Posted by:
markg
at Thu Mar 10 14:45:53 2011 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by markg ]
SnakeDad, Coastal rosies are about the easiest rosyboa to keep. Rosies in general are easy if you follow certain guidelines, and coastals are the easiest. Nice choice.
Basically, make sure it has a heat pad where the area over the heat pad is about 85-90 deg.
Don't know what you are using for substrate. You can use newspaper, especially for the new snake. You can use aspen substrate, shallow enough so the heater heats through it. I use a 1/4 inch layer for baby rosies typically. My substrate of choice for subadults and adults is calcium sand mixed with coconut coir soil (if using a glass tank) or else just newspaper. It conducts heat better and is truly benign. The dust doesn't make me sneeze like aspen can. My rosies love it, been using it for a long long time. Most folks use aspen.
My advice to you is to get a frozen small fuzzy from the pet store. Thaw it out, warm it to around 95-plus deg (warm water) and offer to the snake. Pinkies are not much of a meal for a coastal rosy, even a baby coastal. In fact, I feed baby rosies fuzzies as a first meal unless the rosy is very small. Even though fuzzies seem huge, baby rosies eat them with no issue and seem way more enthusiastic compared to when I offer thawed pinkies.
Alot of folks will say that rosies cannot handle larger food. I disagree. Perhaps at 82 deg then yes, but when a rosy can warm up to higher temps, then it can eat large prey items. That has been my experience. In the wild baby rosies do not wait for the smallest food possible. In the wild they can also warm up effectively.
If your snake eats thawed, no need to change that. Coastals are pretty good about eating thawed right off the bat.
Also, do not handle the snake after it eats - give it a good 3 days to be left alone. I would remove any water from the cage when you feed it and keep it out for 3-4 days. Good luck! ----- Mark
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