about 83°+ every day so they don’t seem to want the hot spot.

Yes everyone has their favorites and they will all convince you of their favorites, but most are only willing to tell their positives and not be too particularly about speaking of negatives.

The OP said they had a child and pets such as a dog, so one has to consider factors such as safety. I wouldn’t even recommend a regular boa because of the size they can attain.

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I love all their unique names!

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Much respect for sticking to the hobby for so long. That’s real dedication. My original favorite is the ball python. I find them to be so beautiful and a nice sturdy size. Their personalities are right up my alley. The reason why it’s hard to choose is because my fiancé highly favors and refuses to sway from a corn snake. I’m confident in my ability to give either a life that is up to standards. My cresties have been good starters for humidity.

Starting to wonder why not both? Now that’s gonna need some convincing :joy: The thing is we’re moving to Socal and will be living upstairs with no AC. A ball may do better in those circumstances than a corn snake? I have no idea.

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Hello @michellepeach , as you can see, you will get all kinds of advice. In the end only you know what is best for you. Haveing ball pythons, i know exactly what to expect from them (besides the odd or unexpected health issue, which luckily we have been lucky enough not to experience). But over all, they are mostly a very easy to take care of. Every living thing has its bad days, humans included. But if something comes up, you have a large community here that can help out.
And welcome to the community.

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Seems like just my kinda place. I’m very excited to continue discussions and get to know a few things along the way to starting what will probably be a small collection of reptiles :relaxed:

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Welcome, Chelle! Sounds like you have a lovely and lovable menagerie going. No offense intended toward your child. I always considered our part of our menagerie, lol. I’m sure you’ll enjoy your future snake, too.

There are a lot of great snakes out there. I’m going to give my completely biased opinion that it’s really hard to beat corn snakes as a family pet. I’ve had corns since 2008. I love their beautiful colors and patterns, their active and curious personalities. I’ve had the pleasure of keeping them at home, and also as classroom pets when I was teaching. I just adore my corns.

Whatever snake you do choose, you’ve make one great choice already. You’ve chosen to be part of a great community here at MorphMarket !

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For starters, @rmleone. My appologies. Didnt mean to offend you for referencing incorrect gender. Just didnt know.
Secondly, i wasn’t recommending a retic, simply referencing other species. I would never recommend a retic in a household with younger children. I think they and any of the larger species should only be kept by people that have enough experience handling larger snakes. Simply not a beginnier snake due to their size and specialized handling requirements. However, i have seen many larger species that can be simply as tame as your rosy boas. I’ve also seen many of these animals, Rosies included, that span all spectrums of the temperment ranges.
Thirdly, Ball Pythons are not my favorite snake. I love the arboreal pythons and boas but dont draw a line there. i find certain things about many different snakes interesting. I have had Madigascar Tree boas that i could reach in the tank bareganded witout a hook and never worry about being bitten. I was breeding Green Tree Pythons in the early 90s and my main female was so tame that I could trust her not to bite. I could handle her at shows and put her around my neck without fear of being bitten, and she was an import. There is a certain level of trust that you can attain with SOME of these animals. They will never be domesticated to the level of a dog or cat and probably never learn to fetch a ball. But they do exhibit their own level of inteligence and can learn to trust the the people that own them.
As i stated about my ball pythons, mine are not problematic. I have a few that went off food temporarilly after being bitten by live rodents. Precisely why i try not to feed live anymore. And those that occasionally skip a week here or there. Otherwise, I only have a few females that may skip food while holding eggs. But these typically resume food shortly after. You also have to consider that the novice Ball owner may not even know that Female Boa or Python has cycling egg folicles which doesnt always happen during the typical egg laying season in North America. I’ve had female Boas and Pythons have eggs or babies during all times of the year and is another simple reason why boas and pythons may go off food. This should be expected of any healthy female snake being kept in captivity. Boas and pythons dont require any brumation period like colubrids, so long as they are the right size, wieght and typically at least 3 years old. Sometimes weather patterns can trigger your Boas and Pythons to stop feeding as well. If you happen to have more than one animal and definately a pair and keep them together, the male may take ques from a cycling female and refuse food for a short time. Usually, it’s something that a slight change to their set up, seperating them or even moving one or two animals.to a different room in the house temporarilly can rectify. Same thing can happen with any of the other snake species as well.

If in question, a quick trip to a vet can rule out any illnesses and help understand if there is anything serious with their behavior.

I can’t generalize any comments about feeding problems that are being posted in forums. Most of those posts are simply because the person posting them doesnt have the same experience level as other people. You’re probably not going to find an experienced keeper posting anything about animals not eating. It’s simply experience versus inexperience and if your snakes eat regularly, are healthy and kept properly, most can handle several weeks without eating. They dont need to eat every week just because we think they should. Snakes are opertunistic feeders, in the wild typically all eat when they can find food.
I have 50+ Balls at the moment. A dozen carpet pythons, pair of spotted pythons, 2 Sand Boas (adult and one of her offspring), 1 Woma, 1 male Dumerils Boa and a couple Hypo Columbian Red Tail X Hoggs Island Boa crosses. I was up to over 150 snakes back in 2008 which also included about 30 Corn Snake Breeders, several Honduran Milksnake morphs and Black Milksnkes and probabaly another 30 different morphs of Boa Constrictors.

