I recently have found myself wanting to get one of these to keep as a pet. I already have a cali king and two ball pythons but have read these snakes don't do well in captivity. After reviewing the why's and alot of other peoples enclosures I have a few questions before moving forward.

When I was growing up in the panhandle of Florida, the rough was a fairly common snake. Basically all you had to do to find one was find an azalea bush with anoles in it and chances were high you'd find one in that bush. One thing I've noticed is no one uses azalea bushes in their enclosures and also no one feeds anoles to their greens. I've witnessed numerous times of roughs preying on young anoles growing up and wonder if that part of the diet being left out is part of the reason these snakes tend to starve to death and lack the nutrition they need?

If I get one I would plan on putting in young azalea bushes (I know they get very large when full grown) in the enclosure and I would have to think of putting some anoles in for it to eat as well along with worms and crickets. Just wondering what others opinions are on this, I see too often artificial plants being used and a diet of insects only and wondering if this is the reason they have a hard time surviving in captivity.

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