I'll address each one of your statements from a different point of view:
1. Handling reptiles: Rosies are secretive snakes. They happen to tolerate handling well as a general rule. However, handling does not benefit the snake, nor does it do harm. What I am saying is, regular handling is fine but unnecessary as far as the snake's well-being is concerned. Perhaps it can give the snake some exercise.

2. Rosyboas in the wild generally occupy rocky terrain in arid or semi-arid regions. They occupy rodent burrows in and around rocky outcrops with some exceptions. They use the rocks to thermoregulate - the rocks warm up in the sun, the snake lays up against the rock in a crevice where the snake is mostly concealed from predators. Sometimes a rosy will stick its head out of a burrow or crevice to warm up its head on the warm ground or even in the sun. The head warms the blood, and the warm blood runs through the snake's body to warm it up.

In captivity, if the keeper can provide what the snake is looking for - warmth while hiding, a range of desired humidity, etc, then what it looks like is not important. Functional beats naturalistic. Rosies will climb anything in a cage to look for an escape. In the wild, they are in burrows or in the rocks when they are not on the move for other reasons. Alot of prime rosy habitat does not have much in the way of branches anyway.

3. I agree with the live food practice. I feed f/t most of the time for my convenience and for constant availability. But live is likely more nutritionally sound for the snake. In the wild, rosies are often nest rodent nest raiders. That is, they often consume nestlings of rats and other rodents in their habitat.

I'll continue next post..

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Hide Replies ]