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Hey, me again. Please dont think I’m against Rosie Boas. I actually do like them. But i am concerned about our future abilities to keep our animals and some of the regulations I’ve been seeing some states trying to pass. There are far too many legislatures out there that are listening to bad informariin reguarding invasive species and applying it too broadly to all reptiles. Illinois has regulations against keeping many of our native species and requires a special permit to even sell them at any reptile shows even if they are a hybrid or crossing of different morphs. Georgia DNR recently tried to pass similar bills reguarding Buemese and Indian Pythons, Black and White Tegus, Water Monitors, some softshell turtles and even some fish and bird species. This Georgia bill will require peole that own the listed animals to obtain dangerous animal licenses and require additional insurance to cover any damages. I looked this up un USARK site a little bit ago and it actually passed on Oct 25th. With similar bills like this ecomming regulation, we will possibly have more fights on our hands in thr future. California could rule against keeping native Boas which could make it difficult to legally keep your Rosy Boas. I saw some other state was trying make Arizona Mountain Kings and Gray Band Kings difficult to keep as well. So in short, make sure you keep up with the ongoing changes that our local and state legislatures are trying to pass and stay current with whats happening through USARK since they are our biggest voice against regulations that could prevent us from keeping any reptiles. Unfortunately, once these ideas become official, it becomes a lot easier for states to amend the rulings and simply add more animals to them before we are even aware that it has passed.

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Welcome to the community.

I am a Crestie lover. Although I do like other reptiles, Cresties are just my kind of reptile.

I also have ball pythons and they are so easy to care for.
I understand your concern about then going off food etc
and yes we have had a couple of fussy eaters, but they also had issues. I’d go by what you want, you can always ask the breeder of they are good feeders or not. I know some breeders keep a feeding log & are happy to share.

We had terrible feeding issues with a bearded dragon & a leopard gecko. It put us off getting more after they did get better

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I don’t believe in invasive soecies its just some bs humans made up. Every species was “invasive” at one time, animals migrate. Nature knows how to adapt theres countless species going extinct and countless new ones found. Nature evolves, thats what it does, all humans do is screw it up, coyote hunts anyone? Idiots believe they are invasive pests yet all their killing didn’t do anything in fact it just made them adapt now when you kill a female all of the other females go into heat. The reason coyotes are so abundant is because idiots killed all the top tier predators that kept them in check. When all them invasive species don’t have food they will die and species will adapt defensive measures. Orcas learned how to hunt great whites from 1 orca( now thats one pod that does this but it shows how nature knows better than humans. Turtles eat jellyfish, other fish eat lion fish, so fish will learn to adapt to lion fish, and other animals will learn snakes.

Yeah everyone gonna disagree.

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Oh my kid is definitely a part of the menagerie! Thank you for that! I do admire the wide array of morphs and colors with the corn snake. We’re hoping to get one shipped in this Tuesday! :partying_face:

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I can almost just put my snake in an enclosure with aspen bedding hides and offer food and water and probably not use a heat pad. The same cannot be said of balls and many other reptiles. I happen to live in the ideal climate for several species. My Rosys like barely ever even are seen near where the heat pad. In my book thats about as basic as you can get. :woman_shrugging:

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@rmleone… i share your opinion on all of these non-reptile species. But we are forgetting one key point, that MAN is probably the most invasive species of all. But we choose not to acknowledge that of ourselves and lay the blame on everything else. Isnt that just ironic.

With regard to your comment about caging and your Rosy Boa, it almost sounds like your saying that you could keep your animals that way but that you dont.

To further add to that it really sounds like you have a natural hate of Ball Pythons. Fact is, it turns out that if you choose to keep a large enough water bowl for your snake to crawl into, or maybe a hide box with some moist sphagnum moss or other sbstrate, or maybe your one of those people thaf actually.has time.a s energy to mist your animal one or twice a day, your humidity issues go away. Ball Pythons and a lot if other snakes only require a slightly higher humidity for a few days when their eyes blue over before shedding. The water bowl imay be sufficient the rest of the time as long as your not letting it go bone dry for several days. The rest of your concern about the heating pad is subjective. I have some ball pythons that only lay on the pad for a few days after they eat. Some that spend a portion of their day on it and some that stay on the other end of their enosure for days at a time. Personally, my snake room is 82 deg. That means I dont actually have to turn on the undertank heat 24/7 and i dont have to run the supplemental heat source “full on” to keep my animals warm. If i was using a temperature controller, i could actually cycle the heat tape temps down or even off at night to provide a more natural temperature cycle in their environment.

Temperatures inside and outside our homes change daily and throughout the year. Everybody really should keep at least a small heat pad or shall i call it, ‘A species appropriate temperature “Warn Spot”’ in their enclosure for any reptile species. Otherwise they could be looking at the possibility of a sick animal at some point.

@rmleone, The experienced keepers come here to provide advice for people like @michellepeach. We should be working towsrds helping them be successful with the animals they want to keep. We shouldn’t be making it our mission to try and convince them not to get or keep an animal that we obvjously don’t like or dont want to work with ourselve. But rather, we should be helping to educate them with alternatives on how to achieve keeping an animal they might have the same passion for keeping as you have for your Rosy Boas.

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So you decided to go with corn snake, congratulations. I had a few way back when. They where a tad easier then my ball pythons, mostyl when it came to feeding. Like i said, get waht you want and it will work out.

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@d_y_python… i really wish i still had Corns and Kings. I love working with all my snakes. But I could always count on my corns to eat mice that maybe someone else just didnt want during that feeding. I had a few that were always the last ones i fed just for that reason.
I also knew when i was feeding live rodents, it was inevitable that once and a while i would get a mouse that would get out of the plastic transfer box i used and get away from me. I had 2 corns that i could always send behind something while holding them by the rear third of their body to retreive the rodent. It was like fishing for mice but with a snake instead of a fishing pole. LOL.

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Lol… that is good. I never thought about using a snake to retrieve an escaped rat. But luckily, it has not happened yet. If we used f/t, i would probably get a couple corn or rat snakes for this same reason. Once i figured out the ball eating patterns, it has been easy to keep them eating. And yes, still a skipped meal from timt to time, but very rare.

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Its not that i “hate” ball pythons but they are often pushed to the exclusion of other species, that are easier.

Of course i use a heat pad for my Rosys, but they never use it, its more for just in case now.

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If we are here to be informative and helpful then we should also speak about all the species that are in that class so they can make a better informed choice. Everyone talks about ball pythons and the fact that there are over 40k of those snakes shows just how much they are pushed over any other snake.

Yes i may be biased as many here are. But i really love Rosys and have never experienced an issue with them except Orange Crush who is a bit nippy, but she has relaxed a lot, to where she will come to see me when i call her. My Rosys eat F/T very well i feed them about once every 10 days.

Corn snakes are cool as well i know they are faster than a rosy or a ball and are great at escaping but so has OC :joy: she outsmarted me twice.

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@rmleone … thats funny about the escaping. Glad that you have your passion for Rosy’s. It’s good that we have people here with that enthusiasm and passion about their animals. My favorites are actually Green Tree Pythons. I always liked the look of the babies and was always intrigued about the color change as they matured to adulthood. I did a lot of research about these when i was in college. I started with similar species, Cooks Phase and Gold Phase Amazon Tree Boas that were impoelrted adults in the early 90s to learn more about arboreal snakes. Then worked my way into some CB baby Amazon Tree Boas and learned a lot more about rasing young arboreal boas before i even got my first pair of GTP… Then i was off to the races. I produces my first eggs in 97 and babies from that clutch all took F/T pink mice from tongs after their first shed. I was in heaven. Unfortunately, life gets in the way sometimes and i ended up selling all of my animals ONCE… i went a little over 2 years completely without any snakes around 1999 or 2000. But i couldnt stay away from the 1 thing i was so passionate about. I don’t currently have any GTP but have come close to buying a couple already this year and k iw they are in my future again very soon. I’m currently working with Balls and Carpets, gave a pair of spotted pythons I havent put together yet, 1 Dumeril Boa and 1 Woma I’m trying to find mates for and a few Hoggs Island and Hypo Hoggs that are slowly growing but I am slowly transitioning out of Red Tail Boas but looking at possibly adding Angolan, Rough Scale, Ringed Pythons and Green Phase Macklott’s pythons if i can ever find thise again. I had a pair of the green Macklotts before i sold ally animals. I believe they were imported from one of the smaller islands but can’t find any location data on them now or anyone that has any.

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Yes i am very passionate about my Rosys and of course all my aracnids.

Of course Rosys don’t have all the variance of Ball pythons or others and their wild or basic markings are not that appealing to some people. I hope one day people will come to love Rosys.

I always thought tree snakes were awesome i think the one thing that kept me from getting one ( besides my mom forbidden any snake) was i heard they have some nasty disposition. My young Rosy OC has the attitude of a 20’ python but she is more bark than bite :joy: getting bit by her isn’t even hurting she is so small, i don’t want to get bit by a much larger boa or python because they are so much bigger and have greater bite force.

Maybe more people will talk about how great Rosys actually are. I see Rosys in stores from time to time but there isn’t the selection or floor space given to them like other species. KSB also seem to not be represented too much. I remember when i was looking at snakes and the guy actually talked me out of a sand boa. He was like yeah if you want to look at an empty enclosure get one.

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